Is There a Queen in the Kingdom?

Queen of Heaven

     On August 22nd, we will celebrate the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast established by Pope Pius the XII in 1954. However, Christians around the world have been celebrating this feast for centuries. And Christians everywhere have been praying for the coming of the Kingdom since Jesus taught us the Lord’s prayer.

     So, is there a Queen in the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it possible that we have 

a King without a Queen? Is there a place next to the King that is now vacant, waiting for someone to be chosen? Every year, there is a pageant where young women vie for the title of Miss Universe. Is the same true of Heaven? Are we waiting for someone to be selected? Or was the Queenship of Mary ‘destined by God by eternal decree’, as the famous hymn puts it?

     Catholics around the world have honored the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven for centuries. All of Mary’s titles, of course, derive from her unique relationship to Jesus, her Son. So, when we refer to Jesus as the Divine Mercy of God, we refer to Mary as the Mother of Mercy. When we refer to Jesus as the Savior of the world, we acknowledge Mary as the Mother of the Savior. When we refer to Jesus as the Redeemer, we acknowledge Mary as the Mother of the Redeemer. And so on. So, is it appropriate to refer to Mary as the Queen of Heaven simply because her Son is the King?

     Does this title detract from the unique role of Jesus as the one mediator between God and man? Or do Mary’s titles help us to understand more fully what Jesus has done for all mankind and allows us to peek into the mystery of how God was able to accomplish the mission of salvation by uniting Himself to all of humanity by an indissoluble bond by being born of a woman.

     Two episodes from the Old Testament can help us to understand Mary as the Queen of Heaven and her unique role in salvation history. In the Book of Esther, we find Queen Esther interceding for her people to save them from complete annihilation. Certainly, we can see the human race under the same threat of annihilation after the sin of Adam and Eve. But remember, Esther is a replacement queen. Esther replaced Vashti who had embarrassed the King by refusing to do his will, by refusing to appear at a banquet. By her disobedience, Vashti embarrassed not only the king, but also ‘his officials and everyone in the empire.’ Can we not see here an echo of the original sin of Eve, after she disobeyed the Father’s will and how her sin introduced disorder into the whole universe?

     Haman, the instigator of the evil plot to exterminate the Jews, hates the Jews with the same level of intensity with which Satan hates all of humanity. But Haman’s plot to exterminate the Jews is undone by the beautiful and courageous Esther who, after fasting for three days, begs the king to ‘let my people live.’

     Esther prefigures Mary who intercedes for her people before God. As Mordecai says, “Yet who knows– maybe it was for a time like this that you were made queen!”

     After Haman’s evil plot was exposed, the Jews were allowed to fight back and defend themselves and they won a great victory over their enemies, a triumph still celebrated today during the Feast of Purim. Some Jews consider this one of their greatest feasts, almost on a par with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. It is certainly their most joyous celebration, with costumes and feasting and sharing with the poor. Can we not see how the King reverses the call for extermination of the Jews, but it is because of his great love for his queen that he grants her request?

     The second Old Testament reference involves the great King Solomon who inherited the kingdom from his father David. Which of Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines reigned as queen during his reign? None of them. He had many wives and concubines but only one mother: Bathsheba. When Bathsheba, his mother enters the room to beg a favor, the king rises to greet her. This sign of respect by the king for his mother reminds us that Bathsheba is the Gebirah, the Queen Mother, or the ‘great woman’ as some translations have it.

     As Scripture scholar Scott Hahn writes: “Consider the following scene from early in Solomon’s reign: “So Bathsheba went to Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right” (1 Kgs 2:19).

     We see that the queen mother was approaching her son in order to speak on behalf of another person. This confirms what we know about queen mothers in other Near Eastern cultures. We see in the epic of Gilgamesh, for example, that the queen mother in Mesopotamia was considered an intercessor, or advocate, for the people.

     Next, we notice that Solomon rose from his throne when his mother entered the room. This makes the queen mother unique among the royal subjects. Anyone else would, rise in Solomon’s presence; even the king’s wives were required to bow before him (1 Kgs 1:16). Yet Solomon rose to honor Bathsheba. Moreover, he showed further respect by bowing before her and by seating her in the place of greatest honor, at his right hand.

     His power and authority are in no way threatened by her. He bows to her, but he remains the monarch. She sits at his right hand, not vice versa. Yet clearly, he will honor her requests—not out of any legally binding obligation of obedience, but rather out of filial love...

     Remember when the mother of James and John asked Jesus to sit her son’s in places of honor in His Kingdom, one at the right and the other at his left. And Jesus asks them, “Can you drink of the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?... These places belong to those for whom my Father has prepared them.” (Mt: 20-23) Jesus implies that the places of honor in the Kingdom are reserved for those who will suffer as He will. And those places have already been reserved by the Father. So, who will ever suffer as much as His mother did in witnessing His passion and death? Most parents will relate that it is much more difficult to witness the suffering of their child than to suffer themselves. The passion and death of Jesus was the culmination of a life of suffering and Mary was in attendance at His most difficult moments. She swaddled Jesus at His birth when there was no room in the inn. Mary nursed Him at her breast as she fled with Jesus to Egypt. She witnessed the constant rejection as Jesus travelled tirelessly preaching and healing. And she was with Him during the final humiliation and agony of the cross. Then, imagine her pain as she cleansed and anointed His dead body and helped to lay it in the tomb. After that, she kept vigil, hoping against hope, as she awaited the resurrection of her Son. Yes, there is a Queen in Heaven and Mary reigns in joy at her Son’s right hand because she suffered with Him here on earth.