If we want to discover the richness in the profound relationship between the Church and the Holy Eucharist, we will not neglect the Virgin Mary, who happens to be the model of the Church. The account of the establishment of the Holy Sacrament on the night of Holy Thursday makes no mention of Virgin Mary. Nonetheless, we all know that she was present among the Apostles who prayed “with one accord” (Acts 1:14) within the initial community that gathered just after the ascension in expectation of Pentecost. In that case, Our Mother Mary must have been present at the Eucharistic celebrations of the early Christians, who were dedicated to “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42).
But adding to her sharing within the Eucharistic banquet, an indirect image of Mary’s relationship with the Holy Eucharist is often had, starting along with her interior disposition. Virgin Mary, in other words, is recognized as the woman of the Eucharist throughout her whole life. The holy mother church which looks up to Virgin Mary as a model is additionally called to imitate her in her relationship with this holy mystery.
If the Holy Eucharist could be a mystery of faith that thus greatly transcends our understanding as to call for total abandonment to the word of God, then, there can be nobody like Virgin Mary to act as our support and guide towards this disposition. Because it is the same Jesus who is truly present in the Holy Eucharist is also the same Jesus who lived in the womb of that Holy Virgin for nine months.
Virgin Mary conjointly anticipated, within the mystery of the incarnation, the Church’s Eucharistic religion. When, at the Visitation, she conceived in her womb the word that was made flesh, she became a “tabernacle” – the primary “tabernacle” in history – during which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be worshiped by Elizabeth, and the light was radiating as though it where through the eyes and also the voice of Virgin Mary. And is not the fascinated gaze of Virgin Mary as she pondered the face of the newborn Christ and cradled him in her arms which unequaled model of affection that ought to inspire us anytime we want to receive Eucharistic communion.
Mary spent all her life at Christ’s side and not only on Calvary, which made her own the sacrificial dimension of the Holy Eucharist. The time she brought the child Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem “to present him to the Lord” (Lk 2:22), she listened as the old Simeon announce that the child would be a “sign of contradiction” that sword would conjointly pierce her own heart (Lk 2:34-35). The tragedy of her Son’s crucifixion was so predicted, and in some sense, Mary’s presence at the foot of the Cross was foreshadowed. After everything, It is still she, who took into her arms the lifeless body of our Lord Jesus Christ “to the end” (Jn 13:1).
It is true that we all are still moving towards the complete fulfillment of our hope, this does not really mean that we cannot gratefully appreciate that God’s gifts to us have found their perfect desire in the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother. Meanwhile, Mary’s Assumption of body and soul into heaven is for us a sign of a perfect hope, for it shows us, on our pilgrimage through time, the goal of which the sacrament of the Eucharist enables us to enjoy.
Consequently, each time we approach the Body and Blood of Christ in the eucharistic liturgy, we also turn to her who, by her complete faithfulness, accepted Christ’s sacrifice for the whole Church. She is called the Immaculata, who accepted God’s gift unconditionally and is thus associated with his work of salvation.
