Queenship of Mary: Our Hope and Our Kingdom

            This last Friday, August 22^nd, we celebrated the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. Our Lady, according to the teaching of the Church, was assumed – that is, brought up, body and soul – into heaven and then crowned Queen of Heaven. On the fringes of the Church, there are those who question why the Church would declare such dogmas, especially when they seem to push farther away those who cannot yet accept these points of faith. Or rather, they may ask why these doctrines are necessary for the Christian life. Mary, though, is essential to the plan of salvation and essential to the Kingdom of God by the will of God himself. Her queenship and motherhood is vital to our Christian hearts and our lives, whether we realize it or not.

            Ultimately, Mary herself is the work of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. From the first moment of her immaculate conception – no, from the foundations of the world, by God’s own ordained plans (Genesis 3:15) – throughout her pure and perfectly obedient life as a virgin, to her holy death, assumption to heaven and coronation, God had wrought this miracle, called the Blessed Virgin Mary, by his grace. To deny this miraculous work of God would be the same as to deny the creation of the world, the covenant made with Abraham, the commandments given to Moses, the people of Israel or the Ark of the Covenant. We cannot deny the work of God, or else we call him a liar.

            The Church recognizes in Our Lady the work of God himself and the cooperation of God-created freewill, existing not only for herself, but also for all of humankind. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she sung at the blessing of the St. Elizabeth, both inspired by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:46). In her hymn, we hear what God desired for her and for all – a love that gives all and does all for the love of God, who has given himself completely to us without partiality, condition or reservation. She took nothing for herself, but gave way to the vision of God. Like her, we are all called to such a humility in truth, so as to be icons of God, images of God, so as to be able to say with her and St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. (Gal. 2:19,20)” St. John the Baptist’s own words apply equally well: “He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 1:22)”

            In the Assumption of Mary, we have hope in the Resurrection of Christ being applied to us at the end of time. In Our Lady, we have been given extra evidence of the graces of God to be applied not to the Son of God only, but to all who believe. In the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, we have hope in our glorification. Thus, St. Paul wrote, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God, […] and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom. 8:14-17 NRSVCE)” We are heirs of the Kingdom and will receive glory, if we endure with Christ like Mary did.

            Paragraph 966 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting Lumen Gentium, tells us that:

‘No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.’

In this statement, the Church specifically is writing about Mary’s role within the life of grace, but the truth of the statement can be applied to all other Christians as well. It is clear from the Scriptures that God shares his glory, his honor and his authority with men and women on earth. Rather, it is clear from the order of nature that God shares a shimmer of his glory with the kings and queens of the earth. How much more do we believe that he will share with those heirs of his own kingdom, in the order of grace?

            The Queenship of Mary is a facet of our Catholic faith that is a great joy to the faithful, because in her we find a superabundance of the glory and honor that God desires to share with us. She was the humblest of women, and the most blessed. In her was the hope of the Messiah, her “Fiat” (Let it be done) bringing that hope to fulfillment. And, yet, she lived a simple life of love for her family and friends. She contemplated the word of the Lord continually. She sought the Lord in all ways, even to the foot of the Cross itself. After the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, she remained to continue the Lord’s simple call to love. In return for her completely perfect, faithful stewardship, God rewarded her with the position of the right hand of the Son that Sts. James and John so eagerly sought out of pride and vanity. (Matt. 20:21)

            In another passage of Scripture, Jesus tells his disciples that they, too, will have thrones from which they judge all twelve tribes of Israel. (Matt. 19:28) In Revelation 3:9, Jesus tells those in the church at Philadelphia that their enemies will bow down to them and learn that they are loved. Later, he says to the church in Laodicea, “To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Rev. 3:21 NRSVCE)”

 If this is a sharing of the power, authority, glory and honor of God, how much more do we believe for Mary, whom St. Elizabeth proclaimed as the “Mother of my Lord”? (Luke 1:43) For, she is the “Queen Mother,” just as the Davidic Kingdom calls for. King Solomon himself bowed to his own mother and had a thrown set up for her beside his own. (1 Kings 2) Jesus, as the Son of David, King of Israel forever, has set up a throne for his own mother. Now, she is our own Queen Mother, because Jesus is our King. Let us give her the honor and glory that God has already himself bestowed on her. As St. Maximilian Kolbe once said, “No one can love Mary more than Jesus has.” So, let us not be afraid to love and honor our living Queen, who is the work of God, a clear reflective glass and image of God himself, Our Lord.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

Queen of Angels, pray for us.

Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us.

Queen of Prophets, pray for us.

Queen of Apostles, pray for us.

Queen of Martyrs, pray for us.

Queen of Confessors, pray for us.

Queen of Virgins, pray for us.

Queen of all Saints, pray for us.

Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us.

Queen assumed into heaven, pray for us.

Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us.

Queen of families, pray for us.

Queen of peace, pray for us.

Amen. +

            -- Taken from the Litany of Loreto

Martyrs: Faith in the Living One

            The world seems to be in flames right now, as I write this. War and disease are ravaging many parts of the world. Especially in mind, though, are those Christians who are being killed by the sword in Syria and Iraq. They are victims of violence and hatred, and, yet, they are witnesses to hope, to love, to grace and to life. There is one who once died and who rose again from the dead – the one Jesus Christ. That One who conquered death, the “Living One,” is he who holds “the keys of Death and Hades,” and who tells us, “Do not be afraid. (Rev. 1:17-18 NRSVCE)”

            All human life is precious, infinitely and immeasurably valuable. God shows no partiality in whom he deems valuable. “’Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ says the Lord, ‘but rather that they should turn from their ways and live?’ (Ezek. 18:23)” God takes no pleasure in death, not of any sinner, nor of the saint. Not even of the death of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father was pleasurable. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not a god of insatiable desire for blood. He is a God of insatiable desire for love: “[…] live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph. 5:2 NRSVCE)”

            Martyrs are witnesses, as the Greek word means (μάρτυς). They are witnesses in the highest regard to the truth of reality itself, that all things have their being and their end in Christ; he is the all in all, the alpha and the omega. Pope St. John Paul II once wrote the following about martyrs in his encyclical, Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason):

The martyrs know that they have found the truth about life in the encounter with Jesus Christ, and nothing and no-one could ever take this certainty from them. Neither suffering nor violent death could ever lead them to abandon the truth which they have discovered in the encounter with Christ. […] This is why their word inspires such confidence: from the moment they speak to us of what we perceive deep down as the truth we have sought for so long, the martyrs provide evidence of a love that has no need of lengthy arguments in order to convince.  (32)

Here, St. John Paul II pinpointed the active motive of martyrs in Christ, that they die out of love for God, having faith in the “Living One” who has given his life, so that they might live. “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” Christ said. (John 11:25) Those who have had faith and give their lives in witness to the truth, are giving witness to their encounter with Christ, who is Truth and Love itself. The Church has had many witnesses who have shed their blood out of love. This act of faith is the sweet aroma, the “fragrant offering” to God; that is, their love of God above all else, including life itself.

            Among some holy examples of martyrdom are Sts. Peter, Lawrence and Maximilian Kolbe. In their day, and even now, they are witnesses to the encounter with a loving God. By their light, we see and know that truth calling to our inmost being.

            St. Peter, prime apostle and friend of our Lord, was told by Christ himself that one day he, too, would die as Christ did. At Christ’s last appearance in St. John’s Gospel, we read that Christ directly asked Peter, “Do you love me?” to which Peter replied, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. (John 21:15)” Jesus asked Peter this three times. Upon receiving the same answer three times, Jesus then told Peter, “’Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go. […] Follow me.’ (John 21:18,19 NRSVCE)” St. John tells us that by saying this, Jesus signified how St. Peter would die. Later, after many years of feeding the sheep of Christ’s church, he died at the hands of the Romans, by being crucified up-side-down. It is believed he requested the inverted crucifixion, because he did not believe himself worthy to die exactly as our Lord died, by crucifixion right side up.

            St. Lawrence was a deacon in the mid-third century, under Pope Sixtus II. Pope Sixtus II was martyred first, along with six other deacons of the Church in Rome. It is reported that the prefect of the Emperor demanded St. Lawrence bring remaining riches of gold or silver used during the Mass to him for Caesar. Yet, when St. Lawrence appeared before the prefect, he presented the maimed, lame, poor and ill and said, “These are the riches of the Church.” He was then martyred by way of being roasted to death upon a gridiron. While roasting, he allegedly said, “I’m well done. Turn me over.” The Church has highly honored him as a great witness to the Gospel of Christ, having died with the joy of Christ in his heart and in his deeds.

            St. Maximilian Kolbe is a modern-day martyr, having died at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz. He was declared, by Pope Paul VI, as a confessor of the faith and “martyr of charity.” Pope St. John Paul II declared and canonized him clearly a martyr of the faith at the hands of those seeking the destruction of all faith. In the first half of the twentieth century, Maximilian Kolbe gave his life to Christ as a priest, and fought diligently against the fierce forces of Nazism and other godless philosophies in the world.

After the Nazis invaded Poland, Maximilian Kolbe resisted all efforts of the Nazi persecution and kept spreading the faith of the Church with zeal. He was arrested and brought to Auschwitz in 1941. There, one day, a Nazi commander demanded the life of ten random inmates in vengeance for an attempted escape. One man, who was selected from among Kolbe’s peers, immediately upon being chosen cried out, “My wife and my children!” At that moment, Kolbe stepped out of line, in faith, though risking immediate execution. He walked up to the commander and requested to take the man’s place in death. The commander was stunned silent, but ultimately agreed. Kolbe then spent the next two weeks in a starvation bunker, all the while leading the other prisoners in prayer and hymns, until he was the last remaining. The guards eventually grew impatient and killed him by injection of carbolic acid, which he readily accepted. All of this was recorded by a Nazi translator and guard at the bunker. Kolbe died out of love for his neighbor, for Christ, the Church and the Blessed Virgin.

Right now, the Christians and other whole groups of people in Iraq and Syria are being murdered and martyred in the name of religion. The failure on the murderers’ parts is that they do not realize whom they are persecuting. “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” Jesus said to St. Paul before his conversion. They are persecuting the Living One, who has gained victory over all, and now shares that victory with us who believe. Those who have died in faith have gone on to be with the Resurrection and the Life. They have gone on to be glorified because of their love. For us who remain, let us do all we can, especially to pray, for those who continue to be persecuted, for their strength and the grace that they may endure. We must not be afraid, just as Christ taught us. Let us, too, pray for the persecutors, for their conversion of heart from these horrific atrocities they commit. Nothing else will change them except the encounter with the God of Love.

Sts. Peter, Lawrence and Maximilian Kolbe all gave us pure lights of faith, hope and love. Let us remember them as we seek the grace of God, and ask for their intercession on behalf of all those unjustly killed. Let us, too, be reminded that the call of Christ to follow him is no mere story to make us feel good or even to teach the morality of love; the call of Christ is to die for sake of love, in every real sense and every real sacrifice – to hand over to him our entire beings.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

-- 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 NRSVCE

St. Peter, pray for us.

St. Lawrence, pray for us.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

All you Martyrs in Christ, pray for us.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.

Amen. +

Sacrifices of the Will: Obedience

        Obedience is not usually a word readily accepted or swallowed in modern society. We want most things to be for our benefit, for our comfort and for our convenience. We want things “our way.” Obedience is often laid aside in efforts to achieve dreams or goals that we believe are good, and which may actually be ultimately good. Despite our own desires, though, obedience as a virtue is something to be striven for, because it simply is essential to the bond of perfection, Love. Whatever our state in life -- religious, married, single, homeless, working, etc. -- obedience will allow us to live within the Spirit of Christ, that of self-sacrifice, self-giving. 

        Of course, there is always obligatory obedience, which is directed towards our superiors or those in power over us, whether it be, first, God, then parents, employers, bishops or emperors. This obligatory obedience is the bare minimum of our Christian life, as 1 John 2:4 reads, “Whoever says, “I have come to know [God],” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist. (NRSVCE)” As for the obligation to mere earthly rulers, St. Peter wrote, "For the Lord's sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. (1 Pet. 2:13-14 NRSVCE)" 

        This call to obedience is even facing the reality of evil or of sinful, faulty rulers. We read of Jesus specifically telling his disciples this: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. (Matt. 23:2-3 NRSVCE)" God has simply put some leaders, teachers and rulers over us, and we have a duty, not to them, but to God, who is in control of all things, and works all things together for our good.

         There exist some very saintly examples of obedience to earthly authority, despite having other plans in mind for even God’s privately revealed will. The first and foremost is Jesus himself. Was it not he who said, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” towards his parents in search of him? And, yet, the very next few verses tell us that he left with his parents and “was obedient to them. (Luke 2:49-51)”

More recently, Blessed Mother Teresa waited years and years from her superiors in the convent to go and serve the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, though she heard clearly God’s call to do so. St. Maria Faustina was reminded that her obedience to her confessor pleased Jesus much more than if she obeyed his voice, from private revelations, and so first sought approval through that confessor. She always conformed herself to obedience of the Church first, as have all saints, since God has set up that authority on earth for our salvation. Jesus himself was obedient unto death; why, then, would we believe we should follow him in any other way?

        Voluntary obedience, on the other hand, is a means of exercising and practicing that virtue to obtain it within a shorter period of time, as well as to strengthen that virtue within us. St. Francis de Sales wrote that “we call that obedience voluntary to which we oblige ourselves by our own choice, and which is not imposed on us by another. (Introduction to a Devout Life, “On Obedience”)” If we want to offer up to God small sacrifices of our will, we should constantly exercise voluntary obedience, whether others are aware of it or not. In fact, it would be better if others did not know about our voluntary obedience. For then God will repay us in secret much more.

         St. Francis de Sales gave us a wonderful description of voluntary obedience:

That you may learn effectually to obey your superiors, condescend easily to the will of your equals, yielding to their opinions in what is not sin, without being contentious or obstinate. Accommodate yourself cheerfully to the desires of your inferiors, as far as reason will permit; never exercise an imperious authority over them so long as they are good. It is an illusion to believe that we should obey with ease if we were religious, when we feel ourselves so backward and stubborn in what regards obedience to those whom God has placed over us. (ibid.)

Quite simply, obedience to others who are not directly in authority over us is an act of love that will also help us to grow in the Spirit of God. If, for example, it is a spouse who requests something of us, no matter how inconvenient or annoying, we should obey as if it were Christ himself asking us. I am certain that by constantly submitting to one another, love will grow fervently, and all selfish ambition will halt. There will be no bitterness, because all will be for Love, for God. We can practice the same, though, for a friend, an enemy, a colleague, an irritating neighbor, or the unknown person in line at the market.

Of course, obedience should always submit first to the obedience of the Gospel and, therefore, to the teachings of the Church, who has been granted authority by Christ himself to rule over us for our salvation and spiritual health. Voluntary obedience can be practiced, though, towards those such as parents, who exist already as an obligatory authority, by going beyond the necessary; that is, to obey in every little thing. Especially, we should always regard the directives of our confessor as God’s will, no matter if we agree or disagree with the penance given or the advice. Listen, as if it were God’s own pleasant directive, speaking through that confessor.

Certainly, do not think that voluntary obedience is a saying “Yes” to everyone who has a request of us. We must always obey the greater authority, and meet our vocations in life granted by God. For one act of simple, voluntary obedience might cause disobedience in another area of our lives. This is not to make one constantly worry, but simply a reminder to be prayerful about all that we undertake. “Undertake nothing without consulting God,” as St. Ignatius of Loyola once said. Let us pray, then, for the increase of the virtue of obedience in the Spirit of Christ, to grow in the Way that he first walked, that we, too, might walk in newness of life.

“An ordinary action performed through obedience and love of God is more meritorious than extraordinary works done on your own authority.”

--St. Louis de Blois

“And Samuel said, ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.’”

-- 1 Samuel 15:22 NRSVCE