Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of October 29, 2006

Feast of the Mother of the Eucharist

Today I feel I am the elder brother of each of you, certainly not because of my age but because of the fullness of the priesthood that God has given me and the mission he has entrusted me. As an elder brother I have the duty and the right to speak to you about the one we all invoke as a Mother and today we celebrate as Mother of the Eucharist.

Usually when a family gathers on the occasion of a feast concerning the mother, it is up to the eldest son to toast, say a few words suitable for the occasion and toast the guest of honor, in the name of all the children. Well, I gladly take this on. In the silence of the apparition I greeted her in your name and in the name of the whole Church because she is the Mother of all and I am committed to talking to you about her in the best way.

So I make you an exhortation, I offer you an invitation: if you want to follow the words carefully, try to open the eyes and ears of the soul because they are the most suitable to understand and enjoy what I tell you.

First of all, I invite you to fix your gaze on the Mother of the Eucharist, try to realize her greatness and in front of her, God himself, who created her, remains astonished and amazed.

You will remember that in the account of creation, when God creates the various realities in succession, at the end of each one he concludes with the expression: "God saw that it was very good", but it was with the creation of Mary and especially her soul, that God's joy was even greater than what he had in creating all natural realities. We can therefore say that "God saw she was the best", before her greatness and beauty of this creature that He kept in His heart and loved since eternity: there is nothing superior to the best.

It is true, what I have just said applies to everyone; each of us before existing was known and loved by God, and we can even say that our thoughts, our life, our future, which we still ignore, was clear and known to God. But let's stop and go back to the Mother of the Eucharist; I invite you, as an art critic should do in front of a masterpiece, to observe carefully. When we are before a painting we often do not realize its artistic wonder and we need someone to describe the details that highlight its greatness. Today I will do the same and I say to you: "Look at this exceptional creature and start to think what wealth God has given her".

God showered her with grace, so much so that, even if He had wanted, He could not have infused her with more, because He gave her all the grace and spiritual wealth that it was possible to grant to a creature. Her soul is immaculate because it was preserved from sin; she is the only creature who never stained with any blemish the integrity, purity, whiteness of her soul full of grace. Our Lady is free from any stain and projected by God into the boundlessness of being able to live the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity in a way inferior only to God himself.

This love from Mary moved her, pushed her to give, to love, to understand, to serve the others. The Gospel also highlights this service of Mary which continued throughout her existence and above all from the moment when, as the only creature until now, she was brought by God to Heaven with her soul and also with her body: these are truths of faith!

Then God also allowed her to fulfill her desire, that is, to be intimately united to the Son in suffering and love. I have already had the opportunity to tell you that Mary was not a simple witness or spectator of the sufferings of her Son, she was always close to him, from the beginning of his passion, and for the Son, to see the mother close to him in bilocation, was a consolation, a drive and strength.

Furthermore, Our Lady also wanted to share her sufferings in a mystical way, so that every blow of the scourge that struck the body of our Lord equally struck the immaculate body of the Mother; the thorns of the crown that pierced Jesus’ skull also pierced Mary’s skull; the nails that passed through Jesus’ hands and feet also pierced Mary’s hands and feet; lastly, the spear blow that pierced and ripped her Son’s side, also pierced and ripped his Mother’s side. If this were not enough, she also wanted to follow her Son in the expiatory experience of death. Yes, we know it because we were told by her: Mary wanted to live the experience of death even if for very short time and from this death arose Mary’s glorification, transformation and ascend; however, as she is our Mom, she is more on Earth than in Heaven.

Our Lady played and continues to play her maternal role from the very moment when, under the cross, she received from her Son the mission of being the Mother of all. The Church, despite the weaknesses of her men, continues to go on and will go on, she will be renewed, reborn, purified, not only because Christ sustains her, but also because Mary was and will always be present. The Church, in fact, was established by the Son and she, as a mother, is always near and shares all that the Son does.

The two great, sublime gifts that Jesus gave us are by giving all of himself and to give us his Mother. What could He do more? This gift is precious for us, because just as she was always close to her Son during the long and silent years in Nazareth, so she never left him, not even for a second during his public life, sometimes even in bilocation. Therefore, in bilocation or in the reality of her physical presence, Our Lady never left her Son alone and in the same way she never leaves us, her children, alone.

Also today she repeated it, even stressing that she will accompany those who have come from afar on the return journey. However, Mary does not exhaust her company there, she certainly extends it in your homes, during your work, when you go from one place to another; she, as God allows it, is always present next to every child, especially to those who suffer most. This is because the Mother of the Eucharist sees, in the face of those who suffer, the features of her Son Jesus who suffers, who continues to suffer and to sacrifice in the Mass for each of us. Mary is close to every child; she participates in the sufferings of those living in pain and embraces them.

If you have noticed, she is a woman who loves neither exhibition nor triumphalism; however she has been accused of being chatty, but what son can tell his mother you are a gossip? Mothers speak to help their children, to correct them, to encourage them. If we recognize this to an earthly mother, why must we deny it to our Celestial Mother? But who are we thinking we are in judging, in humiliating the Heavenly Mother by saying that she cannot speak for so long?, We rather thank God for allowing and forcing her to speak. What would we be without the help, the teachings of Our Lady? What would each of us be like today, starting with me? Our transformation, our most convinced and stronger adherence to Christ, who operated it, who encouraged it? Wasn’t it Our Lady? Who brings more souls to her Son? Is it the Pope, are the bishops, are the priests? No, it is Mary who brings more souls. Against whom does the diabolical ferocity rage the most, of whom does the devil speak in the most negative and evil way? Mary. All those who are on the side of the devil speak badly of Our Lady, they offend and limit her because she bothers them; Our Lady is the truth and the truth always wins on the lie. The truth always gains victory over lies, falsehood and selfishness. The devil and his allies, whoever they are, speak badly about Mary because they see in her the most dreadful enemy to fear, to defeat, to get rid of. But God is with Mary, God puts His power in Mary's hands. Mary is omnipotent by grace, not by right, for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit of whom she is daughter, Mother and Bride, have placed her in such a high dimension, a dignity so sublime that before her, a human and earthly creature, even the celestial spirits, the angels, bow reverently, recognizing her superiority and royalty over them.

Here is who Mary is, she is a Mother who prefers those who suffer. You have heard today, and it was not the first time she has said it: there is a big plague in the world, children are dying of hunger in the countries of the Third and Fourth world. There are children without food and medicine and something needs to be done. We must not limit ourselves to praying, but today we must do something. A Pope will arrive who will strip himself of his riches to give them to the poor, but in the meantime we are beginning to do something.

I have never allowed money to be collected during the H. Mass, the offerings are freely given before the H. Mass, never during, because we must concentrate on the Eucharistic mystery we are witnessing. However, today we make an exception because we are driven by love, the love that opens the Heaven also to Protestants, also to Muslims, even to members of other religions. Today, during the Holy Mass, we will make an act of love, I will not be able to physically go and collect, but the people who are delegated will do so now, during the prayers of the faithful, with discretion. Each one of you gives what you can and we will send it to the children in Nigeria who are literally starving. Due to the drought that lasted for over three years, crops were burned and animal farms were destroyed, therefore they no longer have food neither from the earth nor from animals. And who is suffering the most? The children.

You see, we have the joy of seeing so many children mixing freely here, chirping, from those who have a few weeks to those who are eleven, but if our children were in this dramatic condition what would we do? Yes, we pray to God for them, but we must also give. Just think that with twenty euro you can ensure the feeding of a child in Nigeria for a month, with just twenty euro! What are twenty euro for us? Almost nothing, we eat a pizza and a coke, instead, there they feed a child for a month, and I want to shout this with all my might. Therefore these offers, which were supposed to meet the needs of our community as usual, will instead be sent to Nigeria because there is much more need there.

Just think that at this very moment it is the Mother of the Eucharist who, through my humble person, is asking you to give to these suffering children. I well know that there are many others in other places, but let's not hide behind these justifications, as if to say that if we give to one we cannot give to others; let us give to them and the Lord will be happy with this. Now let's do the prayers of the faithful and there must be no distraction: we pray and love, we rise to God and reach out to the suffering brothers.