August 22, 2018
Wednesday of the 20th Week in the Ordinary Time
Is 9: 2-7,
Gospel Lk 1: 26-38
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today the Church invites us to celebrate the queen-ship of our mother Mary. One may wonder why we should still celebrate these kinds of outdated feasts which have nothing to do with the real life of our mother Mary or the age in which we live. Now we see kings and queens only in historical movies and plays and in some countries where people are still struggling to get rid of their baggage of the past. The system of kings and queens is out of date and not in any way deserves promotion. Even with all its defects and draw backs democracy is far superior to Kingship. Regrettably, some leaders, especially religious, still secretly cherish the airs of kingship. Often their vestments, pose and attitude suit a king more than a chosen leader. If we watch the Bollywood movies, every beggar dreams of being a king or a queen mollycoddled by hundreds of servants and drifting in extreme luxury at the expense of others. Lady Diana before her tragic death said to an interviewer that she prefers to be the queen of hearts than to be the queen of England. That was more sensible than most of the British.
Mary was a poor village girl. There was nothing extraordinary about her except her lowliness. She got married to an ordinary carpenter. She gave birth to a son who led a very controversial life which intimidated and displeased the heads of both the political and the religious domains. When they found him slowly getting out of hand they put him to death by hanging on a cross. By that time Mary was already a widow. Some of the followers of her son took care of her until her death. That is the story of Mary in a nutshell. One could portray her as a woman of sorrows who underwent life long suffering. Another could present her as a brave woman who gave birth to and brought up of a brilliant son and stood behind him till the last moment of his life. Jesus, her son, claimed that, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Lk 9:58). Mary’s life might have been a little better than that due to the support of her hardworking husband.
While all these facts stare at us what is the relevance of celebrating the “queen-ship if Mary”? The relevance depends on the way we understand signs and symbols. There is a story that Diogenes the stoic philosopher called the Greek Emperor Alexander the Great, a slave of his slaves and himself the Master. When Alexander questioned him he responded, “Alexander, you are a slave of greed, anger, fear, pride, lust, envy, etc., while I am a master of all these.” Our mother Mary was indeed a queen of service, obedience, trust, love, compassion and many other virtues. In this sense there is nothing wrong in celebrating the queen-ship of Mary and not otherwise. Based on today’s gospel teaching she can be credited with two things: She “loved the Lord, her God, with all her heart, with all her soul, and with all her mind.” Her second credit is that: “She loved her neighbour as herself.” As Jesus testifies, on these two dispositions “the whole law and the prophets depend”. From these one may decide whether she is a queen or just an ordinary woman! Please do not base it on crowns, jewels and glittering vestments as we are often tempted to!
Dr Kurian Perumpallikunnel CMI
