Queen Mother!

Thursday, August 22, 2024

The Queenship of Mary!

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

Today we celebrate the feast of the Queenship of Mary.

This feast provides us with an occasion to sing the praises of our Queen Mother. 

In fact, we have been celebrating Mother Mary’s queenship for centuries by praying the Fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary – ‘The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.’ 

Since the feast is celebrated eight days after the feast of the Assumption, this feast is considered a prolongation of the feast of the Assumption. 

We understand that Mary’s queenship has strong biblical foundations. 

In the Old Testament Book of Kings, Bathsheba, the mother of King Solomon, is seated at her son’s right hand. King Solomon commands that requests to him should be directed through his mother so that she might intercede for them before him (1 Kgs 2:19-20). Likewise, Psalm 45:9 reads that the Queen shall stand at the right side of the King. Similarly, in Luke’s Gospel, we find Mary singing in her Magnificat that, thanks to God’s blessings, ‘Henceforth, all generations will call me blessed’ (Lk 1:48). 

Moreover, we understand that Mary’s queenship has been put into effect from the moment of her ‘yes’ to God’s will. If she thus opened the door to humanity’s salvation through her ‘yes,’ her participation in the life of her son and sharing his passion and sufferings on the cross also made her a partaker of his heavenly glory. 

As we celebrate the feast of the Queenship of Mary, our understanding of Mary’s regality is more important. In this regard, it is helpful to remember Pope Benedict’s insight that the Queenship of Mary ‘is not (one of) wealth and power’ but is ‘a service of love.’ Mary’s Queenship certainly includes her significant role in the redemption of Christians. 

Mary is Queen because she is the Mother of Mercy: Mary, as Queen, always wants to bring us to her Son, the King. A mother’s nature is to be an intercessor for the child before the justice of the father. As such, our heavenly Mother obtains mercy for us from her Son, the Judge. Hence, St. Bernard said, ‘As Christ intercedes for us at the throne of his father, so Mary intercedes for us to her Divine Son.’

Mary is Queen because she reigns by the power of love: Like her son, Mary reigns by the power of love alone. Regarding the way Mary exercised her Queenship, the venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that the Lord would greet a person in heaven with the words, ‘My mother speaks very favorably of you.’ This is why Pope Francis has urged us to ‘knock at the door of Mary.’ 

Mary is Queen because she is the ruler of hearts: Mary exercises her regality in the internal forum (Forum Internum) of a person’s heart. Hearts touched by her love are triggered to turn toward Jesus. For this reason, Mary is our path to Jesus. Mary, the servant of love, stirs our hearts, and we are urged to exercise our discipleship closely, imitating her own model. 

Let us pray that, inspired by the Queen Mother, we may (re)turn to the embrace of our Redeemer!

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar