A fresco of the Coronation of Mary appearing on the Dome of Maria Taferl Basilica in Lower Austria, painted by Antonio Berduzzi (1713-1718). Wikimedia Commons, Wolfgang Sauber
Oh, what joy in heaven on that day!
Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven, glorious and triumphant, would appear to be the fitting culmination of a life lived in perfect submission to the will of the Father. According to Church teaching, however, a subsequent chapter of Our Lady’s story was written by a Trinitarian hand in a way that, in her perfect humility, she never would have envisioned.
Father John Hardon, S. J., noted theologian and author, states that it was the Blessed Trinity who crowned Our Lady as Queen upon her Assumption, referring back to the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel said to Mary that her son Jesus “will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Lk 1:32-33). We honor Mary as Queen because she is Mother of the King.
The Coronation of Our Lady is the final Mystery of the Rosary. Along with its immediate predecessor, The Assumption, these last of the Glorious Mysteries are not directly cited in the New Testament; however, the title of Our Lady as Queen is rooted in Sacred Scripture.
Turning to the Old Testament, we see that the role of Queen Mother was one of great distinction, honor, and power in ancient Israel; the mother of the king, not his wife, traditionally reigned as queen.
A prime example of this is found in the relationship between King Solomon, son of David, and his mother Bathsheba.
“Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right. ‘There is one small favor I would ask of you,’ she said. ‘Do not refuse me.’ ‘Ask it, my mother,’ the king said to her, ‘for I will not refuse you’” (1 Kings 2:19-20).
This passage clearly illustrates the lofty position of the Queen Mother: the king stands to meet her, pays her homage, has a throne placed for her at his right hand, and promises to honor her request.
Moving into the concluding book of the New Testament, we read: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars….She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne” (Rev 12:1, 5). Church Tradition identifies the woman crowned with twelve stars, representing the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles, as Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
In the opening of his 1954 encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (To the Queen of Heaven), Venerable Pope Pius XII affirms: “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. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother’s solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.”
In this one paragraph, the Holy Father presents for our meditation several cogent aspects of the topic of today’s reflection on the Feast of the Coronation of Our Lady.
First, he places the title of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven at the very forefront of the Christian experience, our Church’s “earliest ages”.
Then he introduces the reverent acts of petition, praise, and veneration to Our Lady under this title. Spanning good times and bad, the faithful place their hope firmly in Mary. The Holy Father refers to her as Mother of the Divine King, Jesus. By reason of this unique relationship, Mary is the Queen Mother.
Finally, Pope Pius reinforces the teaching that Mary “reigns with a mother’s solicitude over the entire world just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.”
Just as in ancient Israel, our Queen Mother acts as mediator, advocate, counselor, and intercessor – only now in eternity by reason of her Coronation.
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this, our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, o loving, o sweet Virgin Mary!
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Theresa Cavicchio is a wife, mother, and grandmother who writes from her home in Pennsylvania.
