THE SEAT OF WISDOM


OUR LADY, QUEEN AND PATRONESS OF NIGERIA

Isa 11:1-10; Ps 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17; Eph 2:13-18; Mt 2:13-15,19-23

The Throne of the Word of God

Today, we Nigerians celebrate our said Independence Day. We use the opportunity to celebrate Our Lady as the Queen and Patroness of Nigeria, asking for her maternal intercession for our country. As members of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, we contemplate God in her arms, in order to understand the will of God for us as a nation. The throne of God was set before the angels in the spiritual realm, as we contemplated in Daniel’s vision, for they are pure spirits adoring in God and his immutable will in truth and in spirit. But the throne of God is set for us mortal men in the flesh or body of the Blessed Virgin Mary for our contemplation and worship. Since we are embodied spirits, God sent his Word to take flesh in the Blessed Virgin Mary so that we may attain our vocation, which is the same vocation as angels; namely, the beatific vision of God. It is the same God whom the angels contemplate in heaven that she has in her arms for our contemplation and worship. The prophecy of Isaiah clearly has this. “A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots: on him the spirit of the Lord rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” The Son of the Virgin is the face of God or the divine Presence from whom flames of fire issue for our purification, transformation, and contemplation.

The sign of our salvation that God gave in the beginning, when Adam and Eve fell from grace, is the Woman and her Son. The Son is the Eternal Wisdom cloak in our mortal nature. Thus, Isaiah continues: “The fear of the Lord is his breath. He does not judge by appearances; he gives no verdict on hearsay, but judges the wretched with integrity, and with equity gives a verdict for the poor of the land. His word is a rod that strikes the ruthless, his sentences bring death to the wicked.” These describe the flames of fire that issue from his presence in our nature. Thus, being in the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary brings us to the presence of God, for she leads us to contemplate God in our mortal realm. The original sin and our own individual sins separated us from God. For sin is the abandonment of God’s presence and will. But through the Immaculate Virgin, we have access to God’s presence in our land of exile from God. Saint Paul’s words underscore this. “In Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood of Christ.” God revealed himself to Abraham and to his descendants, thereby making them his people. He prepared the stock of Jesse that would receive his Son through Abraham's descendants. But the revelation is for men. “For he is the peace between us, and he made the two into one and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, actually destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law.”

The Son of Man came for the salvation of all men. In his humanity, he made it possible for all men to gaze on the face of God and be purified of their sinful wills and come to embrace the will of God. His humanity is the inheritance of people of every tribe, language, and nation. The Gospel narrates how Africa contributed to safeguarding the Father’s gift to us. “So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt.” The salvation and progress of all men consist in contemplating the face of God and doing his will. As Nigerians, our salvation as individuals and as a country lies in seeking the face of God and living to fulfill his divine will each day. It is appropriate for us, therefore, to seek the intercession of the Blessed Virgin as we celebrate and long for true Independence in our nation. Without abandoning our own wills to do the will of God, progress and development will ever elude us as a people. As the Psalmist says: “In his days justice shall flourish and peace till the moon fails.” Let us seek the coming of the days of the Lord in Nigeria by earnestly asking the intercession of Our Lady, Queen and Patroness of Nigeria.

Let us pray: Grant, Lord God, that we, your servants, may rejoice in unfailing health of mind and body, and, through the glorious intercession of Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, may we be set free from present sorrow and come to enjoy eternal happiness. 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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