The Communion of Mary: Pt. 1, Ch. 8

The Communion of Mary

Part 1, Chapter 8

Jesus Christ institutes the sacrament of the Eucharist in order to console His Mother on this earth after His glorious ascension into heaven.

Between Jesus and Mary, between the Son of God and His Mother, there is a union so perfect, that they are inseparable. Always and everywhere we find Jesus with Mary His Mother, and Mary with Jesus her lovable Son. The same stable and the same manger enclose them on the day of the nativity of Jesus Christ; the same Calvary bears the two of them on the day of His death; the same Mount of Olives sees them together on the day of His Ascension. If the perfect love of a mother for her son, and of a son for his mother cannot withstand the cruel martyrdom of absence or remoteness, it seems then that the love which unites Mary to Jesus her son, and Jesus to Mary His Mother, it seems then that this love being most perfect, the same power which carried Jesus away to Heaven had to carry Mary His Mother there, and place them both on the same throne. Jesus, however, ascends to Heaven, and Mary remains on the earth. The Son is placed at the right hand of His Father on a throne completely resplendent with glory, and the Mother is away from her Son and abandoned in this valley of tears.

Church of the Sacred Heart (Rome) St. John Bosco offered Mass on this altar.

How sad and bitter was this solitude to be for the so loving heart of Mary! Because the more the presence of her divine Son caused delightful pleasures for the heart of His mother, the more also does His remoteness plunge it into an ocean of bitter sorrow. By the Ascension of her Son into Heaven, the heart of Mary, on the day of the triumph of her beloved Jesus, experiences sorrows equal to those that she endured on the day of the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary.

“O my son,” St. Bernard makes her say at the foot of the Cross, “You are my Son because I have given birth to You; You are my Father, because You have created me; You are my Spouse, since You have united me to You! But, by Your death, I lose everything in losing You. I am a mother without a son, a daughter without a father, a bride without a bridegroom!” “O blessed archangel Gabriel,” St. Ephrem makes her say again, “where is the accomplishment of your promises, when you tell me, the Lord will be with you, since now by His death He abandons and forsakes me?”

These sorrowful groans of the Virgin Mother at the foot of the Cross and on the Mount of Olives, could not Mary allow them to escape from her heart? Because doesn’t the mystery of the Ascension which carries Jesus away to Heaven rob Mary of a son, a father, a bridegroom, and doesn’t it leave on this earth a desolate mother without a son, an orphan daughter without a father, a widow without a bridegroom?

The heavenly Virgin bearing this separation so painful for her heart, with perfect submission to the ordinances of her Son, this beloved Son had to think of consoling His Mother. Filial piety, therefore, had to invite Jesus to remain on this earth in the sacrament of the Eucharist to console the solitude of Mary.

What is filial piety? It is a movement of cordial tenderness which nature imprints on the heart of children toward their parents in order to honor, console, and assist them. The Holy Spirit who formed the heart of the Son of God with the blood of Mary, who by that became His Mother, had to imprint on the heart of Jesus love and piety toward Mary, His Mother. Well, it is this filial piety which invited Jesus Christ to remain among us in the Holy Eucharist, in order to console His lovable Mother and soften the pain which the absence of His visible body caused her, by the real presence of His divinity and His holy humanity hidden under the mysterious veil of the sacramental species.

Truly filial love always wants to always enjoy the presence of the one whom it loves; if he is taken away, it makes her present by thought, drawing her into his mind, or he sends his heart there which touches her by affection; the fact remains that the memory of the one whom he loves is always and everywhere present to him.

Jesus Christ has two objects whom He loves equally with a filial love: His heavenly Father and Mary, His Mother. According to the laws of truly filial love, He must make Himself present to both of them; but it seems that this presence is impossible at the same time. The Father is in Heaven, and His Son is with Him in this heavenly homeland, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is still on earth. It is necessary then for the Son of God to leave His Father in order to be near Mary, His Mother, or leave Mary in order to remain with His Father in Heaven.

O wonderful riches of the love of God! It multiplies miracles in order to multiply the presences of Jesus Christ, in order to make Him present both to His Father and to His Mother. He is present in Heaven to His Father resting in the bosom of His glory; He is present on earth to His Mother in the divine Eucharist. The Son of God rests in the bosom of His Father by His eternal generation; He rests in the bosom of Mary through the mystery of the Incarnation, and He dwells there again through Holy Communion.

If the generation of the Word is done by the mutual and holy kiss of the Father to the Son, and of the Son to the Father, that is to say, by the Holy Spirit who is the charity and the love of the Father and the Son, and if the Eucharist is called the mutual and holy kiss of the Son of God to men and of men to the Son of God, it is certain that Jesus Christ at the same time gives two admirable and holy kisses: in Heaven to His beloved Father through the Holy Spirit Whom He produces with Him, and on earth to His lovable Mother through Communion, where He gives her His body which feeds her as His daughter. It is this delightful and holy kiss of Jesus to Mary which relieves all the bitterness of her exile. When Mary saw in her bosom the One whom she adored in Heaven, in the bosom of His Father, her soul overflowing with joy, happiness and love, spilled over in praise and thanksgiving for so many blessings.

It is therefore the infinite charity which Jesus bore to Mary His Mother which inspired Him to establish a new heaven on earth, in instituting the mystery of the Eucharist, by which He remains with His Mother, without leaving the bosom of His heavenly Father.

Back To Marian Articles Page

+ + +

Free Bonus Giveaway

And if you want a free ebook specifically on how to live ‘in Mary’ (the one part St. Louis explained the least), and to be notified when new Marian articles and books are published, please click the button below and join our group. You can unsubscribe after you get the free ebook, but I hope you’ll remain part of our Marian group. It’s up to you.