The mystery of the Holy Eucharist and the mystery of the Holy Infancy are beautifully proportioned to one another, flowing as they do out of the infinite splendor of the inner Trinitarian selfgiving . Mary, as the Mother of the Incarnate Word and the Mother of the Eucharist helps us to ponder these two mysteries. Let us consider Mary’s faith in and adoration of her Son and how she helps us to see the intrinsic connection between Christmas and the Eucharist. 

“0 King of Glory, though You hide Your beauty, yet the eye of my soul rends the veil. I see the angelic choirs giving You honor without cease” (Bl. Faustina Diary, 80). These are the words of Sister Faustina as she adores Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, but we can also hear them issuing from the Immaculate Heart of Mary as she beholds the Infant to whom she had given birth. 

Just as we cannot see the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, because He is hidden beneath the appearances of bread and wine, so Mary could not see the divinity of her Son hidden beneath His humanity. The angel Gabriel told Mary that Jesus was “the Son of the Most High" (Lk. 1:32) and she knew that she conceived Jesus, without having a husband, by the power of the Holy Spirit who overshadowed her (cf. Lk. 1:35) She knew that the Son to whom she gave birth in a virginal manner is precisely that “Holy One,” the Son of God, yet she was in contact with this truth about her Son only in faith and through faith (cf. Redemptoris Mater, 17). It has been revealed to us that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Jesus, and like Mary, we are in contact with this mystery only in faith and through faith. Mary continued to believe day after day amidst all the trials and adversities of Jesus' infancy; we too must continue to believe throughout all of the difficulties of our lives that Jesus is "God with us," Immanuel, in the Eucharist. 

We are called to imitate Mary in her fiat, her loving, gentle reception of Jesus into her womb. “Think what must have been going on in the Virgin's soul after the Incarnation, when she possessed within her the Word incarnate, the Gift of God. . . In what silence, what recollection, what adoration she must have buried herself in the depths of her soul in order to embrace this God whose Mother she was. . . O let us stay close to him in this silence, with this love, of the Virgin" (Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Letter 183) Let us, with Mary, receive Jesus in peace, recollection and adoration especially in the Most Holy Eucharist! Let us resolve never to receive the Eucharist without discerning the Body of Christ (cf. 1 OCR. 11:29). Just as Mary, bore Christ in her womb, so we too become Christ bearers by receiving Holy Communion, for Christ truly, physically dwells within us for about fifteen minutes after receiving Communion--until the sacramental species lose the appearance of bread and wine. 

So we see how Mary's reception of Jesus with faith and adoration teaches us to receive Him in Holy Communion with faith and adoration. Yet it is important that we state with even greater clarity the sense in which we can see in Mary the connection between Christmas and the Eucharist: the Body received in Communion is none other than the true body born of the Virgin Mary, the body taken from her flesh. In the eleventh century, St. Peter Damian says: 

The same body of Christ that the most blessed Virgin brought forth, which she nourished in her womb, wrapped in swaddling clothes and brought up with motherly care, this same Body, I say, and none other, we now perceive without any doubt on the sacred altar (Sermo XLV). 

St. Peter shows an amazing continuity of thought with St. Ambrose who seven centuries earlier wrote: “It is clear that the Virgin gave birth outside the order of nature, and what we confect is the Body from the Virgin. Why, then, do you look for the order of nature in the Body of Christ, when the Lord Jesus himself was born of the Virgin outside of nature?” (De Mysteriis 53). 

The identity between the Body born of the Virgin and the Eucharist is so clear that medieval and modern writers describe Mary as ciborium and monstrance (cf. John Saward, Redeemer in the Womb, pp. 49-50). Also, in 1987, during the Marian Year, in a homily at a celebration of the restored Armenian liturgy, Pope John Paul II quoted this acclamation: “`Incorruptible Virgin Mary , Holy Church proclaims you Mother of God; from you we have been given immortal Bread and the Chalice of joy.” 

Let us ponder these two great mysteries: the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Infancy. Jesus Christ communicates to us an essential message in choosing to manifest Himself in such humble forms. By coming to us with such awesome humility, Jesus makes Himself vulnerable and weak, as He also did on the Cross. Our Divine Redeemer proclaims to us what He told St. Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9) In the Eucharist, Our Lord renews before our eyes the abasement of his infancy, and indeed the ignominy of the Cross. St. Augustine beautifully comments on this theme of power in weakness: 

The Christ preached by the Church is not Christ rich in earthly treasure or Christ crowned with gold but Christ crucified. When this Christ was first preached to the few who believed, He was mocked by the multitudes [cf, John 6:60 ff] Nevertheless by the power of the cross, the blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed so that all might come to know, that even among the powers of this world, there is nothing more powerful than the humility of God (St. Augustine, Sermo 231). 

The bondage of Christ as he was bound and led away to be crucified (cf. Mt, 27:2) is foreshadowed by his containment in the womb of Our Lady. Our Savior emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave (cf. Ph., 2:7); He comes to us as Omnipotence in bonds that we may not fear Him. Indeed, His infinite gentleness and meekness ravishes us and draws us to His heart. He says to us, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Mt. 11:28-29).

So, let us learn from the faith and adoration of Mary. With profound gratitude, let us honor her who by her fiat welcomed the Eternal Word. Let us worship Jesus Christ who became poor for our sake that by His poverty, we might become rich (cf. 2 Cor, 8:9). With Mary to teach us, O Come let us adore Him! Adoremus in Aeternum, Sanctissmum Sacramentum!