|
18th Week Ordinary Time, Year I
Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Knights of Columbus Board Meeting
Phoenix
3 VIII 2009
I. Introduction
A. In his encyclical on the Church and the Eucharist, Pope John Paul II reminds us
of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s presence in the earliest celebrations of the Eucharist.
As our late Holy Father wrote:
“Certainly Mary must have been present at the Eucharistic celebrations
of the first generation of Christians, who were devoted to the ‘breaking of bread’”
(Acts 2:42; E de E, no. 53).
B. Pope John Paul II went further.
He taught us to sense the presence of Mary at every celebration of the Eucharist.
Indeed, at every Mass, we invoke the holy name of Mary,
who is joined closely to us through her Son’s Eucharistic Sacrifice.
At the foot of the Cross, Mary partook most deeply in Jesus’ sacrificial love
and, in his hour, Jesus entrusted Mary to John, the beloved disciple, as his mother.
Now, as Mother of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary draws close to us at Mass,
the living memorial her Son’s passion, death, and resurrection.
Again and again Mary comes among us to lead us to her Son, our Eucharistic Lord.
Thus, Pope John Paul II taught us to venerate Mary as “the Woman of the Eucharist.”
II. Reading the Scriptures through the Eyes of Mary
A. In this Votive Mass of Our Blessed Lady, we have the privilege
of reading today’s Scriptures through her eyes, through the eyes of Mary.
How does she help us understand the reading from the Book of Numbers
which tells of Chosen People’s tortuous journey through the desert?
…which tells of their hunger & thirst that was met with bread & meat from heaven?
What light does she shed on today’s Gospel,
wherein her Son miraculously multiplies loaves to satisfy the hunger of the crowd?
B. Does not Mary, the Daughter of Zion sum up in her heart
the struggles of the people of Israel, together with the living remembrance
of how God delivered them with mighty hand and outstretched arm?
Because her heart is sinless, because she is “younger than sin”,
she remembers, better than anyone else,
how God fed his people with manna in the desert
and rescued them from the clutches of death.
Now, Mary, the Mother of the Church, helps us see
how her Son feeds us still more wondrously in our journey through the desert,
through this exile, this vale of tears, through the trials and sorrows of life.
The Virgin of Nazareth teaches us to trust her Son, and in trusting him, to praise him.
The woman of the Magnificat, today, at this Mass, put on our tongues the words,
“Sing with joy to God our help!”
We are not alone in our journey through life, difficult as it sometimes seems.
Mary shows us that we indeed walk in the presence of the Lord,
accompanied by “a cloud of witnesses”: “Sing with joy to God our help!”
C. And how would Mary, the Disciple of the Lord, bid us to understand
the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 recounted in the Gospel?
Does not Mary show us her Son continuing the works of His Father?
. . . continuing to feed His people in the desert?
Yes, she does that, but she also has much, much more to tell us.
Mary would have us see the miraculous feeding of the 5,000
as great foreshadowing of the Eucharist of her Son,
that moment when he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it his disciples.
When Mary partook of the Eucharist, she tasted the Bread from Heaven,
the bread her Son multiplied, the bread which he took into his hands,
bread he blessed, broke, and gave—the Bread that is Himself!
She who stood beneath Cross digested the secret of the Resurrection in the Eucharist,
and now, assumed into heaven, she partakes of the Paschal Feast of Heaven.
D. The Woman of the Eucharist shows us the Eucharistic Bread, the Body of the Lord,
multiplied again and again, in the celebration of Holy Mass,
the world over, for 2,000 years.
In this hour, she leads us to Christ, who multiplies & transforms our meager resources:
...not just our bread, but our minds, hearts, and bodies:
Mary who was blessed, that is, preserved from the stain of sin,
Mary who was broken, that is, pieced with the sword of sorrow beneath the Cross,
Mary who was given, first to the beloved disciple and now to us –
She calls out to us to open our heart to the mystery of the Eucharist,
to become what we celebrate:
Blessed in living the Beatitudes! Broken, in repentance and self-sacrifice!
Given, in service to one, in service to all!
III. The Relic of the Tilma
A. This morning, we feel Mary’s presence all the more
as we offer this Holy Mass in the presence of a relic of the tilma.
One might say that this relic bears in its fibers the “DNA” of salvation history;
it is encoded with the love of Christ cherished in the tabernacle of Mary’s heart.
Just as the crucified Lord gave Mary to the beloved disciple,
so now He gives her to us again, so that we, and untold millions of others,
might be gathered in the Church to partake of the banquet of Christ’s sacrifice.
B. In days to come we shall reflect intensely on Mary’s appearance at Guadalupe
and its deep and ongoing significance for the Church in America
and for the family of the Knights of Columbus.
For now, let us allow Mary, to take us by the hand
and lead us to heart of her Son’s Eucharistic love.
There we shall “Sing to God our help!”
| 
