The Eucharistic Memory of Mary

From the Annunciation to the EucharistThe mystery of the Annunciation can be summed up in a “yes” to the salvific plan of the Father: “Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you shall name him Jesus… Here am I, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:31-38). Mary demonstrates a remarkable capacity for listening and, consequently, for responding: she listens (Luke 1:29), marvels (Luke 2:33), contemplates (Luke 2:19, 51), and plays an intercessory and silent role in the offering (John 2:5, 19:25).

In the salvific plan of the Father, which transcends temporal and spatial boundaries, God has spoken to humanity in various ways throughout history, especially in the history of Israel. He has spoken to us “in these days through the Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He also created the world” (Hebrews 1:2). Mary welcomed Jesus, the Word made flesh: “Through Him, the Father has spoken His final word about man and his history” (Tertio Millennio Adveniente 5).The angel announced to her that Jesus was “the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32), for “he who is to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). This plan of the Father, revealed to Mary at the Annunciation, is God’s mercy “from generation to generation” (Luke 1:50). The Father’s salvific plan becomes a mission for Mary. Thus, she will proclaim the salvific message in Elizabeth’s house, where she carried the precursor in her womb (Luke 1:44), and she will show Jesus to the shepherds and the magi (Luke 2:16, Matthew 2:11).Mary’s faith will help to understand the signs of Jesus, through which “his disciples believed in him and followed him, with his mother” (John 2:11-12). The virgin conception of Mary took place “in the fullness of time,” when “God sent his Son, born of a woman… to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). This conception led Mary to stand firmly “at the foot of the cross,” to hear afresh the Father’s salvific and mission-oriented plan, realized by Jesus: “Woman, behold your Son!” (John 19:26).From the Annunciation to the cross, Mary listens, admires, contemplates, intercedes, surrenders… The angel’s words and Jesus’ words reveal the Father’s salvific plan. For Mary, the words “behold your Son” meant to see in every human being a “living Jesus” who must be born. She could remember Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper: “Father… they loved them as I loved them… may your love, which I have loved you with, be in them and in me” (John 17:23-26).Mary enters into the mystery of universal salvation: “behold your Son… then they will love them as I have loved them… for I am in them… Mary, from the Annunciation, becomes the Mother of “the bread of life,” as she receives Jesus to communicate Him to all. Indeed, “the Virgin was called to offer her whole humanity and her femininity so that the Word of God could become flesh and dwell among us… Mary, in giving her consent to Gabriel’s message, did not lose anything of her true humanity and freedom” (Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio n. 108).The Church, in celebrating the Eucharist, always remembers Mary, in whose womb the bread of life was formed, and whose presence is connected to Christ’s sacrifice. The “memory” of Mary, the “Theotokos,” assists the Church community in deepening its Eucharistic memory, as presence, sacrifice, communion, a special work of the Holy Spirit, mission, and eschatology. Mary is the “model of the spiritual attitude with which the Church celebrates and lives the divine mysteries” (Paul VI, Marialis Cultus n. 16).The Eucharistic-Marian spirituality of the ChurchSanta Maria ad Praesepe or Santa Maria Maior, where Salus populi romani is preserved, is called “the Bethlehem of Rome” for it conserves, according to an ancient tradition dating back to the 6th century, the manger or cradle of Jesus. According to the Gospel of Luke, the meeting of the shepherds took place thus: “They found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger” (Lk 2,16).After the Lord’s birth in Bethlehem, Matthew reports the arrival of the Magi from the East. Their encounter with the newborn is described as follows: “When they entered the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they prostrated themselves and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh” (Mt 2,11). In “Bethlehem“, which according to popular etymology means “house of bread“, Mary fulfilled “the days of her childbearing” (Lk 2,6). Mary offers the bread of life, placed in the manger, to the shepherds and magi (Lk 2,7.12.16. Cf. Mt 2,11).Matthew speaks more of “house“. Mary is the house where the bread of life is found. The biblical context of Matthew, in this case, has all the richness of the Old Testament texts about the new Jerusalem, full of light, mother of the nations. Luke will give, in the presentation of Jesus in the temple, a hint of this same context from Matthew: Jesus is the “light of the nations” (Lk 2,32). The narrative of Matthew, about the Magi, who come from other nations, follow the star, and find the Messiah (cf. Mt 2,1-11), seems to be inspired by Isaiah 60,1-6, which describes Jerusalem as mother of all the nations: “Arise, dress yourself in light, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you… A multitude of camels shall cover you, dromedaries of Midian and Epha. All shall come to you from Sheba, bringing gold and incense and praising the praises of the Lord” (Is 60,1-6. Cf. Is 11, 49, 56, 66. Zec 2,14-15. Ps 72,10-11).The new Jerusalem, our mother (Gal 4,26), is prefigured in Mary, the “woman“, who comes from man-Adam (cf. Gen 2,23) and becomes a figure of the new community (Church), which comes from Christ’s open side. The Church makes “memory” of this Marian reality in the Eucharistic celebration, where the redemptive mystery of Christ is made present in all its aspects. The centrality of the Eucharist in Christian life strengthens the Marian dimension of Christian spirituality, as it is lived in Marian shrines. Christian spirituality is always “living according to the Spirit“, “living in Christ“, and therefore living according to Mary’s model, faithful to the Spirit, associated with Christ present in the Church and, especially, in the Eucharist.