There is not a whole lot that has been written in the Scriptures about our dear Blessed Mother, but there is a lot that has been written about her in the time since. Last week, we celebrated a feast that honors her Assumption—a dogma that took some interpreting and extrapolating by the Church in order to determine it to be infallibly true.
Today, we honor Mary as “Queen of Heaven”—again, a dogma that is not explicitly stated in Scripture, but one that is nonetheless logically concluded. So how is Mary’s queenship in heaven a logical conclusion? Pretty simple, really. All mothers of Israel’s kings held the royal title, “Queen Mother,” and as Mary’s son is King of Kings, this makes Mary, queen. Still, the fact that Mary is called, “Queen of Heaven” doesn’t just give the rest of us a new and lovely title by which to refer to her.
The title, “Queen,” has specific privileges and rights associated with it, just as there are specific privileges and rights associated with Mother Mary’s other titles. It is Mary, under the title of “Our Lady, Undoer of Knots,” to whom we go when we have an entanglement in our lives from which we are powerless to free ourselves. Jesus has given Mary, under this title, the grace to see where the strings in our lives need to be pulled to restore order and resolution.
It is Mary, under the title of “Our Lady of Sorrows” to whom we go when we need the grace of consolation and peace in our pain, and when we need help in seeing the hand of divine providence in our lives, who allows all things for our “welfare, and not for woe” (Jer. 29:11). It is Mary, under the title of “Our Lady of Hope” to whom we go when we need the strength to trust. In the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, we give Mary our hearts, and she then will lend us hers.
So under what circumstances do we go to Mary under the title of “Queen of Heaven”?
When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” [And] Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn. 2:3-5)
In one of the most fantastic scenes in all the Gospels, Mother Mary does not just ask Jesus for a favor; she tells Him what to do! Mary, a mere mortal, gives instructions to God. What’s more, she is not instructing little toddler Jesus who knows everything in His divinity, but in His human childhood still needs guidance; rather, Mary is instructing a thirty-three-year-old grown man! Now, in our day and age, we might call this helicopter parenting, but in the culture of ancient Israel, a man’s mother was revered. In many cultures she took precedence—even over his own wife. Can we even imagine a modern American married woman conceding continually to her mother-in-law? And yet, such was the expectation for the women of first-century Israel. Mary is the woman who always came first in Jesus’ life, the one who He will always obediently honor.
What’s more, as an adult, Jesus never would have had reason to question the instructions asked of Him by His mother, because unlike all other parents—who, by virtue of the fact that they were born with original sin, are fallen and sinful, prone to selfish motives and poor judgment no matter how holy they may be—Mary has no such defect. As one immaculately conceived, anything she asks of her son is perfectly selfless, motivated entirely by purity of intention.
Jesus never would have given a second thought as to whether He should obey His mother because He would have known that anything she would have asked was the right thing to do; that is to say, the Father’s will. And to do the Father’s will was and always is Jesus’ “food;” it is for this reason that He came down from heaven (Jn. 6:38).
By now, it should be obvious why we honor Mary under the title of “Queen of Heaven.” When we ask Mary for anything, she purifies the intention, rectifies it and adjusts it to line up with the Father’s will, and then presents it to her son. And when Mary is the one who approaches Jesus on our behalf, she doesn’t ask Him with merely a “pretty please.” She tells Him what to do! In other words, when Mary accepts our petition and brings it to Jesus on our behalf . . . it is as good as done.
Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, pray for us.
Author’s Note: Excerpt from: The Safe Haven: Scriptural Reflections for the Heart and Home (Ordinary Time Weeks 15-21). To purchase, visit Amazon or The Catholic Company, where all other volumes currently in print are also available.
Image from Wikimedia Commons
