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Mary’s Presence at the Holy Mass
by Charles M. Mangan
The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-1965), in its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) dated December 4, 1963, declared that Jesus Christ is present during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in several ways: in the person of the ordained priest, in His Word proclaimed, in the assembled body of believers, and particularly in an exalted manner in the Holy Eucharist—where the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ are really present under the appearances of bread and wine (cf. #7).
The presence of the Crucified and Risen Jesus during Mass may seem obvious to most Catholics. We benefit from the ministrations of the priest who, because of his holy ordination by the Bishop, is “another Christ,” and we hear and heed the Master’s life-giving commands announced in the Scripture readings. Furthermore, we join with other disciples of the Messiah to pray, recognizing His promise: “Where two or three are gathered together for My sake, there am I in the midst of them” (St. Matthew 18:20). Finally, we receive the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of the God-Man meant for our nourishment on the difficult path to Paradise.
Undoubtedly, Jesus is with us during Mass. But what about His Ever Virgin Mother? May we claim that Mary is also present at the Holy Mass?
The late Father William G. Most, in his fine book entitled Vatican II-Marian Council (Athione, Ireland: Saint Paul Publications, 1972), answered in the affirmative. The Madonna is present during each Mass. And here’s how.
The same Sacrosanctum Concilium asserted that “Our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood . . . in order to perpetuate the Sacrifice of the Cross throughout the centuries until He should come again . . .” (#47). Therefore, each Mass is the renewal of what Christ did on Holy Thursday in the Upper Room and the next day on Good Friday atop Calvary.
The solemn teaching of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) is similar. Additionally, this Ecumenical Council emphasized that the difference between Jesus’ salvific work on Calvary and the Mass is “the mode of offering”: Calvary witnessed the bloody offering, while the manner of offering during the Mass is unbloody.
From this foundation, Father Most concluded: “Now if that be the only difference between the original and the renewal, then Mary should be united with the renewal (the Mass) too, just as she was in the original sacrifice.”
Any sacrifice has both an internal and external dimension. Simply put, the internal aspect is the interior disposition that is tangibly expressed by the external aspect.
The author concluded: “Mary has a very obvious union with both aspects of the Mass. First, the outward sign is the renewal of the Death of her Son. But she is the one from whom He received the very Flesh and Blood that becomes present on our altars. . . . (Second) She is also united with the interior dispositions of her Son. Just as He, in the glory of Heaven, still renews the offering of His obedience, His willingness to die again, were the Father to ask that, so too she has not changed the disposition of her Heart. She once consented to His offering at tremendous cost to herself. She has not withdrawn that consent. Her will is now not less aligned with the will of the Father and the will of her Son than when she was still upon this earth.”
What exactly did Mary offer on Calvary? Her “offering in the original Sacrifice was no less than having to consent to the terrible Death of the Son Whom she loved with a love that was and is literally beyond human comprehension.” Father Most, in commenting on our response to this truth, poignantly observed: “We are not asked to go nearly as far as she was. But we should be ashamed to balk at things so much less.”
The lesson for us from this realization is that we are to imitate Mary’s wholehearted consent to the Father’s will. At each Mass we attend, Mary is near the Altar, participating once again in the Sacrifice of Christ as she did on Calvary by her humble acceptance of her Son’s redemptive Death. She now calls forth from us our submission to all that God requires, no matter how painful. Her offering is the pattern for the offering of ourselves and all that we possess.
We must not believe even for a moment—as Father Most warned—that our union at Mass with Our Blessed Lady is a given, something which is “automatic” and exists without any effort on our part. Rather, we should “consciously and deliberately capitalize” on our relationship with the Mother of the Church by imploring her maternal intercession as we strive for Christian perfection, especially through the frequent reception of the Sacraments.
Because Mary is present at the Mass, she assists us in two ways. First, she is praying for us, begging God to grant us the necessary grace to persevere in the accomplishing of His perfect will. Second, she is providing us with the model of authentic sanctity and a kind of assurance that it is possible for a human being — beset with all the vicissitudes of life—to conform his thoughts, desires, words and deeds to the divine plan.
Both the Son and His Mother are present during Mass. Our link to Jesus necessarily implies that we are connected to Mary. As Father Most argued: “In being united to Him, we are by that very fact united to her, for They are inseparable.”
Father Mangan is a priest of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
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