Priesthood and Eucharist - Part 2 of 3

In the very heart of the Pascal mystery is the Holy Eucharist where one sees the unity of the Bride and her Spouse. Here is the unity spoken about in Genesis that the two shall become one. From the beginning of creation bridegroom and bride are made each for the other. The Church then is perpetually the ecclesia – feminine and receptive to her Spouse. Christ is most clearly the Bridegroom on the Cross in His sacrificial offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit which is made present on all the altars in the Church. Mary is not a priestess that is a sacrificing principle at the Cross; rather all she accomplishes in union with her Son. At the sacrifice stands Mary as an icon of the Church who enters into this mystical sacrifice through her consent to the immolation of her Son and is “plunged into an ocean of darkness” which draws her ever more deeply into a mystical marriage with her Son who becomes her Spouse. Into her soul Christ pours forth innumerable graces which flow from her like a torrent into the Church who mediates all graces from her mystical Spouse. As the Church is born in the heart of the Father, foreshadowed in the Old Testament, she, like Mary, is primarily born from Christ’s pieced side as an immaculate virgin as she is drawn further into an intimate oneness with the Trinity. It is in this manner that Mary is Co-Redemptrix and mediatrix of all graces. Mary’s act of faith at the Annunciation and at the Foot of the Cross shows her as a model of the Church in faith, in charity, and in perfect union with her Spouse. It also furthers her identification with the Church as Intercessor, which may also be seen at the Wedding of Cana. The Holy Spirit who is a hypostasis of love is poured out into the hearts of the People of God more fully revealing the Church at Pentecost through the prayers of Mary and the apostles.  

--Rev. Harold B. McKale