Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, Barbiero

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
Model

From Vita Eucharistica e Vita Religiosa by Fr. Manuel Barbiero, S.S.S.

CHAPTER 10 ― GIFT OF SELF

With Mary, at Nazareth and in the cenacle.

As a final aspect of the gift of self, we think it opportune to look to Mary; the gift of the personality finds in her one who realized it and therefore Mary a model. Fr. Eymard himself indicates that Mary was a perfect model of unselfish love of Jesus and for Jesus, of God and for God, of the Trinity and for the Trinity; there is no one who can imitate her inasmuch as she has done for Jesus Christ and for his glory.

Jesus wants to have me share Mary's grace in the incarnation ― and come and live in me in order that I live in him and for him ― so that he may be my counsel, my operations' center, my Joy, my paradise of graces.

The spirituality of Fr. Eymard, marked from its beginnings ― from the experience of "Nazareth" to the experience of the "cenacle" ― had gone the way of centralizing itself on the Eucharist. Therefore, the way of seeing Mary had also assumed the face of the cenacle; it is Mary the adorer in the cenacle that he indicates as mother and model for adorers.

Now, in the gift of personality whoever has for his model the Jesus of the incarnation and the Jesus of the Eucharist, Nazareth and the cenacle go together too, in the proposal of Mary as model. The cenacle, where Mary honors the Eucharistic life of Jesus, is the summed up experience of her life in its beginnings at Nazareth.

We see that these are elements that Fr. Eymard gathers from the life of Mary and that become indicative for his spirituality.

Mary immaculate has the true reign of holiness and of love of God within herself; in the mystery of her presentation at the temple, Mary offers herself without conditions to the service of God and dedicates herself as a host of pureness and honor for his greater glory.

In the incarnation Mary lives in joy, in union with the Word incarnate, she is totally concentrated on her Son, principle, center, and end of her life; every interior act is lived in admiration of the abasement of the Son, in praise of his goodness, in adoring him, in loving and serving him.

This is the life our Lord wants of me, the joy of my vocation. . . . To form Jesus in me, to live in Jesus and for Jesus, who is then my counsel, my strength, my consolation, my center of love. I must arrive there.

We find again, in these expressions, the terminology of the gift of self and of the Eucharistic life. Mary is the model for her exclusive relationship with Jesus Christ, for her harmony of life and love of the Son, for her union of life with him.

She thought Jesus' thought, she lived in a union of virtue, of activity. She was not concerned with herself but with Jesus, for Jesus, in Jesus, and then she was so meek, so humble, so much the servant for everyone. Her love was her divine son's love.

In the life of the family at Nazareth there are important elements to underline: Jesus is the center of the love of Mary and Joseph. Jesus is the center of the family; Bethlehem, Nazareth, Egypt, are secondary elements:

To have Jesus, this was love's dwelling. In this way, my dwelling, my family, my center is the Jesus of the house of the Society in which I live.

Jesus is the end of the life of Mary and Joseph: they live and work solely for him.

Likewise, Jesus Eucharistic, must be the end of my life. He must be the law of my life, the joy, and the contentment of my life, and what life is more beautiful than the life of the Blessed Sacrament?

Jesus is the constant food for the life of union and love of Mary and Joseph. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph form a unique life and pursue a unique reality: to glorify the heavenly Father.

This is what I ought to do. In order to do so, I must enter into union with Mary and Joseph. I must share their life ― that family life ― that intimate life of which God alone holds the secret.

This life of profound unity, of total giving lived at Nazareth, finds in the cenacle its perfection. Mary, as happy and faithful servant of the God of the Eucharist, now contemplates the Eucharistic life of Jesus, sharing in his immolation, all enflamed with the desire of his glory and love on earth. She lives for the Eucharist and of the Eucharist, lives the Eucharist; her thoughts, words, [and] actions are all born from the Eucharist, as rays from the sun; her whole life is referred to the Eucharist which is for her word and grace. It is Jesus! Mary's great aspiration is that of being able to be changed, transformed spiritually into Jesus Christ, as the bread is changed into him.

Uniting oneself to the life of Mary, one can arrive at serving Jesus Christ with a spirit of love, pure, devout, unselfish, living for him only. Mary becomes the way for the formation of Jesus in us; if Fr. Eymard had indicated a summit in the union with Jesus Christ, for whoever is priest-religious, the model of Mary opens to all the possibility of the realization of life with Christ described in the gift of personality.