7TH DISTINCTION

7th Distinction : Her Coronation

 

Mary enters Heaven and is Crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth

Twelve stars formed a crown and was seen by Saint John on the head of a woman in heaven, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet (Rev 12:1).

 

God Exalts the Humble

One of the traits of a loving God is His generosity in sharing His glory and authority with His creatures.  Look how He worked through Moses, a man imperfect in speech and whose faith faltered a bit when he struck the rock twice.  Yet God made Moses His agent on earth, upholding the great authority of Moses.

Look how God worked through the prophets; humans with their own human limitations as well.  Finally, look how our Lord worked through the Apostles, sharing with them awesome divine prerogatives, such as the forgiving of sins!  And our Lord tells them that at the Judgment, the Apostles will sit on "twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28)."

God loves His faithful children and shares with them His glory and authority.  Would He do less with the Mother of God the Son?  She who never - not once - faltered in her faith and obedience?

She herself said, "The Lord hath done great things for me" and "He hath exalted the humble." (Luke 1:46-55)

She who had heaven inside her (the child Jesus) is now in heaven as Queen.  Her dignity as the Bearer of God entitles her to this.  It was she who assisted God in His plan to bring Christ into the world; she now assists Christ in His plan to save the world till the end of time.

As Queen, she has her own prerogatives.  She has direct access to her Son, and her wishes are commands to Him, for she can want nothing that her Son also does not want.

Higher than the Seraphim

Of all creatures, none can claim to have been the Mother of the Son nor the Spouse of the Holy Ghost.  The Seraphim, the highest order of angels, pale in comparison to Mary, who housed within her own body God Almighty, and brought Him into the world through the power of the Holy Ghost who overshadowed her.

Now, all creation - the angels and the saints - bow before her, because, while she was on earth, she bowed before all.  In her humility, she obeyed an Angel - Gabriel.  In her charity, she went to assist her pregnant cousin Elizabeth.  Now, all the angels and saints bow to her queenship.

Even nature bows before her, as she is wrapped in the light of the sun and stands on top of the humble moon.  Twelve stars crown her; twelve representing the Church (the Old Israel of twelve tribes; the New Israel of twelve Apostles).  She is Queen of the Church.

If God is to be adored and obeyed, let His Vessel also be highly honored and obeyed.

A Queen with One Mission

In earthly kingdoms, it is often the Queen who attends, in greater part, to the service of the poor and needy.  She is personally attending, in this regard, to one of the King's duties towards His subjects.

It was the Queen who often funded and ran hospitals for the sick and gave material relief to the destitute.  Many times, the Queen sold her own treasures in order to do this.

We have in our own historical example in the Marianas, a Queen who personally funded the Catholic missions, seeking the spiritual welfare of the people.

Our Lady is Queen in the same way.  She has only one project, one concern : the salvation of mankind.

In a sense, Our Lady's one goal is to see us crowned : with the crown of life (Rev 2:10), of glory (1 Peter 5:4), of righteousness (2 Tim 4:8), of rejoicing (1 Thess 2:19) which lasts forever (1 Cor (9:24-25).

God is a God who crowns His righteous ones, and at the highest level, His own Mother, Queen of Heaven and Earth.