When Pope Pius XII established this feast (a year after I was born), he told us that she who was the most blessed of all women was also more worthy of the title Queen than any other creature. We celebrate Mary’s queenship just eight days after her Assumption because, in the words of the fathers of the Second Vatican Council, she “was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory... and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son.”1
But what do we mean when we say that Mary is a queen? That she was wealthy? That she was powerful? No. Mary is Queen in the same way that Jesus is King of the Universe.
It is a royalty “interwoven with humility, service and love. It is above all serving, helping and loving.
Do you remember how Jesus was acclaimed as a King? It was with the inscription which Pilate nailed above his head on the cross, which read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”2 This is the King who suffers with and for us, the king who governs us by laying down his life for us.
And the same is true of Mary our Queen, who is the humble servant of God and the servant of all mankind. She is the Queen of love “who lives the gift of herself to God”3 and who, “by loving us, by helping us in our every need…is our sister, a humble handmaid.”4
1 - Lumen Gentium, n. 59.
2 - cf. Mark 15:26.
3 - Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience (22 August 2012).
4 - Ibid.
