To Be Mary’s Reflection!

Friday, August 22, 2025

The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Is 9:1-6; Lk 1: 26-38

The feast of the Queenship of Mary invites us to be a reflection of herself in our journey of discipleship. 

The feast, celebrated a week after the Feast of the Assumption, was established by Pope Pius XII in 1954. 

We must remember that the feast has strong scriptural roots. At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel reveals that Jesus, Mary’s Son, would occupy the throne of David (Lk 1:32), and his rule will last forever. In ancient Israel, a queen was not often the wife of the king but his mother. Accordingly, if Jesus were the eternal King, his mother, Mary, would be the queen. 

In 1 Kings 2:19-20, when Bathsheba comes to King Solomon asking for a favor, he receives her favourably with the promise that what she asks will be granted to her. This scriptural model becomes an example for us to celebrate the feast of the Queenship of Mary.

In the Gospels, Elizabeth calls Mary the ‘Mother of My Lord,’ acknowledging Mary’s queenship as a share in Jesus’ kingship. 

Moreover, in the fourth century St. Ephrem called Mary ‘Lady’ and ‘Queen.’ Later Church Fathers continued to use the title. Hymns composed in the 11^th and 13^th centuries addressed Mary as queen: ‘Hail, Holy Queen’ and ‘Hail, Queen of Heaven.’ The Dominican Rosary, the Franciscan Crown or the Rosary of the Seven Joys of Our Lady, and numerous other invocations in Mary’s litany also celebrate the queenship of Mary. 

With Mary’s queenship thus established firmly from the Scripture as well as the Tradition, we understand that her queenship was forged in and through her fidelity, suffering, and love for God and His salvific plan for humanity. 

1. Discipleship Fidelity: One can find Mary’s fidelity in saying ‘yes’ to God’s salvific plan. Her faithfulness and humility helped her hold on to God even amid trials and tribulations. Mary’s greatness lies in the way she trusted in the Lord even when everything looked ambiguous and uncertain in the beginning. In her unwavering trust in God, she becomes not just the Mother of God, but also the Queen who reigns in union with her Son. 

2. Quiet Suffering: Mary’s crown was also forged in her suffering. From her life, we understand that the Divine Mother knew the cost of saying yes to God: misunderstanding, exile, danger, and above all, the cross. Beyond her personal suffering, she also endured the most painful death of her own son on the cross. When others abandoned Jesus, she ‘stood,’ suffering with her son. Later, her unbroken spirit shared the glory of the resurrected Lord. 

3. Unwavering Love: One can only be amazed at Mary’s perfect love for God. We call it perfect because it was rightly ordered. In her faithfulness to God, she brings forth the Son of God. In faithfulness to her Divine Son, she walks to the cross. Later, in faithfulness to his vision, she heads the early Church that was almost disbanded after the death of her son. How was she able to walk the journey? It was her unwavering love that made her strong for the journey. 

Let us pray that we may reflect the spirit of Mary in our lives by embodying her virtues of faith, humility, and suffering love. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar