Nourished By Mary

“[S]he gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” // Genesis 3:12

I took a deep breath and bit my lip a little bit, enough to distract my mind somewhat from the excruciating pain of learning to breastfeed my son, who was also learning to latch. We were both not happy, but we kept at it, every couple of hours trying the process once again while holding a pillow over my C-section scar. As a mother, I was entrusted with the task of nourishing him, and I would have done it in any way necessary. 

This task of nourishment, though, is perhaps naturally bound up in my being a woman. As we hear in today’s First Reading, Eve gave Adam fruit to eat—forbidden, sadly, yes. But she fed him. Eve is the precursor to our Mother Mary, who as a woman and mother also nourished. She gave Jesus food to eat. She prepared meals for her loved ones. But more than all of this, Mary fed the disciples—past and present—from the fruit of the Tree of Life, that is, Christ Himself on the Cross. 

I invite you to take a moment to pray with an image from a scene* in the movie The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. Place yourself in prayer with Mary, holding the lifeless body of her holy Son. She does not clench her hands or keep them closed in anger. Instead, she embraces His shoulder with one and lays the other open on His chest while gazing out to each of us as if to say, “Come, take the fruit. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” As blood and water flowed from the side of Christ for the whole world, Mother Mary was there not only as a witness but as a mother, a woman, entrusted to go forth and nourish all of the living. She was the new Eve. 

May we let Adam’s words be redeemed in us as we say of Mary, “she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.” She gives us Christ. Let Mary, Mother of the Church, nourish us.

*If you are familiar with the movie, you will know that Jesus’ body is very graphically bloody. Please only watch the scene if you are able.