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on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner." [188] P
At Holy Mass therefore
we are being drawn beyond time and space and
we so we must become
conscious
that we are presenting ourselves
at the Last Supper
but also at Golgotha
before Jesus, The Christ,
the adored Son of Mary,
The Immaculate Conception.
Mary - Merely a 'Vessel' - ?
Well-meaning Christians say this! So do others who call themselves 'Christians'.
They wish to down-grade Mary's role as Mother of The Saviour. There are many reasons why they want to do this - none acceptable of course. But in this article we'll skip that point and look at Mary as vessel.
We will ignore Scripture which states that Mary is blessed and that all generations shall call her blessed - that at Mary's word John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit when he is yet a child in his mother's womb. See Luke 1.
We will ignore the fact that Mary is The Woman of Scripture - that she with Joseph raised Jesus to manhood and that Mary remained Jesus' disciple even up to The Cross.
We will ignore the fact that to say that Mary is a vessel only is a direct insult to The Holy Trinity Who is thereby accused of using a human being and discarding her once she has done a task - that God used Mary as a tool only.
However, it can be said that we all agree at the very least that
Mary is, indeed, a vessel of God.
What can we extrapolate from this fact which, in itself
is most wonderful;
most exquisite?
Mary's womb was the tabernacle, the avenue, through which The Second Person of The Holy Trinity became Man. From Mary's womb The Son took Flesh and Blood.
Because Mary fulfilled this purpose, through her most precious womb, it seems quite definite to me that
this womb, this vessel, must have then become
something most sacred.
Like the woman in the multitude of Luke 11:27, everyone must come to the same conclusion:- Blessed is the womb that bore thee; the breast which thou has sucked.
Mary's holy womb was the path God took to come into His creation; the path God took to bring Salvation to all creation, and so we must cry out with David in Psalm 76 (14) [77]:-
To ponder over all thy doings,
pass thy wonders in review!
Thy path O God, is hedged about with holiness;
what God is great as our God is Great?
Yet the womb of Mary is more then a path - it is also a marvellous tabernacle, a resting-place in which resided the God-made-man.
P David who had won favour in God's sight, longed to devise a resting-place for the God of Israel, but in the end it was Solomon that built the house for him.
Yet we are not to think that the most High dwells in temples made by men's hands; the prophet says:-
Heaven is my throne
and earth is thy footstool under my feet.
What home will you build for me
says the Lord - what place can be my resting place? P (Acts 7:46-49)
Nevertheless, the resting-place that Solomon built for The Lord was a magnificent monument where the inner chamber became the holy of holies. The whole structure was a sacred place, and rightly so.
But God still asks What place can be my resting-place?
Any such resting-place,
chosen by God Himself
and created by God Himself,
would just have to be the most sacred place
in the universe,
wouldn't it?
So I maintain that that resting-place that is the womb of Mary, Mother of The Messiah, was the chosen place of God and into which The Holy Spirit installed The Son - thus ensuring that this womb of Mary became
the most sacred resting-place of God in all creation.
And this resting-place is duplicated in the Tabernacles of The Universal Church throughout the world, where the Eucharistic Christ resides, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
So, when our separated brothers and sisters try to down-grade Mary, making her a vessel only, we might then recall that
if this was all that Mary was,
then Mary was still the resting-place,
the tabernacle,
for The Saviour of all creation.
The Womb and The Tabernacle
P In the Eucharist, Jesus is truly present, with His Body, with His Blood, with His Soul and with His Divinity.
In the Eucharist, Jesus Christ is truly present,
the Son of God,
that God
Whom I saw in Him
at every moment
of His earthly life,
even if He was hidden beneath the veil of a fragile and weak nature, which developed according to the rhythm of time and of His human growth. With a continual act of faith in My Son Jesus, I always saw My God and I would adore Him with profound love.
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