MOTHER OF DIVINE COMMUNIION

OUR LADY, MOTHER AND QUEEN

Ezek 43:1-7; Ps 85:9-14; Mt 23:1-12

The Seat of Divine Communion

To understand the revealed name of God, I Am, is to understand the infinite power of God. It is to understand that God’s plan can never be thwarted by any creature, for every creature owes its existence to our God. The divine will is the cause of every existence. So, the revelation of God’s plan means it must come to pass. Where the realisation of the divine plan is delayed, it is delayed by its human component, for the divine component is already in existence and operative from the moment of its revelation to us. When the human component is found willing and ready by abundance of divine grace, the plan of God is speedily realised, for there is nothing else to impede it. Abraham’s willingness and faith in God’s promise formed the pedestal on which the whole of the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, were established according to God’s plan of salvation for all men. When his descendants ran out of steam from the Old Testament, according to divine plan, God established a new and everlasting foundation for the New Testament, which can carry his covenant with all men. The new and everlasting covenant will endure because the human element is purified of sin and well synergised with the divine component. This is according to the divine promise from the moment of the original fall: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring.” Gen 3:15.

The new woman is therefore the foundation or the seat of the new covenant and communion with God. The new communion will endure forever because the causes of sin and sin will be excluded from all the human components entering the communion. The vision of the Prophet Ezekiel of the new Temple and the return of God’s glory is of the woman and her offspring. “The glory of the Lord arrived at the Temple by the east gate. The spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; I saw the glory of the Lord fill the Temple. And I heard someone speaking to me from the Temple while the man stood beside me. The voice said, ‘Son of man, this is the dais of my throne, the step on which I rest my feet. I shall live here among the sons of Israel for ever.’” Every figure used in this prophetic vision has mystical sense. Israel ceases to be the name only for the physical descendants of Abraham, but inclusive of the spiritual descendants; and the Temple becomes mystical and spiritual, made of all who believe and are born of the Spirit. If they are born of the Holy Spirit, then they form a continuous spiritual consciousness or mind with Jesus Christ, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this sense, the Church is both a mystical extension of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her Offspring, Jesus Christ. Our Lord confirmed this when he said that those who hear the word of God and do it are his mother and siblings. Lk 11:27-28.

Because the Blessed Virgin Mary is the first in this New Communion and bore the Son of Man, the New Covenant, she is the mother of us all. She is also our Queen because she surpasses us who were conceived in sin and redeemed through the precious blood of the Lamb. The words of the Psalmist are fulfilled first in her, and then in us. “Mercy and faithfulness have met; justice and peace have embraced. Faithfulness shall spring from the earth and justice look down from heaven.” From her: justice, peace, faithfulness, and mercy flow to us. She is the Mother and Queen of our new and everlasting communion with God. She sits on a more exalted seat than that of Moses, and to her we must look to and emulate. What Jesus said of the scribes and the Pharisees does not apply to her. “Addressing the people and his disciples, Jesus said, “The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not be guided by what they do: since they do not practise what they preach.” We call her Mother, because we are all born of her Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord. We call her Queen because her embrace of the divine will is the measure of our faithful responses to God’s will in our lives. If we call the one who gave us natural and temporal life mother, much more do we owe it to the one who gave us spiritual and everlasting life. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother and Queen, pray for us.

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.