The Communion of Mary, Pt. 1, Ch. 15

The Communion of Mary

Part 1, Chapter 15

The profound humility of Mary in Holy Communion.

The Incarnation and the Eucharist are the two mysteries of the abasements of the humbled majesty of Jesus Christ; the one begins them and the other continues them. In order to dispose Mary for the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit placed a profound humility in her; also, when the angel revealed to her the majesty of her Son who was to become incarnate in her, she cried out: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word” (Lk. 1:38). Thus, she humbled herself to the nothingness of servitude at the example of her Son who annihilated Himself up to being a servant and a slave, as St. Paul made known.

The Annunciation (Spoleto)

The Holy Spirit keeps the same conduct towards Mary in order to dispose her worthily for participation in the divine Eucharist. Jesus Christ her Son and who is also her God, being humbled very profoundly there, and since she has always been very docile to the movements of the Holy Spirit, she prepared herself to receive Him in Communion by a very profound humility.

Of all Communions, those of Mary have been the most humble and the most respectful, Mary being the one who has better understood the greatness of her humbled Son, and how a creature is unworthy to participate in the holiness of this adorable sacrament. We can even attest that the Blessed Virgin had in her Communions new motives for reverence and humility which she did not have in the Incarnation, so that there was in her more humility in Communion than in the Incarnation.

Jesus Christ is infinitely humbled in the Incarnation: He humbles Himself to the nothingness of being; He becomes, and appears as if He was pure man, both in His actions and in His exterior, said St. Paul; but, in the Eucharist, He descends to a degree lower still, since He humbles Himself to the nothingness of accidents, veiling Himself under the species of bread and wine. Jesus Christ cannot descend lower.

Mary, who follows all the movements of the spirit of her Son, which pass from His heart to her heart, cannot see this divine Jesus so humbled, and so annihilated, without humbling and annihilating herself with Him. Jesus is in her as a weight which bows and lowers her as much as He humbles Himself. Oh! Who could understand the abasements of her mind and the humiliations of her heart, in view of the annihilations of her divine Son? She humbles herself as much as a creature can humble herself. The abasements of her Son in all His mysteries were the measure of her abasements.

How great was the humility of Mary! How she delighted the heart of God! This humility was powerful enough, and the most powerful among all her virtues to take Jesus Christ from the arms of His Father and draw Him into her womb in order to become in it her Son by the Incarnation. Here is the subject of the delights of her mind and the joys of her heart, just as she made known in her heavenly canticle. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit exults with gladness in God my Savior, because it has pleased Him to cast His eyes on the lowliness of His handmaid!

It’s the same humility which drew Him from the same bosom into hers in order to make Him her nourishment by the Eucharist. Mary being the most humble of creatures, it’s also into her heart that the Son of God descended with more joy when she participated in this divine mystery. Because, although God in His divinity could not lower Himself below Himself because He is immense, He has, nevertheless, a weight which inclines Him to the humble things that He looks at complacently. As His infinite nature does not see a vacuum which it does not fill, God cannot discover a vacuum in the soul, than He descends immediately in order to fill it with His divinity.

The divine love, Gerson said excellently, is every eye; there is nothing more penetrating than love. It opens the eyes only to see the object loved, and what delights him in it is the beauty which is the true object of love and beauty is an assembly of all perfections. Humility, said this learned doctor, was then the beauty of Mary, since it contained all her virtues; it is she who has been found the most worthy of the eyes of Jesus; these glances have caused the complacency of Jesus in Mary, and this complacency has caused the delight which has drawn Jesus from heaven into her womb in order to be her Son and her food.

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