Thursday, May 17, 2007



Meditation 62

MARY AND THE EUCHARIST

We do not know for certain what share Our Lady took in the institution of the Holy Eucharist. We do not even know whether She was in the Supper Room at all that evening; whether She received Holy Communion or not, together with the other Apostles. Yet we know how close are the links that unite Mary to the Holy Eucharist.

1. Mary's Gift.
The Holy Eucharist is Mary's gift "par excellence." Man absolutely needs god. By force of a natural instinct he seeks God; and if he fails to find Him with his hands as did the poor pagans when manufacturing their idols. God granted us the grace of satisfying this need, first of all by means of the Incarnation and the by means of the Eucharist.

He came down from Heaven to earth and became just like one of us so that we could see Him, know Him and love Him.

But this was not enough for His love. He wanted to give us more, and decided to humble Himself to the point that we could touch Him, eat Him, be fed on Him. And all this is not just for a few days or for a certain season, but forever. Through the Incarnation He took a human body and dwelt amongst men; but only for a short time. He lived only in Palestine and only for about thirty-three years. How short a period for the whole of mankind!

That is why He devised a way by which He can be with us all, through the most intimate and perfect union that can exist, which is that of assimilation, whereby the food becomes one with the eater. And this prodigy has been worked by Him to last until the consummation of time.

Therefore the Holy Eucharist is a continued Incarnation. It is the practical application of the Incarnation to each and everyone of us. In this way God satisfies that craving we have for Him.

And this gift of the Incarnation, by whom was it granted? It was by the Eternal father, of course. It was the Eternal Father who donated this gift; but He did it through the ministry of Mary. It was She who gave it forth to the world. And if the Holy Eucharist is the continuation of the Incarnation, it is clear that the Eucharist is the continuation of the gift of Mary. She keeps on giving us Jesus daily as She one day gave Him to us in Bethlehem. Adam caused our ruin when eating the fruit given to him by the woman. The woman whom Thou gavest me to be my companion she it was who offered me fruit from the tree and so I came to eat it. So did Adam sin. We can equally say, "Lord, the woman Thou gavest us as Mother has given us and keeps on giving us as the blessed fruit of Her womb, Jesus, and therefore we live and are fed on Him."

[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]

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