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Our Faith
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 MARY AND THE HOLY EUCHARIST
- By Fr. KJ Veeger, MSC
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The wonderful
mystery of the Eucharist is the theme of the Pope’s fourteenth
encyclical, signed on Holy Thursday, April 17, 2003, in the twenty fifth
year of his Pontificate. Holy Eucharist is the heart of Christian faith
and life, and never should be given a secondary place in life. It
re-presents in a sacramental way Jesus’ passion and death for the sake
of mankind’s redemption. It is first and foremost a gift and offering
to God, Father and Creator, by which the original meaningfulness of the
world is restored. Jesus’ passion includes His resurrection, so that
Holy Eucharist is the living and Risen Lord, who became the “Bread of
Life”.
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Eucharist develops
God’s life in the faithful, and unites them most effectively with Him
and fellow-believers. Bread and wine are not metaphorical food and
drink, but are the real Body and Blood of Christ, who lives in man and
inspires him to live in Him.
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In the last
section of his encyclical, Pope John Paul II turns to the figure of Mary
who can guide us towards this most Holy Sacrament, because she herself
has a profound relationship with it. Although the institution of the
Eucharist on the night of Holy Thursday makes no mention of Mary, she
was present in the first gathering of the Apostles in expectation of
Pentecost. The Pope makes a series of theological connections between
the Eucharist and the key moments of Mary’s life. In a certain sense
Mary lived her Eucharistic faith even before the institution of the
Eucharist, by the very fact that she offered her virginal womb for the
Incarnation of God’s Word.
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At the
Annunciation, Mary received the Son of God in the physical reality of
His body and blood, thus anticipating what to some degree happens
sacramentally in every believer who receives under the signs of bread
and wine the Lord’s Body and Blood. There is a profound analogy between
the FIAT, which Mary said to the angel, and the AMEN, which every
believer says when receiving the Body of the Lord.
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Mary also
anticipated the Church’s Eucharistic faith, when at the Visitation, she
bore in her womb the Word made flesh. For then she became in some way a
“tabernacle” – the first tabernacle in history – in which the Son of
God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed Himself to be adored by
Elizabeth, radiating His light as it were through the eyes and the voice
of Mary.
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Throughout her
life at Christ’s side, Mary made her own the sacrificial dimension of
the Eucharist. What must Mary have felt as she heard from the mouth of
Peter, John, James and the other Apostles the words spoken at the Last
Supper, “This is My Body which is given for you”? The body given up for
us and made present under sacramental signs was the same body which she
had conceived in her womb! For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have
somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had
beat in unison with her and reliving what she had experienced at the
foot of the Cross. Therefore, Mary is present with the Church and as
the Mother of the Church at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist.
If the Church and the Eucharist are in separately united, the same ought
to be said of Mary in the Eucharist.
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- Mary’s
Magnificat should be reread in a Eucharistic key. Mary sings of the
“new heavens” and the “new earth,” which find in the Eucharist their
anticipation and, in some sense, their programme and plan. The
Magnificat expresses Mary’s spirituality, and there is nothing greater
than this spirituality for helping us to experience the mystery of the
Eucharist. The Eucharist has been given us so that our life, like that
of Mary, may be completely a Magnificat.
- TELL US LIKE IT IS!
- Has something
wonderful and unique happened in your life lately? Did God answer your
prayer in a very unexpected way? Did you, like Isaiah, meet God’s
whisper?
- Have you felt His
powerful hand working in your life recently?
- Everyday, people are
experiencing God’s mighty Word in their lives and it is a pity that very
few know about it. Do you have a story to tell? Some Good News to
share?
- E-mail us (genesis@catholic.org) or fax us
(021-6627384), and tell us about it. That’s right! You don’t have to be
a great writer to do this. We can help you write it – just tell us like
it is!
- Don’t forget to write
the subject: “Let Me Tell You A
Story”
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ideas:
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