"Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." - Matthew 28:20
These words announce the consoling dogma of the permanent Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament. There is today not a country, not a city, not a Catholic village, in which the God of the tabernacle is not found. He remains there with unshaken constancy day and night, protecting the world by His Presence, shedding around Him the divine influences that sanctify souls, preserving peace in families, conducing to the moral prosperity of cities, and giving to the earth the fruits and the harvests that feed man.
Has it always been true to say that Jesus dwelt sacramentally among His children? It is quite generally thought that, in the early ages, the Christians, pursued by incessant persecutions, poor, and without influence, had no churches, and that, consequently, the Blessed Sacrament was not reserved for the consolation of the Faithful; that the Holy Sacrifice offered, the Communion received, the Eucharistic life ceased till the next day.
This was not so. We shall prove briefly that, from the first days of the Church, there were places exclusively consecrated to the worship of God, and that those temples were sanctified by the perpetual Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist.
"In the beginning," says the learned Allioli, "the breaking of the Bread was celebrated in a house in which all could assemble. Later, the number of Christians having increased to thousands, they used to assemble in several different houses. These individual houses were the origin of the parishes, which were soon after established. He who presided at the place of reunion was like the parish priest of the congregation."
"The Holy Sacrifice was offered," says Dom Guéranger, "as much as possible in a large hall suitably adorned, in order to recall that in which the Saviour ate the Last Supper, for which He desired a cenacle large and richly decorated. The Apostles conformed to circumstances, so the Sacrifice celebrated at the house of Gamaliel, or at that of the Senator Pudens was naturally attended with more pomp than was that at the house of Simon, the currier."
We see by the Acts of the Apostles, that in the houses in which the Faithful were accustomed to meet, a chamber in the highest story was consecrated to that purpose. When Saint Paul was preaching at Troas, "a certain young man named Eutychus, sitting on the window, being oppressed by a deep sleep (as Paul was long preaching), by occasion of his sleep fell from the third loft down and was taken up dead."
These cenacles were our churches in the embryotic state. They were true sanctuaries dedicated to the Lord. "From the moment that Faith had taken root in a city, and that the Apostles had established there a bishop, priests, and deacons, the exterior forms acquired extension, and worship necessarily became more solemn."
It is, indeed, of a consecrated church that Saint Paul speaks, when he reproaches the Corinthians with desecrating it by their disorderly repasts and drinking. This is the opinion of Cardinal Bona.
Baronius, also, asserts that, as soon as the Apostles had preached at Rome, they there established churches. "Although, for the sake of prudence, they were not built on the public streets, they were none the less true churches, exclusively consecrated to divine worship," says Bona's continuator. Should that name be refused them, because the Christians alone knew the way to them, and they were hidden from the pagans? And because they had been at first private houses, consecrated later to the Lord by their converted owners, did they less deserve the name of House of God? Who would refuse to behold a veritable church in the cenacle of Jerusalem, in which the Lord instituted the Eucharist, in which the Holy Ghost descended on the apostles, for the reason that it had been the private residence of John Marc? Is it not, on the contrary, that which, with great reason, Hippolytus of Thebes calls the mother of all churches, the most holy of all that have ever existed?
Moreover, the piety of the first Faithful, who excelled in all virtues, inspired them to ornament magnificently and to enrich with splendid decorations the places which they had consecrated to the worship of the Holy Eucharist. Their ornamentation was in the interior, the Church not yet enjoying the liberty of erecting religious edifices in public. The pagan Lucian, in the first century, ridiculed their generosity. "I have found," he says, "gates of iron, and I have crossed courts of brass. After mounting several flights of stairs, I came to a hall whose ceiling was of gold, like that of the palace of Menelaus, as Homer tells us. I gazed in astonishment and admiration at all these wonders, and I saw there men praying prostrate in the dust."
Sala remarks on the above: "Who would not admire the magnificent liberality of the first Christians in their divine worship, since conversion led to the Church only men of the common people? As early as the time of the Apostles their churches were ornamented with so generous magnificence that they might be compared to heaven itself."
But why this pomp unless the Lord God personally resided in these temples consecrated to His honor? "We call our church Dominicum, that is to say, the palace of the Lord," says Saint Cyprian, "because the Lord in the veiled majesty of the Sacrament remains there incessantly present."
"If," says Bona, "it was permitted to the Christians of the first days of the Church to carry home and preserve the Eucharist, to take It with them on journeys, it is much more credible that It remained perpetually in the churches, in order, at least, that It might be at hand for the dying."
Suarez, to prove against Protestants that the Eucharist consisted not only in the use, but that Jesus Christ remains always present in the Species, as long as they last, argues thus: "This truth is proved by the belief and by the constant practice of the Church; for in the Church it has been an unvarying custom to preserve in her temples a consecrated Host for the consolation of the Faithful and in order to give them the means of honoring and adoring God there present, also to help the sick, that they might not die deprived of Holy Viaticum."
This theologian supports his opinion on several authorities, among others on the Apostolic Constitutions, which were collected by Saint Clement, a disciple of Saint Peter: "It is one of the principal duties of the clerks, after all have communicated, to collect the particles of the Body of the Lord which remain, and to preserve them religiously." In Book 8, chapter 20 of the same collection, we read this other Decree: "After all have communicated, the deacons take the sacred Particles that still remain and carry them into the pastophorium."
What was this pastophorium? "It was," replies Bona, "like a sacred closet, or sacristy, in which were constantly preserved the Eucharist and the vessels for the Sacrifice. Saint Clement ordained that on the eastern side of every church, there should be built a pastophorium."
The Holy Scripture employs this word, pastophorium. In I Esdras 10, it is written that the High Priest having left the court of the Temple, retired into the pastophorium of Jonas, the son of Eliasib.
It was the chamber which the custodian of the Temple occupied, says Bellarmine, and he applies the word to the sacred ciborium. The Apostles named the vessel consecrated to the perpetual preservation of the Eucharist, the pastophorium, because the true Custodian of the Temple, Jesus Christ, dwells there really under the Species of the Sacrament.
Suarez, also, says: "Pastophorium signifies chamber of the Spouse, thalamus sponsi, a name very suitable to our tabernacles, in which Jesus Christ has always willed to dwell with the Church, His Spouse, not only figuratively, as in the Synagogue, nor unveiled as in heaven, but in a manner hidden, though very real, in the Blessed Sacrament. In those early times, above all, when persecution raged, it was fitting that Jesus should remain without interruption to console and defend His dear Spouse so cruelly afflicted."
Those churches were not only the meeting places of the Faithful for public prayer in common, but all who had need of consolation and strength went there to pray, whenever they wished, in recollection and solitude. Bellarmine says, with much reason: "Churches are erected as much for private prayer as for solemn worship." In the first place, they were such in the Old Law: "My house is a house of prayer," and the Acts of the Apostles show us Saint Peter and Saint John going to the Temple to pray, even at noonday. Again, prayer made in a temple has more value before God than that which is made in one's own home. The Anomeans said: "We can pray very well in our own houses. We have no need to go to the Temple." Saint John Chrysostom replied to them in these words: "You make a great mistake. Although you may, it is true, pray in your own dwelling, you will not do so as well as you would do in church."
"The reason is," adds Bellarmine, "that in our churches, besides the presence of God, as in all other places, there is, more over, ordinarily the corporal Presence of the Mediator Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, which is well calculated to increase the faith and confidence of him who prays, and to redouble his respect and salutary fear."
Can we not now draw the conclusion: From the first days of Christianity, and during the lifetime of Mary, there were churches established, in private houses for the most part, above all in those of the newly converted who, like Pudens at Rome, or Laeta at Ephesus, received the Apostles at their homes and offered them generous hospitality. In those oratories, they constantly preserved the Eucharist for the consolation of the Faithful and for the relief of the sick. Mary, therefore, who always accompanied Saint John, who dwelt in the same house with him, had at her disposal an oratory enriched by the Presence of her most dear Son, and, like ourselves, she could visit and adore Him. She is our model and our Mother in that Eucharistic service of love and adoration.
Dare we penetrate further, and seek to discover the perfection of Mary's adoration? Of the interior perfection of her prayer we are incapable of speaking. We have read the beautiful effusions of Père Eymard on this subject. Let us study only the exterior of her life of adoration, that is, the time that she consecrated to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and the knowledge that she had of that Mystery of Faith, a knowledge which formed the basis of her perfect contemplation.
Pere Eymard seems to exaggerate some what when he says that Mary passed her days and nights at the feet of Jesus in the Eucharist. We think, nevertheless, that he spoke the exact truth.
"Some very grave and very ancient Fathers," says Suarez, "assure us that Mary passed all her childhood in the Temple, continually occupied, day and night, in chanting the praises of God, and in contemplating His greatness.
"They add that the angels brought her food prepared by themselves, in order that the care of the body might not, even for a moment, take her from her heavenly communications. So think Saint Jerome, Saint Bonaventure, also Cedrenus and Saint George of Nicomedio. We can readily believe," adds Suarez, "for a similar favor was granted to certain saints far less worthy of it than Mary."
