COMMENTARY: Mary is not merely a model to imitate, but a Queen to rely on as she leads us closer to her Son.
Catholics are often reminded that Mary is a model for the disciple to imitate. She is the one who gave her entire life to God and served Jesus.
But while it is true that we are made to know, love and serve the Lord, we can never simply imitate Mary. Mary was born free from the stain of original sin. You and I can’t say the same. We bear the effects of original sin. Concupiscence pulls at our thoughts and actions. We are tempted and may choose to give in to temptation.
What we need is not merely to imitate Mary by our own strength, but to rely constantly on her as our Queen.
On Aug. 22, the Church celebrates the feast of the Queenship of Mary. This feast was established by Pope Pius XII (originally on May 31) in 1954. He began his encyclical, Ad Caeli Reginam, with the following words:
From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven.
Mary is our Queen because of her relationship with Christ. Her posture is one of perpetual intercession for her children. Her queenship flows from her role in salvation history.
Some might feel as if the devotion to the simple and humble Mary of Nazareth is not aligned with the veneration of her as Queen. Popular images of queens can seem more concerned about royal dress than about holiness. Some queens were even corrupt or detached from the rule of their countries. However, there is a role for the Queen of Heaven, even today. Great queens communicate care, presence and power — especially when life is challenging.
Queen Elizabeth II reigned through decades of hardship and upheaval for herself and her country. She once said, “When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat. Instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.”
The “struggle” of the Christian life is never meant to be undertaken alone. In his infinite wisdom, our heavenly Father provides us with a Mother and Queen who never leaves us by ourselves. She is always interceding for us: to flee from sin, to rely on her Son, and to be sanctified by the same Holy Spirit who overshadowed her at the Annunciation.
Life can be difficult for those who are moving away from sin and toward holiness. When we fall — as Mary never did — we must not strive simply to imitate her through our own meager wills. We must call out to her — cry to her with shouts for aid. From her heavenly throne she can gently usher us toward the glory of her Son.
It is particularly in the tough moments of loss and the experience of our own brokenness that we must rely on the Queen of Heaven as well. For she is Our Lady of Sorrows; she experienced an immeasurable depth of pain. Her freedom from the reign of sin, her proximity to the Lord and her knowledge of his identity meant that Mary had the purest love possible for Jesus. The best queens know how to rule and guide because their hearts are governed by love.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Queen Elizabeth said, “Grief is the price we pay for love.” The loss felt on that tragic day in American history was the result of the abundance of love that people had for their spouses, children, parents and friends. In the aftermath, there was a large surge in weekly worship attendance. To be sorrowful meant that we needed each other. When the collective body of a community is suffering, we know that we must turn to God.
On a much larger and more spiritual scale, Mary’s queenship is one of tenderness and consolation for the sorrowful. In all moments of pain, we must run to our Mother — not because we can be equal to her, but because she is our Queen.
Pope Pius XII summarized the Queenship of Mary with these beautiful words:
Let all, therefore, try to approach with greater trust the throne of grace and mercy of our Queen and Mother, and beg for strength in adversity, light in darkness, consolation in sorrow; above all let them strive to free themselves from the slavery of sin and offer an unceasing homage, filled with filial loyalty, to their Queenly Mother.
The goal is reliance on the Mother of Heaven to bring us closer to her Son. That is her role. Our relationship with her is not simply one of imitation, but one of reliance. For she can help us obtain what we lack: a pure heart and a resilient will to cling to the King of Kings, in and through all things.