Mary's life after the Ascension of Jesus is little known. The Gospel says only: "Faithful to the mission confided to him by the dying Saviour, Saint John took Mary to his home, and treated her as his mother."
The Acts of the Apostles, also, say that the Apostles "persevered in prayer with Mary, the Mother of Jesus."
What does tradition teach us on this point? We shall give it in a few words. Afterward studying what part the Eucharist played in the life of the first Christians, we shall be able to infer from it some consequences applicable to the Blessed Virgin.
In the first place, how many years did Mary live after her Divine Son returned to heaven? There is a difference of opinion. It is, however, certain that, having given birth to Our Lord at the age of fifteen, she was forty-nine years old when He left this earth. Some writers have thought that she survived her Son only one or two years, but this opinion is not followed. Others, and they are the greater number, think that she broke her mortal bonds at the age of sixty-three, and that would be fourteen years after the Ascension of Jesus Christ.
"But," says Suarez, "the opinion which appears to me the most probable and the true one, is that Mary lived seventy-two years in all, thus divided: fifteen years before Christ, thirty-three with Him, and twenty-four after His ascension."
This is the opinion of Saint Epiphanius, of Cedrenus, and Baronius. Cornelius, also, sustains it, calling it very probable.
Those twenty-four years were, without doubt, the most perfect of Mary's life. Like to the way of the just, which increases in splendor up to the noonday, the life of Mary constantly developed to almost limitless perfection. All the graces of her life were stored up to that time. Faithful to every inspiration of the Holy Ghost, meriting by every act, Mary had in her hands, at that period, an immense capital of graces, accruing from revenues faithfully managed. It was the glorious appanage, the dowry for the life that she was now going to lead at the foot of the Holy Eucharist.
During those twenty-four years, says Suarez, Mary led a life entirely heavenly. She dwelt in the home of John, living far from intercourse with men, in continual meditation and incessant love.
The life of contemplation, however, did not absorb her so entirely as to prevent her, in quality of Mother of the Church, from watching over its interests, providing for its needs, and laboring in its service. Just as her active life in the past was spent in the corporal service of the Saviour, so now she devoted herself to a service entirely spiritual and still more perfect than the former.
She instructed the Apostles and the Holy Evangelist Luke in the mysteries of the Faith, and in all that had passed at Nazareth, and it is believed that she often aided and consoled the Faithful with her counsels. Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote to her, supplicating her to console and strengthen him in the struggles that he had to undergo for the Faith. The sweet Mother replied to him, as might be expected from a heart so tender and loving, promising him that she would soon visit Antioch with Saint John.
Up to. that time Mary had remained at Jerusalem, occupying the house adjoining the Cenacle, which John Marc had placed at the service of Jesus and His Disciples.
She accompanied the Apostle to Ephesus, and there passed a certain time, as the Fathers of the Third Ecumenical Council, held in that city, testify.
In what year did Mary return to Jerusalem? This date we cannot determine. It is certain, however, that her glorious death took place there in the fifty-seventh or the fifty-eighth year of the Christian era.
Now, what part did the Holy Eucharist play in Mary's life? To discover this, let us study the role that Eucharistic piety played in the life of the first Christians. But it is so far back that we may, perhaps, be tempted to think it impossible to know anything very definitely on the subject.
Such, however, are not the thoughts of Suarez, of Bona, of Bellarim. To defend the Eucharistic dogma against the attacks of Protestants, who accuse the Church of not walking in the footsteps of the Apostles, and of having invented creeds and practices unknown in Apostolic times, they have affirmed and proved the perpetuity and the identity of the Faith, even the perpetuity and the identity of discipline, in leading points. It is by following those masters, by relating simply their testimony, that we shall establish the magnificent part that the Holy Eucharist took in those early days, Its influence upon the first years of the Church, and the use made of It by our forefathers in the Faith. These premises laid down, it will be easy to draw the conclusion: If the first Christians assisted at the Holy Sacrifice, communicated, adored Jesus perpetually present among them, Mary, the most devoted daughter of the Church, did all this more faithfully and more perfectly than any other.
The Eucharistic life is reduced to three fundamental duties: Sacrifice, Communion, and Adoration.
Could Mary and the first Christians hear Mass every day?
Was Holy Communion frequent? Was it daily?
In the early days of the Church, were they able to adore Jesus constantly reserved in the tabernacle?
These are the questions which we shall now examine.
On the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrifice of His Body and His Blood. He Himself said the first Mass, teaching His Apostles the rite and the manner of celebrating, and, moreover, commanding them to offer that same Sacrifice in memory of Him.
