Sunday:       21 ST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Date:         August 22, 1999
Year:         A
The readings: [Is. 22:15, 19-23; Rom. 11:33-6; Mt. 16:13:20]
The message:  THE QUEENSHIP OF MARY.
Prepared by:  CATHOLIC DOORS MINISTRY
Total words:  822

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Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, we are celebrating the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In a way, this Feast is a follow up of last week's Feast of the Assumption. Having been taken up to Heaven, soul and body, the Blessed Virgin Mary was crowned as the Queen of Heaven and earth.

The Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary was formerly recognized in the Holy Catholic Church in 1954 when Pope Pius XII released the "Ad Caeli Reginam."

From the earliest days of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God [Lk. 1:43] had been recognized as the Heavenly Queen. While human beings can appoint a King or a Queen by their choice, the appointment of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is full of grace, was by the grace of God the Father Himself, resulting from Divine choice!

The role of a Queen is foreshadowed in the Old Testament where Solomon said to his Mother Bathsheba who was seated on a throne at his right, "Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you." [1 Kgs. 2:20] Equally, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Heavenly Queen, those who seek physical and spiritual blessings can obtain favour from the all-powerful God according to what He wills to grant. Through these Divine blessings, the Blessed Virgin Mary continues to be blessed throughout every generation. [Lk. 1:48]

By the grace and will of God the Father and by her Divine relationship to Jesus who is the eternal King by Divine nature, the Blessed Virgin Mary enjoys her elevated status as the Queen of grace. Being inseparable to Jesus, through Him, with Him, and subordinate to Him, Mary has been elevated as the Queen of Heaven.

Mary's title as the Queen of Heaven is not restricted to her Divine Motherhood. It also results from her unique creation of the Immaculate Conception as the New Eve, as the Immaculate Heart of Mary who was created holy in nature, soul, spirit and body, being free of all traces of sin. This unique creation of hers entitles her to be called the spiritual mother of mankind.

The uniqueness of the creation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, superior to all human beings and angels, with the exception of the Lord Jesus who is the eternal Word, elevates her above all.

There is no comparison between the creation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the creation of the angels. The angels were created as spiritual beings with a soul and spiritual form to serve the Lord God for all eternity. The Blessed Virgin Mary was created as a human being with a soul, a body and a spiritual form to become the holy Temple that would bear the Son of God.

Nor is there any comparison between the creation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the creation of man. While all human beings enjoy a soul, spirit and body, their threefold creation have been corrupted by sin and are called to experience physical and spiritual death. Only through the Sacrament of Baptism, (Catholic Catechism # 1265) when the soul receives its new creation [Gal. 6:15] of a new heart and spirit [1 Cor. 2:11; NRSV] of the godly seed [1 Jn. 3:9, 5:18] does it become a child of God [Rom 8:16], qualifying to become a heir to the Kingdom of God.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was created immaculate in nature, enjoying an incorruptible soul, spirit and body. What man is called to receive from God as a heir through the Sacrament of Baptism, the Blessed Virgin already enjoyed from her immaculate conception by her holy nature as the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Human beings become children of God, entering Heaven after having been born again in spirit through the Sacrament of Baptism. Their physical body die, they having to wait for the day of the resurrection of the bodies to receive their new incorruptible body. This was not the case with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

While the mortal body [1 Cor. 15:53] that is perishable cannot inherit the imperishable [1 Cor. 15:50], the imperishable entire immaculate being of the Blessed Virgin Mary, soul, spirit and body, was not subject to the death and corruption that awaits every human being. As the Mother of God, having received Divine blessings that far surpasses every created angel and human being, the uniqueness of the Immaculate Heart of Mary could have resulted in no less than her being rightfully crowned as the Queen of Heaven as soon as she entered Heaven after departing from her earthly life.

My brothers and sisters, this is the beauty of the mystery of the Queenship of Mary. As the precious pearl of the Church and the favoured one of God Almighty, her creation as the Immaculate Heart entitles her to be our Heavenly Queen now and forever.

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The readings...

[The readings were taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (C) 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the United States of America.]

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First Reading...

"Thus says the Lord God of hosts: "Go to the steward, to Shebna, who is master of the household, and say to him: "I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post. On that day I will call my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah, and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honour to his ancestral house." [Is. 22:15, 19-23]

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Second Reading...

"O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen." [Rom. 11:33-6]

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Gospel Reading...

"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.' Then Jesus sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah." [Mt. 16:13-20]

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