In his Apostolic Exhortation "Marialis Cultus", Pope Paul VI wrote that the Solemnity of the Assumption is joyfully prolonged in the celebration of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which occurs seven days later. A mother of a king is a queen, the queen mother. It was not an inherited kingship as the son of a king is a king, it was a hard-won queenship, a queenship that hurts.
It was a crown of glory preceded by a crown of thorns, or the prophetic sword of much suffering referred to by old Simeon that Mary had to go through for the sake of her son. Mary's queenship is therefore a queenship by merit, something akin to a Nobel Prize for her good service to humanity.
St. Paul, in one of his letters, talks about athletes who sacrifice themselves with strict diet and exercise only to win a crown that withers. If this happens to them, how much more will it happen to us if we want to win, like Mary, an eternal crown of glory. We must accept and endure the sufferings that come our way.
Mary and the Empress St. Helena
In thinking about what is said in this text, because there is no historical basis for the things we understand to happen in Heaven, I thought of another woman who, like Mary, achieved great heights despite starting very low, and who also like Mary, lived 100% at the service of her son. This is empress St. Helena who lived at the service of her son.
Saint Helena was not born to any noble family in Rome, she was born in Asia Minor and, as her name implies, she was not Roman, but Greek. She married the Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus who went on a military campaign in Asia Minor. Her son is Constantine I who became Roman emperor in York, England, in 306. He conferred on his mother the title of empress. Later, she converted to Christianity, as did her son because of the great influence she had on him.
In her last years of life, she made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. At that time Jerusalem was still called Aelia Capitolina, after the troops of Emperor Titus destroyed it. In place of the Holy Sepulchre and Golgotha, they had built a temple to the goddess Venus.
Helena had this temple destroyed and, in its place, built the great Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on the very site where she found the true Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Helena built many other churches, which were later destroyed by the Muslim occupation. The only two that remain standing, and which were the main ones, are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Many images of St. Helena represent her embracing the cross, the same cross at the foot of which Mary wept for the death of her Son. As Mary rejoiced at the Resurrection of her Son and the end of her suffering, Helena represents the end of the suffering of her son's disciples who, until her and her son Constantine made Christianity the state religion, had suffered Roman persecution and the martyrdom of being eaten by beasts in Roman arenas. Helena is the first Christian empress or queen; Mary is the Queen of queens, the Queen of heaven and earth.
Queen Mother
Salve rainha, Salve rainha, Senhora minha mãe de Jesus (Portuguese Marian Canticle)
Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae, vita dulcedo et spes nostra salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes, in hac lacrimarum valle. Eja ergo advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria. (Hail Holy Queen in Latin)
In my student days in England, the Queen Mother of the late Queen Elizabeth II was still living. The Queen Mother was a person much loved by the people. She too was a queen, not because she reigned, but because her husband had been a king. She had the title of queen consort and, at that time, Queen Mother of Elizabeth II.
Mary is the Queen Mother because she is the mother of Christ who is the King of the Universe. The Mother of Christ, head of the Church which is his mystical body, is seated at the right of her Son as the queen adorned in gold of Ophir from Psalm 45:9.
Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae (Hail Queen, Mother of Mercy) – Mary is queen because she is the mother of Jesus, and our queen because she is our spiritual mother, a merciful mother like God the Father. A mother who because she is the flesh of our flesh, totally human, is a bridge to her Son. A "Pontifex maximus" to access her Son because she, like Empress Helena, knows how to access the heart of her Son and obtain from Him, for us, all the graces we need, just as she already did at Cana apparently with his initial opposition.
Queen of angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, all the saints, and of peace, as the litany says in her praise. Mary is above all the queen of our hearts where she reigns with her beloved Son.
The Queen Mother in Israel
…at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Psalms 45:9
In the biblical episode about King Solomon’s ascension to the throne, we notice the king's reverence for his mother Bathsheba, when she went to visit him as the 1st book of Kings, chapter 2, verse 19, says:
So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right. 1 Kings 2:19
This attitude of Solomon immediately refers to Psalm 45 quoted above. The Hebrews kept this tradition until the Babylonian exile, when they no longer had kings. From that time onward, one begins to expect the coming of David’s new son, the Messiah. According to tradition, Mary is also from the tribe of Judah, like Joseph, that is, she also belongs by birth to the royal family.
In fact, Angel Gabriel already greeted Mary with the salutation of ‘Hail’, a greeting used for the emperors of Rome. She was destined to be the queen of heaven and earth, so she was already queen of heaven and earth when she accepted to be the mother of God’s only begotten Son, the King of the Universe.
At that very moment, when she conceived the king, she became queen. On the other hand, by being conceived without original sin, Mary was already born predestined to be queen. Mary's immaculate conception makes the blue blood of humanity, created by God without original sin, to flow through her veins. By being conceived without original sin she was already conceived as queen.
‘You are the glory of Jerusalem… you are the great pride of our nation!... you have done great good to Israel, and God is well pleased with it. May the Almighty Lord bless you for ever!’ Judith 15:10
Conclusion – Mary is Queen of Heaven and Earth because she is the mother of Christ, King of the Universe. Her coronation is something akin to a Nobel Prize for her services rendered for the salvation of mankind.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
Thank you Father Jorge💝Blessing's💝
ReplyDeleteBEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BY
ReplyDeleteFATHER JORGE AMARO.