“Spirituality” means “living according to the Spirit” (Rom 8,4.9), or rather, “living in love” (Eph 5,1), “living” in the Spirit (cf. Gal 5,25).Mary’s spirituality follows these same lines of generous fidelity to the Spirit in order to serve the Father’s designs in Christ. It is always trinitarian, christological, eucharistic, pneumatological, and ecclesiological spirituality. Marian spirituality and Eucharistic spirituality are analogous terms, as they deal with the only Christian spirituality.With the model of Mary and her help, the believer lives the Eucharistic mystery as presence, sacrifice, and communion of Christ. Deepening the Eucharistic mystery in these three aspects means rediscovering Mary’s relationship with Christ’s sacrificial and communal presence in the Eucharist.Mary’s active presence in the community celebrating the EucharistA Marian sanctuary is always centered on the Eucharistic celebration. ‘Saint Mary of the Manger’ (Sancta Maria ad Praesepe) is the mother of ‘the bread of life’, born in Bethlehem (‘house of bread’), who is offered to all. Mary’s presence in the community leads to listening to the Word and association with Christ the Redeemer, whose sacrifice is present in the Eucharist.From the beginning of Christianity, in the Eucharistic celebration, Mary is the ‘memory’ of a Church that, like her, wants to meditate God’s Word in its heart (cf. Lk 2:19.51), and also wants to associate espousally with Christ the Redeemer (Jo 19:25-27). The Church follows the attitude of gathering, as at the Cenacle, ‘with Mary, the Mother of Jesus’ (Act 1:14). Today, as in the primitive Christian community, Mary is present in the celebration of ‘the breaking of bread’ (Act 2:42).This Eucharistic-Marian reality is especially manifest in Marian shrines, where the faithful come to listen to God’s Word and associate with Christ present in the Eucharist, under Mary’s guidance, associated with Christ the Redeemer. If we seek the theological foundation for this Marian-Eucharistic attitude of the Church, we must draw inspiration from the harmony of revelation and the contents of faith. When Jesus said, ‘This is my body’ (‘my flesh’) and ‘This is my blood’ (Lk 22:19-20), it is the ‘flesh of the Son of Man’ (Jo 6:53). Whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood participates in his same life: ‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him… whoever eats me will live in me’ (Jo 6:56-57).The Church is aware of the echo of these words in Mary’s heart, who sees Jesus alive in every Christian participating in the Eucharist. Now, the glorified and eucaristic body born of Mary is present in the sacrament of the Eucharist. The Church professes this faith through the Eucharistic hymn: ‘Hail, true body born of the Virgin Mary… Jesus, Son of Mary’ (14th-century text). By its very nature, the Church is Eucharistic and Marian. The glorified and eucaristic flesh of Jesus, conceived virginally by Mary, is flesh like ours, but in relation to glorification and the new world restored by Christ. ‘Flesh’ in the Semitic mindset means the living (human) being in its entirety: the whole person in its limitation.However, this glorified flesh is now ‘flesh for the life of the world’ (John 6:51). When Jesus says, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6:48), he means that, by offering his ‘flesh’, he communicates his own life. The Eucharist is the banquet freely offered (Redemptoris Mater 24). ‘Mary embraces, with her new motherhood in the Spirit, all and each in the Church and… through the Church’ (Redemptoris Mater 47).From this Marian-ecclesial perspective, we can better understand the relationship between the Wedding at Cana (John 2), the announcement of the bread of life (John 6), Mary’s manifestation as Mother, and Christ’s open side (John 19). Mary is the ‘woman’, Mother, and figure of the community that nourishes us with the bread of life. Cana marks the beginning of sacramental signs, summarized in water, wine, bread, and blood. The Church springs from Christ’s open side, as blood and water symbolize the sacraments.Jesus gives to the Church his Mother, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the sacramental signs, among which stands out the Eucharist. That is why the Christian people lives the spiritual motherhood of Mary in relation to the Eucharist. Mary always leads to the Sacred Banquet, as a privileged and central sign of the mystery of the Church. As Saint John Paul II teaches us:«This motherhood is particularly felt and lived by the Christian people in the Sacred Banquet, the liturgical celebration of the mystery of redemption, in which Christ, his true Body born of the Virgin Mary, is made present. Reasonably, the piety of the Christian people has always recognized a deep bond between devotion to the Holy Virgin and the cult of the Eucharist: this is observable in both Western and Eastern liturgy, in the tradition of religious families, in the spirituality of contemporary movements, including youth movements, and in the pastoral of Marian shrines. Mary guides the faithful to the Sacred Banquet» (Redemptoris Mater 44).The reality of Mary, who gave Christ flesh and blood, in some way is present in the Eucharistic celebration and in the whole mystery of the Church. The mystery of the Incarnation continues, in some way, in the Eucharistic celebration. «The Virgin was called to offer all her humanity and her femininity so that the Word of God could take flesh and become one of us… generating the Truth and preserving it in her heart, she shared it with the whole of humanity forever» (Saint John Paul II, Fides et Ratio 108).The relationship between Mary and the Eucharist is deepened in the encyclical Redemptoris Mater by John Paul II, which presents Mary as the eucharistic woman, whose “fiat” inaugurates the path of offering that culminates in the Eucharist.Deepen your studies: Explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.

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