Seventeenth Sunday
after Pentecost
Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk
20th September 2015
Pope Pius XII on The
Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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
Eadmer, the devout disciple of St. Anselm, 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.
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", 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"; 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", 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.
Hence, it cannot
be doubted that Mary most Holy is far above all other
creatures in dignity, and after her Son possesses
primacy over all. "You have surpassed every creature",
sings St. Sophronius. "What can be more sublime than
your joy, O Virgin Mother? What more noble than this
grace, which you alone have received from God?"
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