If people on the street were asked to name a queen, the most likely person to be mentioned would be Queen Elizabeth, whose one-year anniversary of death is next month. She was a presence, a symbol, a sign of Britain’s history and an emblem of its future. Her function as a head of state and an icon for her people should help us think of the greatest queen — the queen — whose life is worthy of all our attention and devotion: Mary.
This month, we celebrate the Assumption of Mary. It is a feast that calls to mind the taking up of Mary’s body into heaven as well as her reign as Queen of Heaven and Earth. “(W)hen the course of her earthly life was finished,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church says of this feast, Mary “was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as queen over all things … ” The occasion invites us to ask the question: What sort of queen is Mary? And what is her queenship?
Usually, the best place to begin to understand a queen is with her parents. After all, that is how the crown is passed from one generation to the next — from parent to child. But that is not so with Mary. To understand what sort of queen she is, you must first look not to her parents but to her Son. “Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it,” the Catechism says. Because her queenship flows from Christ, it begins not with her reception of a crown — the symbol of royalty — but with her total gift of self: her “fiat” to God. Mary’s sacrifice came before her crown.
And yet, by her own account, making this gift does not empty, but rather fills her. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she says in her Magnificat. This is the first thing to know about the queenship of Mary. Mary’s exaltation comes by way of her humility. She empties herself before God, offering herself in humble service as a perfect instrument through which the light of God’s goodness might shine. It is a beautiful offering a subject might make to her king. And, in response, the King does something extraordinary. Rather than simply accepting the offering and, in return, extending his good favor, God makes Mary a living tabernacle, the bearer of his own Son and Queen of Heaven and Earth.
As queen, she is illuminated by the light of her Son. That is the second thing to know about Mary’s queenship. If it is humility that brings Mary to this exalted place, it is faith and charity that define her reign. Just as she carried Christ through the world in her womb during her earthly life, she bears Christ to the world as Queen of Heaven. She is not a queen with her own agenda. Rather, her whole life and being exude the light of Christ. “Do whatever he tells you,” she perpetually declares. That is the sign of her faith. And, in charity, she proclaims it to us. Mary’s faith and charity make her the perfect example for humanity and for the Church, a queen to be imitated in virtue. God bestows another gift upon Mary. He makes her a unique cooperator “in the Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls,” our example in virtue and our mother in grace.
Finally, Mary is an icon of the kingdom over which she reigns. An earthly queen represents her nation as it is, the good and the bad. But Mary represents the kingdom that awaits us in beatitude. “(T)he glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come.” She is a sign of the life we have been promised, and the sign that points us there — an icon of our hope as we prepare to enter a new kingdom. Moreover, as an icon alive with charity, she directs us to where we should go and intercedes on our behalf. She enfolds us in her maternal care — a queen who lights the way, and a mother who comes to our aid.
This month, as we recall that Mary is our queen and mother, may we do her honor by making our lives more like hers — dedicated in humble service to God, ruled by faith and charity and, illuminated by Christ himself, filled with hope. Asking for her intercession is the best place to start.
