The Communion of Mary: Pt. 1, Ch. 5

The Communion of Mary

Part 1, Chapter 5

The most holy Eucharist was instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ in order to give to His Mother, by Communion, His body which He had received
from her through the Incarnation.

God is an immeasurable abyss of goodness; He never allows Himself to be outdone in benefits by His creature. Although He receives nothing from anyone, since He is the fullness of all goods, however, since His love has taken on our humanity and made Him similar to us, this love has put Him in a state of poverty such that He can receive from His creature: He who was so rich in His divinity, says the Apostle, has become impoverished; He lacks everything. As man, He received flesh from Mary, His Mother, which He could not receive from His Father, and it is in this, say the holy Fathers, that Jesus Christ is indebted to Mary, through whom He was made man.

Mater Ecclesiae (Rome)

Jesus Christ received two things from Mary: in the Incarnation the flesh which made Him man, and during His childhood the milk which nourished Him. Mary thus exercises two loving functions toward Jesus: She is His Mother, and she is the one who feeds Him. If God wanted to become man, a virgin had to be His Mother; and if He wanted to be fed, it’s virginity which had to nourish Him as His Mother. Jesus Christ is therefore equally a son and infant of virginity.

He was worthy of the holiness of His being as He was born of a virgin mother and nourished by a virgin nursemaid. In heaven, Jesus Christ draws His birth and His food from the bosom of His Father who is virgin; He’s also nourished by His virginal substance; in order for there to be a connection between His temporal birth and His eternal birth, He had to be born in time of a virgin and to be nourished by a virgin.

Therefore, Mary gives birth to and nourishes her Son with her virginal blood drawn from her bosom which made Him man, and the same blood having become milk (in her breasts), she nourishes Him with it as His Mother.

Certainly, it was only virginity, and the most pure virginity of Mary, which could nourish the beloved Son of the eternal Father with roses and lilies. Therefore Mary can exclaim, with the Spouse of the Song of Songs: Behold, I am mixing my wine with my milk, I lay out a table, and such is the banquet that I prepare by the hands of love and purity for Jesus Christ, my Son. It is thus that He is an admirable combination of love and purity, He is red by my blood and brilliant with whiteness by my milk, which has been His food; this chaste Lamb is nourished by my lilies.

It is asked whether it is possible for children to give their mothers what they have received from them. They can’t do this according to nature. How could they give them the blood, the milk, and the life, which they have received from them? Virginity alone can work these prodigies of grace and love. O divine Mother, O Virgin and nursemaid, fear not, your Son can give you the blood and the milk which He has drawn from you. He will give them to you in the two great mysteries of His love, on the Cross and on our altars. You had given them to Him by love; He will give them to you by love.

O Mary! O Mother of Jesus! See this blood brilliant with redness going out of the wounds of your divine Son attached to the tree of the Cross. See on the altar, this blood flowing into the Eucharist, transformed into a delicious milk. Approaching, O divine Mother and heavenly nursemaid, “you will be nursed with the breasts of kings”: Mamilla regum lactaberis (Is. 60:16). Attach yourself to this bosom that love presents to you: the milk that you will draw there is your blood, which, passing into the veins of your Son and from His veins into the Eucharist, forms a delicious milk from them. He returns to you a hundredfold and with qualities completely divine the milk and the flesh that you had given Him in the Incarnation! You had given Him a human flesh which made Him man, and He returns this flesh to you deified! The blood which you had given to Him was mortal and subject to death; He makes it immortal and glorious for you! It went out from you and it returns to you, as rivers return to the source from which they flow. You fed Him only to die, He feeds you only to make you live eternally. How divinely rewarded is your maternity! Heaven worked a miracle by filling your womb with a virginal milk to feed your Son, as the Church sings. The love of Jesus Christ works a new miracle in your favor in the Eucharist, where He forms a milk which flows from the bosom of the Divinity itself, in order to feed you as His Daughter and His Mother.

It is in this way that the Son of God infinitely surpassed Mary His Mother in generosity and magnificence. All that Jesus received from Mary was mortal and human; He returns it to her after having deified it in Himself in a divine, glorious, and immortal order.

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