Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, and this comes as we conclude the Octave of the Assumption. Mary as Queen – What kind of Queen?
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In ancient Israel, who was the Queen? Was King David’s queen one of his thousands of wives? No. They were not worthy of being Queen. The Queen was the King’s Mother. There was actually an official position in the government, known as the Gebira,[i] the Queen Mother, and this was true of the other kings of Israel.
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It also seems, that anything the Queen asked of the King, was likely granted. This was the tradition, she was the mother! These Queens were therefore images, types, of the real Queen to come.
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It is also a little-known fact, that Adam and Eve were supposed to be a King and Queen. They were given DOMINION over the earth – were given to RULE the earth and all the creatures there. This fact is seen in ancient Jewish weddings, where the couple wears crowns, as well today in Eastern Catholic Rite marriages – the couple wears crowns. This recalls the role of the original man and woman: King and Queen.
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But if Eve was meant to be the Queen of the earth, Mary is the New Eve, and therefore Queen. We see this in Scripture as well: Jesus is the King, as says the inscription on the cross: ‘King of the Jews.’ And the Book of Revelation describes Mary as a woman clothed with the sun, and a CROWN on her head. King and Queen.
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Yet how much more than King David’s mother or any of the other queens – how much more wonderful is this Queen of Heaven.
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The greatness of kings and queens, says Seneca,[ii] consists in how much they relieve the suffering and sorrows of their subjects. Kings should be involved therefore in works of mercy, but not so as to forget justice and punishment, which must sometimes be given by their power.
But it is not this way with Mary, who is a Queen not of justice or of punishment, but a Queen of mercy intent only on pardoning sinners, and so the church calls her, The Queen of Mercy.
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Gerson says, God’s kingdom is as it were, divided into two parts, justice and mercy. Reserving justice and power to himself, he yielded the Empire of mercy to Mary, so that all mercies dispensed to us should pass through the hands of Mary.
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The secret is,[iii] that the children of Mary are the best of the world. They are the spoiled children, who enjoy the choicest possessions of their Mother, who is the Queen of heaven and earth.
Fr. Luke Winkelmann
[i] 1 Kings 2:19 – ‘So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah; the king got up to meet her and bowed before her; he then sat down on his throne; a seat was brought for the king’s mother, and she sat down on his right.’ (There are many other instances of the Gebira)
[ii] Glories of Mary, p. 37.
[iii] Glories, p. 678.
