LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS


OUR LADY, MOTHER AND QUEEN

Ruth 1:1,3-6,14-16,22; Ps 146:5-10; Mt 22:34-40

Mother by Love and Queen by Faithfulness

The Church’s celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary as our Mother and Queen is to set her before us as a model and refuge in times of need. In doing this, the Church is only following the example of God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God is the first to set the Blessed Virgin Mary before all the chosen people for their imitation and their succour in time of need; for from the beginning, he promised the fallen race of men the Woman and her Offspring. By that divine destiny, the Woman, who is to be in perpetual enmity with the devil, became the mother of all the elect of God. God chose her to be the mother of the Word Incarnate, and by that choice made her the bearer of the Eternal Word and all who are to be reborn of the Eternal Word. Since the word of God can live in us only by faith, none can contest that she excels in faith in the word of God. But only love makes faith perfect, and the Woman cannot conceive her Son unless by love. So, we come to understand that her love for God is unique, to have conceived God as her Son, beyond any creature in heaven and earth. She is the mother of the Son of God in his human nature, and in mystery, or his mystical nature. That is to say, that her love is not just for the Son of Man, but for all who are born of his mysteries into God. Thus, she is our Mother by love.

The words of our Lord in the Gospel lend credence to this. The Lord, in responding to the question of a Pharisee about the greatest of the commandments, says: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.” Since conception occurs through faith, and union can only take place through love, the Blessed Virgin Mary is first in both faith and love of God. Since the love of neighbour follows and completes our love for God, she also excels in her love for the sons of men, her neighbours. It is the same love by which we love God with all our being, that we love our neighbours made in the image of God and called to the communion and glory of God. Hence, in faith, she conceives the Son of Man in mystery also, and mystically gives birth to him in love. By the same faith, we conceive the word of God and give birth to him in our spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our spirit is Jesus Christ mystically living in each of us, through whom we are able to cry ‘Abba Father.’ He is able to live in each of us because he has purchased us by his blood, which he shed for us in love. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin Mary mystically gives birth to Jesus Christ in all the elect. The book of Revelation, therefore, calls all who keep the commandments of God and are witnesses for Jesus Christ her children. Cf. Rev. 12:17.

While the Blessed Virgin Mary is our mother by her faithful love of God and her neighbour, she is the Queen by her faithful adherence to the word of God. Remaining steadfast in following the will of God, which is revealed through his word, brings a creature to act in the power of God. The faithfulness of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the will of God, which established the perpetual enmity between her and the serpent, established her as the Queen of heaven and earth. God decreed it, and she also cooperated with her will and won such an abundance of grace that she is full of grace. The story of Ruth and Naomi illustrates the power of faithfulness. Ruth’s unflinching faithfulness to her mother-in-law, Naomi, made her the great grandmother of king David. Her words reveal her unflinching commitment. “Do not press me to leave you and to turn back from your company, for wherever you go, I will go, wherever you live, I will live. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Wherever you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do this thing to me and more also, if even death should come between us!” If faithfulness could make one share another’s destiny, what can we say of our faithfulness to God? The Blessed Virgin Mary shared in the kingship of Jesus Christ, her Son, through her faithfulness to her Son through life, passion, and death.

Let us pray: O God, who made the Mother of your Son to be our Mother and our Queen, graciously grant that, sustained by her intercession, we may attain in the heavenly Kingdom the glory promised to your children. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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