Eve and Mary, Mary and the Eucharist

Drawing from the parallel between Eve and Mary, St. Peter Damian describes the relationship between the Virgin Mary and the Eucharistic body of her Son:

"Blessed are you among women! Through a woman the curse fell on the earth; through a woman on the earth the blessing was restored. From the hand of the first the cup of bitter death was offered; from the hand of the second the sweet chalice of life is presented. The abundant flow of the new blessing has blotted out the contagion of the old curse."[1]

The body that Mary conceived, gave birth to, nourished and raised with maternal care and love, is the same body that we receive in the Eucharistic banquet and whose blood we drink as the sacrament that accomplishes our redemption:

"Because of one food we were driven out of the beauty of paradise; but by means of another food we were readmitted to the joys of paradise itself. Eve ate a food on account of which she condemned us to the hunger of an eternity of fasting; on the contrary Mary made a food that opened the entrance to the banquet of Heaven to us."[2]

L. Gambero

[1] Saint Peter Damian, Sermo XLVI, PL 144, 758 AB.

[2] St. Peter Damian, Sermo XLV, PL 144, 743 C.