On what day did the Apostles, obedient to the word of their Master, begin to celebrate the Holy Mass? "Some," says Bona, "believe that the Apostles celebrated immediately after the resurrection of the Saviour, as much to render to God by this Sacrifice the supreme worship that is due Him, as to thank for Jesus triumph over death, or again, for their own consolation and the good which they and the Faithful would derive from it. Their ardent love for the Saviour, their fervent zeal, the remembrance of the joy that they experienced at the first Mass of the Last Supper, along with other reasons, authorize us in thinking that it was as is said above." Theophilus Renaud, of the Society of Jesus, defends this opinion, and Bona is not without foundation for it. "I think, however," says the learned Cardinal, "that the Apostles dared not undertake this sublime ministry before having been prepared for it by the reception of the Holy Spirit, and especially since, before His coming, the Old Law was still in vigor, and it would seem inopportune to celebrate the Sacrifice of the New Law. But as soon as the Holy Spirit had filled them with His love, the Apostles preach and convert, the Church is founded, and its new Sacrifice ought to be offered. On the day of Pentecost, therefore, Mass was said by Saint Peter, to whom that honor was accorded, in presence of the other Apostles and of Mary, who was persevering with them in prayer, edifying them by her example and her words." In support of his opinion, Bona cites Asterius, Saint John Crysostom, and the venerable Bede, of whom the last named thus expresses himself: "Hardly had the new converts been baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, than the Apostles presented them at the holy altar to receive the Communion of the Lord, as the first fruits of the New Testament."
The Sacrifice inaugurated by Saint Peter has never ceased to be offered in the Church. Besides the need the nascent Church had of it, can we suppose that the Apostles, understanding what glory it gives to God, what benefit men draw from it, how great is the happiness to offer it, could pass a single day without strengthening themselves by the oblation and the consuming of the Divine Victim?
"For the rest," says Bona, "there can be no doubt that private Mass was said every day in the Church, whether we understand by private Mass, a Mass celebrated on a day not a feast, or in a private place, or in presence of few or no assistants."
The Apostle Saint Andrew declared to the Governor AEgeus that he was accustomed to offer daily the Sacrifice of the Lamb without stain to the Almighty God."
Saint Iraeneus, in the second century, mentions the Apostolic tradition in his book against the heresies: "The Lord commanded us to offer the Sacrifice of the altar without intermission."
Tertullian gives a great number of witnesses of the same kind in his treatise against idolatry. At sight of certain profanations committed by the heretical priests, he exclaims: "O crime! The Jews crucified Jesus Christ once, but they crucify Him every day at the altar!"
Saint Jerome utters this significant word: "Christ taught His Apostles to say confidently every day in the Sacrifice of His Body, this prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven."
We shall not inquire into the testimony of the later Fathers, since our end is to prove only that, from the first days of the Church and in the lifetime of Mary, the Holy Mass was said daily. The Blessed Virgin lived with Saint John, who was a priest, and even a bishop. He daily celebrated in her presence the august Sacrifice, in order to afford her the means of satisfying her love and of fulfilling her duties as a child of the Church; for although she was the Mother of all Christians, Mary was always a child of the Holy Church, a member of the mystical body of Jesus Christ. Now, if she submitted with so much eagerness to the least prescriptions of the Mosaic Law, with what fidelity would she embrace under her Son's law of love all the practices of Christianity?
Yes, Mary daily assisted at Mass. It was her strength, her true morning meal, for we shall soon see that she always communicated at it. But with what perfection? Ah! to answer that question, we should have the pen of Saint John, who witnessed it, or a revelation from our tender Mother herself.
We shall make only one remark capable of giving us a feeble idea of the dis positions that she brought to it. "The Sacrifice which is offered at the altar," says the Council of Trent, "is the same that was offered on Calvary; it has the same Priest, the same Victim." With our weak faith, we can hardly seize the reality expressed by these words, and see in the Eucharistic Sacrifice that of the Cross. But Mary, with her mother-heart, with her faith and her supernatural lights, Mary comprehended it. There was for her no difference between the two. At the altar, as on Calvary, the sword of sorrow which took the life of the Son, immolated the Mother, and all the dispositions of the Blessed Virgin, assisting at the Holy Sacrifice, may be summed up in her compassion. Mary offered herself with Jesus, and she died with Him in a common sentiment of zeal for the glory of God. and the salvation of the world.
Mary assisted daily for twenty-four years at Holy Mass, behold our model in this first of our duties toward the Eucharist! May this Mother of Sorrows make us comprehend a little that the true disposition for assisting well thereat is, to compassionate the Divine Victim, to offer one's self, and to die with Him!
- from Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, by Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard