The Queenship of Mary, August 22
Isaiah 9:1-6 / Lk 1:26-38
Introduction
“From this day on, all generations will call me blessed,”
sings Mary. What does it mean, to call Mary, the humble virgin, blessed? It means
nothing else than to be filled with admiration and to adore the
marvel which God worked in her, to read from her that God looks to the humble
one and lifts her up, that God’s coming into this world does not seek the
heights but the depths, that God glory consists in making great what is small.
To call Mary blessed means, together with her to ponder admiringly the ways of
God, who lets his Spirit blow where he wants, to obey him and with Mary humbly
to say: “As you have spoken, so be it.” (Bonhoeffer)
Being
Worthy
Paul
commends the Thessalonian Church for her faith, love, and endurance amidst
persecutions. She has lived her faith well. However, he also prays that God may
make her worthy of His calling. This is the nature of God’s calling: He calls
us when we are still unworthy; in spite of our unworthiness
and not because of our worthiness. God, then, keeps working in
us – provided we open ourselves to His Grace – to make us worthy of the call
that He had gratuitously given to us already. We are an unfinished work until
our last breath and until we reach Him. Mother Mary, whose queenship we
celebrate today, is our prime example of what destiny awaits us if we cooperate
with God’s Grace in His work of making us worthy. And if we resist, we resist
at our own peril: the woes pronounced by Jesus would then be our destiny.
We exalt and glorify Jesus Christ as the "King of kings, and the Lord of Lords". So for the Church to confer onto Mary the title of "Queen" is certainly fitting, since at the Visitation, Elizabeth called Mary "mother of my Lord", and hence she is also mother of the King. Indeed, from the earliest Church traditions, Mary has been given the title "Queen" and subsequently "Queen of Heaven", and from that title there are other expressions of her queenship. The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption and is now celebrated on the octave day of that feast. God assumed Mary into heaven, body and soul, and in doing so, He bestowed upon her the queenship of all creation, after Jesus Christ who is the King of all creation. As Jesus exercised his kingship on earth by serving His Father and His fellow human beings, so did Mary exercise her queenship. As the glorified Jesus remains with us as our king till the end of time, so does Mary, who was assumed into heaven and crowned queen of heaven and earth. So as the Church celebrates the queenship of Mary, let us remember what she told the servants at the wedding at Cana - "Do whatever He tells you" (Jn 2:5). But, in order to do what Jesus is telling us, we have to have the spiritual sensitivity of Mary who knows what the will of God is for her and submits herself to it. Let us consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart and unite ourselves in a devotion to her, be it the praying of the Rosary of other forms of Marian devotion. And like Mary our Mother, we too will say with her: Let it be done unto me according to Your Word.
***
In the fourth century Saint Ephrem called Mary “Lady” and
“Queen.” Later Church fathers and doctors continued to use the title. Hymns of
the 11th to 13th centuries address Mary as queen: “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Hail,
Queen of Heaven,” “Queen of Heaven.” The Dominican rosary and the Franciscan
crown as well as numerous invocations in Mary’s litany celebrate her queenship.
The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption, and is
now celebrated on the octave day of that feast. In his 1954 encyclical To
the Queen of Heaven, Pius XII points out that Mary deserves the title
because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve
with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection, and because
of her intercessory power.
Reflection
As Saint Paul suggests in Romans 8:28–30, God has
predestined human beings from all eternity to share the image of his Son. All
the more was Mary predestined to be the mother of Jesus. As Jesus was to be
king of all creation, Mary, in dependence on Jesus, was to be queen.
All other titles to queenship derive from this eternal
intention of God. As Jesus exercised his kingship on earth by serving his
Father and his fellow human beings, so did Mary exercise her queenship. As the
glorified Jesus remains with us as our king till the end of time (Matthew
28:20), so does Mary, who was assumed into heaven and crowned queen of heaven
and earth.
