On Friday, Aug. 22, exactly a week after celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Catholic Christians celebrate her Queenship.  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the image of Mary in the Book of Revelation Chapter 12, and her being connected to the Ark of the Covenant.  This is also connected to the Old Testament idea of the “Queen Mother.” That in Ancient Israel, it was the Mother of the King who was considered the Queen, more so than the wife.  (As the Kings sometimes had more than one wife, but they only have one mother).  Thus in the case of Jesus Christ, he honored this human woman, to be His Mother, and so gifted her this great grace of Queenship.

In 2011, I spent a summer in Honduras and stayed in a Honduran mountain village, where I spent time with and lived life with the people.

As I watched the work of some of the women of the village (who did all by hand, as there was no electricity there) as they cooked on their wood-burning stove tops, as they washed and scrubbed laundry by hand , and as they swept, I was struck by the realization that the rhythm of life they were living was not so very different from that of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Just as they lived this humble quiet rhythm of cooking, cleaning, caring for their families, and prayer (each evening they gathered for a listening of the Word of God, prayer and catechesis), so too did that young peasant woman named Mary…

…this young peasant woman, this humble wife and mother, named Mary whom God chose to  be intimately involved in His redeeming work, not only in choosing her as His mother, but then made her Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Queen of all  Angels and Saints; it was this humble peasant woman, this humble wife and mother, who, by her prayerful intercession. also would defend and protect nations from malicious invading armies, as she did at the Battle of Lepanto; who would end the dark tyranny of an empire built on human sacrifice, as she did at Guadalupe; who would call the world to peace in the face of horrific World Wars and the violence of communist nations, as she did at Fatima.

That in Mary, who lived humbly and faithfully her vocation as wife and mother, and as a follower of God, that it was her that God chose to exalt.

We see in Mary the fulfillment of her own prophetic words she spoke when she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…from this day all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is His name…He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and as lifted up the lowly…” (see Luke 1:46-56).

As Christ says: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (see Matthew 23:12)

By her Queenship we are reminded that authentic humility is one of the most important virtues of the spiritual life.  We are also reminded about the importance of day-to-day faithfulness; that our holiness is worked out in the day-to-day grind of life.  That it is not so much about doing great and extraordinary things, but about doing ordinary things with extraordinary love.

Peace,

-Fr. Kevin