Queenship of Mary

LUKE 13:22-30 TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME KEY VERSE: "Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able" (v 24). Mass Entry: Today is the Octave of the Assumption BVM. 22nd August is the Queenship of Mary but it is Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today is a land mark  date in the community calendar. On the 22nd August 1954 Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray conducted the laying of the Foundation Stone of Sancta Maria Abbey. In the brightness this morning and the joy of Mary we can look more positively at the difficult Parables of the Gospel today. “Many are called, few are chosen.” “Many shall seek to enter the narrow gate and shall not be able to enter.” Henry Newman, who will be beatified in the Papal Visit, next month, has very serious thoughts on the elect being few. Earlier the Cantor questioned the suitability of the Newman Night Office Reading this morning. It seemed the passage was from the pre-Catholic period. Happily Newman’s words in this quotation echoes beautifully the  Heart of Mary. He tells us that the doctrine does not lead us to any hard notions. He is the most loving Father still, though few are chosen. The doctrine, then, which is implied in the text, does not lead us to any hard notions of God. He is a most loving father still, though few are chosen. His mercy is over all his works, and to no one does the word of life come but with the intent that he may live. If the many remain in unbelief, they are not straightened in God's love, but they ‘are straitened in their own bowels.' Man will not be what by God's renewing and co-operating grace he might be. It is man’s doing, not God's will, that, while the visible Church is large, the Church invisible is small. (J.H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, V, 18) In our own thinking, it is no harm to catch us at those hard notions of the only few  chosen, our mistake, - rather get our sound bearings, - rather feel with the Heart of Jesus and Mary, “His Father’s mercy is over all His works. + + +

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The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption and is now celebrated on the octave day of that feast. In his 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.

Sunday, 22 August 2010
The Queenship of Mary - Memorial

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THE QUEENSHIP OF MARY
Memorial

        According to ancient tradition and the sacred liturgy the main principle on which the royal dignity of Mary rests is without doubt her Divine Motherhood. In Holy Writ, concerning the Son whom Mary will conceive, We read this sentence: "He shall be called the Son of the most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end,"[Lk I, 32, 33] and in addition Mary is called "Mother of the Lord"; from this it is easily concluded that she is a Queen, since she bore a son who, at the very moment of His conception, because of the hypostatic union of the human nature with the Word, was also as man King and Lord of all things. So with complete justice St. John Damascene could write: "When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature." Likewise, it can be said that the heavenly voice of the Archangel Gabriel was the first to proclaim Mary's royal office.    

        But the Blessed Virgin Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of our eternal salvation.

        Now, in the accomplishing of this work of redemption, the Blessed Virgin Mary was most closely associated with Christ; and so it is fitting to sing in the sacred liturgy: "Near the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ there stood, sorrowful, the Blessed Mary, Queen of Heaven and Queen of the World." Hence, as the devout disciple of St. Anselm (Eadmer, ed.) wrote in the Middle Ages: "just as . . . God, by making all through His power, is Father and Lord of all, so the blessed Mary, by repairing all through her merits, is Mother and Queen of all; for God is the Lord of all things, because by His command He establishes each of them in its own nature, and Mary is the Queen of all things, because she restores each to its original dignity through the grace which she merited.

        For "just as Christ, because He redeemed us, is our Lord and king by a special title, so the Blessed Virgin also (is our queen), on account of the unique manner in which she assisted in our redemption, by giving of her own substance, by freely offering Him for us, by her singular desire and petition for, and active interest in, our salvation."

        From these considerations, the proof develops on these lines: if Mary, in taking an active part in the work of salvation, was, by God's design, associated with Jesus Christ, the source of salvation itself, in a manner comparable to that in which Eve was associated with Adam, the source of death, so that it may be stated that the work of our salvation was accomplished by a kind of "recapitulation,"[49] in which a virgin was instrumental in the salvation of the human race, just as a virgin had been closely associated with its death; if, moreover, it can likewise be stated that this glorious Lady had been chosen Mother of Christ "in order that she might become a partner in the redemption of the human race";[50] and if, in truth, "it was she who, free of the stain of actual and original sin, and ever most closely bound to her Son, on Golgotha offered that Son to the Eternal Father together with the complete sacrifice of her maternal rights and maternal love, like a new Eve, for all the sons of Adam, stained as they were by his lamentable fall,"[51] then it may be legitimately concluded that as Christ, the new Adam, must be called a King not merely because He is Son of God, but also because He is our Redeemer, so, analogously, the Most Blessed Virgin is queen not only because she is Mother of God, but also because, as the new Eve, she was associated with the new Adam.

        Certainly, in the full and strict meaning of the term, only Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is King; but Mary, too, as Mother of the divine Christ, as His associate in the redemption, in his struggle with His enemies and His final victory over them, has a share, though in a limited and analogous way, in His royal dignity. For from her union with Christ she attains a radiant eminence transcending that of any other creature; from her union with Christ she receives the royal right to dispose of the treasures of the Divine Redeemer's Kingdom; from her union with Christ finally is derived the inexhaustible efficacy of her maternal intercession before the Son and His Father.

        All, according to their state, should strive to bring alive the wondrous virtues of our heavenly Queen and most loving Mother through constant effort of mind and manner. Thus will it come about that all Christians, in honoring and imitating their sublime Queen and Mother, will realize they are truly brothers, and with all envy and avarice thrust aside, will promote love among classes, respect the rights of the weak, cherish peace. No one should think himself a son of Mary, worthy of being received under her powerful protection, unless, like her, he is just, gentle and pure, and shows a sincere desire for true brotherhood, not harming or injuring but rather helping and comforting others.

        Earnestly desiring that the Queen and Mother of Christendom may hear these Our prayers, and by her peace make happy a world shaken by hate, and may, after this exile show unto us all Jesus, Who will be our eternal peace and joy, to you, Venerable Brothers, and to your flocks, as a promise of God's divine help and a pledge of Our love, from Our heart We impart the Apostolic Benediction.

Pius XII - Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam, § 34-39, §49, §52

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