What! in the Temple of Jerusalem, in which there was only the figurative manna, the tables of the Law, which was about to come to an end, and a Presence of the Lord purely spiritual, Mary passed her days and nights in prayer, and yet did not do the same in the Cenacle, in which resided God Himself, her Son in Body and in Soul! Shall we forget that she was the well-beloved Mother of the most loving Son? For the three days that she lost Jesus, she sought Him in mortal disquietude, bemoaning in deepest sorrow His temporary absence; during His preaching she never lost sight of Him, she followed Him everywhere; on Calvary, in spite of the presence of the executioners, the soldiers, and the servants (enough to frighten any modest woman), Mary was beside her Son. Nothing could separate her from Him. Saint Epiphanius calls her the "Constant attendant of Jesus." And now that she possesses a tabernacle, that she can enjoy His Presence in peace, would Mary be willing to leave Jesus for a single instant?
But sleeping, eating, ought they not to compel her to relax her continual contemplation? We do not know whether the angels still fed her in this last period of her life, as they had done in the Temple of Jerusalem, though, indeed, it would seem but natural. In any case, we think that Mary had need of so little nourishment that the Bread of the Eucharist would ordinarily suffice to sustain her, as it sufficed for other saints during a time more or less prolonged.
As for sleep, it is a well-founded opinion that Mary passed the nights in continual vigils. "Let no one be astonished," says Suarez, "that many assign the hour of midnight as that in which took place the angelic annunciation; for it is very well believed that the Virgin was accustomed to pass the greater part of her nights in meditating on divine things."
Canisius says of the life of Mary that it was one continual and incessant contemplation. Upon this Suarez remarks: "For the time of waking, that is certain; for the time of sleep, it is probable." Saint Bernardin, following his opinion, and that of other Fathers, says: "Sleep never prevented Mary from turning toward God. Still more, her sleep was a continual contemplation, more elevated than that of any saint in his waking hours of prayer."
That was also the opinion of the Abbe Rupert: "While the Blessed Virgin granted some instants of repose to her body, her soul continued to penetrate divine secrets."
"At all events," says Suarez, "if we ought to believe that Mary took some times a short repose, and interrupted for some moments her perpetual contemplation, it was for a very little time, and her sleep was so full of heavenly thoughts, of loving desires and aspirations, that we may say her contemplation never ceased."
"Even naturally speaking, on account of her most perfect constitution, and her very temperate manner of living, Mary had need of only a very short sleep; and the great self-control by which she subdued her body led her to pass the greater part of her nights in holy vigil."
Where did Mary spend those prolonged vigils? We have seen that the churches were ordinarily in houses occupied by the Apostles. Then, Mary had near her the Blessed Sacrament. She could go to It whenever she wished, above all, when in Jerusalem, where she dwelt in one of the apartments adjoining the Cenacle. Who could for an instant doubt of her being day and night before the sacred tabernacle, communing with her Son, praying for the world, preparing the harvest which the Apostles were to reap? Divine Master! what sweet nights Thou didst pass in Thy prison of love, with Mary prostrate at Thy feet, discovering Thee by her lively faith behind the veils that hid Thee, and uniting herself to Thee, her soul melting into Thine in the fires of consuming love!
Behold the Model, the Patroness of nocturnal adoration! Adorers of the night, who come to console the Divine Saviour for the crimes committed during those hours in which the demon has still greater sway over men, unite with Mary in your pious vigils, pass your nights kneeling before the august tabernacle of the Cenacle!
We shall now speak of the Eucharistic veils of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Did those veils exist, as far as Mary was concerned? Was not her contemplation a clear view? In answering this question, we shall fulfill our promise to touch upon Mary's knowledge of the Eucharist. Let us first lay down as a principle," says Suarez, "that Mary was a traveler in this land of exile, and that she did not ordinarily enjoy the Beatific Vision."
From this principle it follows that Mary had the virtue of faith, that faith which believes what it does not see. It is for that reason the Holy Spirit proclaims her blessed for having believed: Beata es, Maria, quae credidisti. Mary's faith was as perfect as it could be, as well on the part of the subject, in whom it was absolutely certain, excluding even the first movement of doubt, as in the object, since by her faith, she believed most firmly the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation, as well as all the other mysteries which relate to the Divinity or to the Humanity. Saint Bernard calls Mary, therefore, the Mother of believers. Mater credentium.
But to Mary's faith was joined the experience of certain effects, which transformed her faith into natural evidence; for instance, of the Incarnation, she had a knowledge which surpassed the simple light of faith, says Saint Antony and Blessed Albertus Magnus.
This evidence did not diminish the merit of her faith. It was its expansion, its recompense. It supposed it, as the flower does the root. Still more, such evidence belongs to an order inferior to faith, and the certitude that it establishes is not so solid as the certitude of faith. It does not, therefore, necessarily exclude the act of supernatural faith.
Mary received, besides, an infused supernatural knowledge, by which she saw the objects of faith, the mysteries of religion, in the manner of the angels with out any pictures of the imagination. This explains the fact, that the Virgin could not for one instant cease to meditate divine things, and yet without in the least fatiguing the mind, weariness of the body coming from its share in the operations of the intellect by furnishing the matter for ideas.
Suarez says that this knowledge of Mary was not simply knowledge as such, but a theological knowledge by means of which she knew very distinctly the mysteries of faith in themselves, along with the truths and the conclusions that flow from them. This knowledge was given to her according as circumstances required it. On the day of Pentecost, for instance, she received a knowledge more distinct and more detailed of all that regarded the Church, namely, the Sacraments, the conversion of the Gentiles, the needs of the Faithful, and all that was necessary for her charge of teacher of the Apostles.
Mary retained this knowledge as her habitual state. It remained in her soul, and constantly illumined her intelligence. Such is the teaching of Suarez upon the Blessed Virgin's knowledge.
As to the Eucharist in particular, what was the depth of her knowledge? This Mystery, which is a depth in which one is lost who attempts to sound it by the aid of pure reason alone, is, for sincere and humble faith, the most attractive, the most extensive study of our Faith, for in it are comprised all the mysteries of time and eternity.
Now, could Mary see with her corporal eyes Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament? Could she comprehend with the eyes of the soul the secrets of His Presence, the mysteries that It contains?
As to the first question, Saint Bonaventure, Scotus, Alexander Hales, and, perhaps, also Saint Thomas,* think that, by a miracle of the Almighty, her bodily eyes could be raised to behold Jesus just as He is under the Sacramental Species. Alexander Hales says still more formally: "It was given to Mary by a special privilege to see with her eyes the Body of her Son as He exists in the Blessed Sacrament."
We believe, indeed, that, if it were possible, Our Lord did not refuse this favor to His Mother. He owed to her that special mark of love, on account of the maternal devotedness which she had always testified to Him.
As to her intellectual knowledge, that is, clear understanding of the Eucharistic Mystery, Mary received it, without doubt, when she saw the mysteries in the light of the Word, a favor granted her several times during her life. She then comprehended in the light of God Himself as do the blessed in heaven. Again, she certainly possesses in glory (and it would seem that nothing there is opposed to what she had on earth), an infused knowledge of the manner in which Jesus remains in the Blessed Sacrament, of the way in which the Sacred Species exist, and of the bond, if there is one, between the accidents and the Body of Jesus Christ. In that, says Suarez, is truly perfect knowledge.
If the knowledge of the blessed is the source of their beatitude, what an ocean of felicity inundates the soul of Mary, contemplating and unveiling that adorable Sacrament in which God has centred His most admirable wonders! To Mary alone it has been given to know in this way, because she alone loved more than all other creatures.
This is the foundation of Mary's contemplation. We now understand why she prolonged her adoration. Would an entire life suffice to study the Eucharist? Mary's vigils were passed in delightful raptures, her interior gaze going from beauty to beauty. If the blessed never weary contemplating the same God, be cause He reveals Himself to them ever ancient and always new, ah! could Mary grow tired contemplating Jesus in the Eucharist, the Wonder of the wonders of God: Maximum miraculorum?
We leave to souls of prayer to penetrate into the secrets of Mary's adoration. True Eucharistic adoration ought to reproduce that which Jesus incessantly offers in the Blessed Sacrament to His Father. If Mary, in her whole life and all her actions, was the perfect copy of her Son, her adoration was modeled on that of Jesus, and God was truly glorified by the sweet-smelling sacrifice, which arose to Him from the Cenacle in which Jesus and Mary adored Him with one and the same soul!
And now, pious reader, we pause. In these few pages we have tried to show forth the reasons which establish the devotion to Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and authorize us to invoke her under that title. Mary, Mother of the Saviour living in the Eucharist Mary, the sovereign Dispensatrix of that Sacrament and of all the graces that It contains Mary, the first to practice the duties of the Eucharistic life, and teaching us by her example to assist well at the Holy Sacrifice, to communicate well, and frequently and piously to visit the Most Blessed Sacrament Mary, to say all in one word, giving the Eucharist to the world and leading the world back to the Eucharist such is Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
We are far from having exhausted our subject. Labor in prayer, dig into this fruitful mine of Mary's relations with the Eucharist. If the joy of discovering the magnificence of your Mother does not urge you to the study of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament, recall the words of Holy Writ: "They who seek to know Mary will gain eternal life."
- from Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, by Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard