40
Hours Devotions, Talk #3
Monday, Dec 6th, 7:30pm, St.
Michael
Mary
the Mother of the Eucharist:
Nurturing the Life of Grace
Holy
Mary, Mother of the Word Incarnate, pray for us!
St. Nicholas, pray for us!
As Catholics, we firmly believe that nurturing
the life of grace works best in conjunction with Mary, the Mother of God and
our Mother. If you have problems or hesitancy in believing in the Son, ask the
Mother for her aid! That advice holds especially when it comes to professing
faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. We
need to leave no stone unturned in our quest to grow in faith. We need to have
confidence that the gift of faith is not one of which we should despair,
certainly not given that our Mother Mary is around and wants us to know her
Son. Good mothers, true mothers are the first and best at nurturing the lives
of their children. Mary can nurture the life of grace within us. Just know that
she is the one in your life, in every aspect of your life, to whom you need to
turn things over. Why did Pope Saint John Paul II take as his motto Totus
Tuus (which could well be translated, “I am all yours”)? Because he was
confident that Mary, for the love of her only begotten Son, Jesus, would carry
her son, Karol Wojtyla as well.
The motto Totus Tuus was JPII’s
way of expressing his understanding and acceptance of the total consecration to
Jesus through Mary, taught by St.
Louis-Marie Grignion de
Montfort. The saint lived in France from Jan 31, 1673 - Apr 28, 1716. He was
only 43 when he died but left behind several religious orders he had founded
and his writings on true devotion to Mary and total consecration to her Son through
her. His description of true devotion to Mary is not the easiest reading and so
I won’t go into it today. If you are interested, there are not only English
translations of the saint’s writings out there, but also other authors who have
written to popularize the teaching of St. Louis-Marie.
Instead, we will take it a little bit
simpler and so to start our talk, let’s go to Calvary for the definitive statement
from the Lord Himself, Who made such a consecration through Mary possible and
explained where it and we belong in the life of the Church with Mary. There
upon the Cross the Lord Jesus entrusted to us the Blessed Virgin Mary, His
Immaculate Mother, and entrusted us to her care! There is no doubt that Jesus,
dying on the Cross is asking a full mother-son, son-mother commitment from both
Mary and John, the Evangelist. We read about it briefly from John’s Gospel 19:25-27:
“Meanwhile, standing near the cross of
Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and
Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the
disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here
is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from
that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” [Harper
Bibles. NRSV Catholic Edition Bible (p. 1012). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.]
My
message to you and to all Catholics of good will is simply this: “Take Mary
into your own home!” If you have not so far in life and you do, then your life
will change. Through intimacy with Mary you will come alive in Christ; you will
come to know God and rejoice exceedingly in Him.
At
the foot of the Cross, John, the beloved disciple, stood in for all of us as he
was entrusted by the dying Christ with care for His Mother. The Church teaches
us that. At the same time, there at the foot of the Cross, Jesus gives John and
us into Mary’s arms. The meaning of the passage was clear for John, as he took
her into his own home. The Church teaches that its meaning is clear for all of
us as well. Since that moment on the Cross, Mary is Mother for us all and we
are her children in Christ. The Catholic faith is a Marian faith. To truly
believe, to be Christian and therefore Catholic we must hold to Mary.
Entrusting ourselves to the Blessed Virgin is neither an option nor a frill
when it comes to living the true faith. Relying on Mary to intercede for us
with her Son does not diminish Christ’s role in our lives. The Church’s
teaching on the communion of saints is all gain. It takes nothing away from Christ’s
Lordship or His power to save.
Speaking
of the title given to our talk today, the idea of naming Mary the Mother of
the Eucharist is nonetheless sort of puzzling. What is the sense of that
particular title for the Blessed Virgin, for Mary the Mother of God? Why do I ask?
Partly because I should, as the title and its traditional explanation may seem somewhat
convoluted to older people who have lived more in the 20th century
than they have in the 21st. I say that full well knowing that this
title is a beautiful expression of the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ
in the Eucharist. What ultimately is the sense of talking about Mary as the
Mother of the Eucharist? She has so many other titles. What does this one add? We
know her as the Mother of Christ, and we firmly believe that her Son, true God
and true Man, is present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist.
Logically, just as Jesus says, “This is My Body”, so Mary can say of the
consecrated Host “This is My Son”. Even getting that far would be a great
enrichment to our understanding of her title, Mother of the Eucharist, and a
genuine aid toward growing our faith in Jesus present and active in the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, enduringly present in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Mary’s
other titles of Motherhood are perhaps more evident and direct. Mother of God is
clear. Mother of the Word Incarnate is also profound and immediate in its
sense. It fits especially well with Christmas: and the Word was made Flesh and
dwelt among us. Other titles? Mother of Jesus, even Mother of the Church, we
can understand all these titles if we but approach them with simplicity and
openness. But why call Mary the Mother of the Eucharist? I suppose in a sense
because in our day the title is helpfully subversive. It does an end run
(football language) around all the opposition and lack of love shown to Mary
over the last century and puts her back at the center of the Eucharistic action
and the great Mystery of Faith. Mary is as inseparably bound up with the
Eucharist as she is with Calvary. Stupid and sometimes wicked people have
either ignored Mary over the last century or they have actually plotted to
deprive her of her central role in the plan of salvation. Fatima was especially
important to disarming the enemies of Mary and of our Church. Even so, it has
been a long uphill struggle to win over hearts. This tragic prejudice, especially
since the late 1960’s, has already denied generations of children of a healthy
and uncomplicated love for Mary, thus hindering them on the path to Christ in
the fullness of the mystery of His Being.
“When
Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he
said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple,
“Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own
home.”
* * *
Nurturing
the Life of Grace!
To
go back to my talk from Sunday evening, the miserable results announced by the
Pew Research Survey concerning the faith of Catholics today in the Real
Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is compounded by the all too real erosion of
people’s understanding of our obligation under pain of mortal sin to assist at
Holy Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. Since time immemorial,
law has been used to teach Catholics what St. Justin Martyr proclaimed before
his judge in that first age of persecution of the Church, namely, that as
Christians we cannot live without Sunday, meaning without the Holy Eucharist. But
for Sundays in our time, even though the law is still on the books, I guess now
especially since COVID, we are talking about 20% attendance at Sunday Mass by
people who profess themselves Catholic, even here in God’s Country, in South
Dakota. Holy Day attendance, other than for Christmas Day, has so eroded that if
we take the case of the Feast of the Ascension, the US Conference of Catholic
Bishops, presumably to sort of save face for the failing numbers, took a vote
and half the dioceses in the country transferred the Ascension from the
Thursday to the nearest Sunday. They capitulated!
People
no longer take Holy Days seriously, unfortunately. When I was a child, the US
had 6 Holy Days of Obligation and both England and Italy had even more (8, I
think). The observance of Holy Days in our time gets even more difficult
because of the invention of vigil or prefestive Masses: Saturday night for
Sunday or the eve for the Holy Day. Just to give you an alert, this Wednesday,
December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is not only a Holy Day of Obligation,
but it is the patronal feast of the United States. How many people will
remember and fulfil their obligation? I won’t ask for a show of hands from
those who have the Holy Day Mass on their family calendar for this week, even
though I surely hope that everyone does. Let me say it differently! I am always
pleasantly surprised by people who have the Holy Days of Obligation down on
their family or personal calendar. Enough said!
At the beginning of my first talk, I said my goal for
these days would be “…to restore, revive, expand
belief in and devotion to the Eucharist according to the mind of the
Church”. At some point or
another I also said that our faith is of a piece; it is integral. If my
Catholic identity is not founded on faithfulness (treated as necessity) to
attendance at Sunday Mass, how do I ground my faith in the Real Presence? If I
am not a person of prayer, making my morning offering first thing when I get up,
blessing my meals, examining my conscience at night before bed, cultivating my
faith in the Incarnation by praying the Angelus and staying close to Mary by
praying at least some part of her rosary each day, then how can I be able or
ready to encounter Jesus present in the Holy Eucharist? It is truly a matter of
sensitizing ourselves straight across the board to the things of God.
Our
Lady of Fatima, explaining the First Saturday Devotion to Lucia, described one of
the requirements very simply as keeping Mary company for 15 minutes on that day.
Earlier we described prayer as lifting our hearts and minds to God. That simple
definition helps us understand just how constant prayer, prayer without
ceasing, is indeed possible. Failing faith in the True Presence has not little
to do with failing to be mindful of the Lord as otherwise and always part of
our lives. Personal prayer grounds and nurtures faith in the Lord Who gives
Himself to eat in the Eucharist.
During
my whole life as a priest, since 1976, I have tried myself, and I have been
edified by the example of many good priests, old and young, who have tried
their best to win people back to the sacrament of Penance. Up until the Council
most good Catholics, let’s say average Catholics, went to Confession once a
month. I had a great uncle who went to confession every week or two weeks and
he was not alone in the 1950’s. Sadly, back after the Council it was not
uncommon for priests to discourage people from Confession and lots of parishes
went to systems of confession by appointment only, which meant never. We need
to get back to Confession not only for serious sin, but as a form of spiritual
direction aimed at our growth in holiness.
Why
the low percentage of faith in the Real Presence? Belief in the Real Presence
presumes the clear understanding that we cannot presume to receive the Lord in
Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin. Moreover, we should be using regular
confession to fight habitual venial sin in our lives and thereby to grow in
holiness, that is, to grow closer in love and devotion to our great God in
Jesus Christ.
St.
José Maria Escriva de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei, taught especially the
men of his group to get back to the old-fashioned ways in the Spain of his
childhood of preparation for receiving Holy Communion. Since before the Council
most people were hesitant to approach the Lord in Holy Communion without first
going to confession, he reminded the men to go all the way and prepare like the
fathers and grandfathers had done: confession on Saturday and then take a bath.
Sunday morning shave and clean up, put on your Sunday best and maybe even a bit
of cologne. No doubt the results for a Pew Research Survey back then would have
been quite different than now when people tend to dress down to come to church.
Et
Verbum Caro Factum Est! The Word was
made Flesh and dwelt among us! One of the mindless consequences of COVID has
been to further erode the faith in the necessity of our Sunday encounter with
Jesus really and truly present in the Eucharist. Not only were our churches closed
at some point, but all kinds of scare tactics with disinfectant protocols were
imposed. My sister who lives in Switzerland told me that in her parish, she
tried to take on as a greeter at Sunday Mass the duties that were imposed upon
them by the state with the complicity of their bishop, taking down contact
information, checking for a mask, and squirting disinfectant on people’s hands at
the door. She gave up, however, when she found one lady in her group who stationed
herself with her spray bottle at the head of the Communion line and insisted on
spraying people’s hands again just before they received.
Father
Morgan at the Cathedral did tell me of one good thing that came out of the
COVID distancing. At our Cathedral people were asked to come up and stand to
one side of the center aisle, with the Communion rail between them and the
priest or deacon. Almost naturally then, some of the people knelt down and
received Communion on the tongue. They continue to do so now even after the
restrictions have been lifted. In Bern I had a goodly amount of contact with
former Swiss Guards of all ages and came to understand how these men,
especially the younger ones, wanted to express their faith in Jesus really and
truly present, not only by bowing before coming up to Communion, but by going
down on their knees before the priest and receiving their Lord on the tongue. To
my way of thinking, it is a free world and people should always feel free to
express their devotion by receiving Communion in the traditional manner. Priests
or deacons who discourage such signs of devotion are only undermining the faith
in Christ really and truly present in the Sacred Host. Let’s title this section
especially for the priests and deacons as: Don’t Stifle the Spirit!
At
this point, I am kind of asking myself how I have done in terms of my goal, “…to
restore, revive, expand belief in and devotion to the Eucharist according
to the mind of the Church”. I hope I have not been too blah, blah, but have
given you something to ponder over. In terms of the other request from
the pastoral team that these 40 Hours Devotions help prepare the parish for
Christmas, I think that is part of the whole. The more prayerful I am, the more
attentive I am, and hence the more fully I enter into the mystery. I hope I was
somewhat encouraging to get you to confession to prepare your heart to receive
the Savior King at Christmas.
No
need to tell you that preparing for Christmas cannot simply be equated with
getting into the Christmas spirit. Even so, we know that people who are
overcome by the hectic of the season cannot really enjoy Christmas. That is one
of the reasons I have given up on writing Christmas cards. They get on my
nerves for various reasons and doing a clever mail merge to send them out by
email leaves me even colder. In the Nunciature, I had my secretary to prepare
the obligatory cards and envelopes for the bishops of the country and for the
mother superiors who would write, plus to prepare the thank you’s for things
like the gingerbread shingle from the company that had our roof maintenance
contract. No, what I mean by preparing for Christmas is allowing your prayer to
engulf you. During Advent it means to really let those O Come O Come Emmanuel’s
resonate in your heart.
This
is the first year I think in my life that I have had to set up my own Advent
Wreath at home. Up until now someone has always done it for me. By chance, just
a couple days before the First Sunday of Advent, I got a little holy card in
the mail. It has a picture of Mary walking with a staff in hand and is entitled
“The Evening Before the Birth of Christ”. On the flip side are four little
prayers for lighting the Advent Wreath, one for each week. “” Now if you pray
that and your grace before meals you are set. Without effort you have a good
thought and maybe even a bit of focus for your meal.
Let me
thank you for your attentiveness and assure you of my prayers for you
especially in this beautiful Advent Season. Let Mary come and place the Christ
Child right in your lap.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Holy Mary, Mother of the Word Incarnate, pray for us!
St. Nicholas, pray for us!
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