Mother and Queen

The Queenship of Mary (August 22)

When my son was very little, he asked my wife to turn her head so he could inspect the back of it. He was convinced she had an extra set of eyes back there somewhere.

I sympathize. It was the same with my own mom; she always seemed to know what was going on with me. Even after I grew up and would call home, just one “Hello” out of my mouth and she would say, “OK, Richard, what’s wrong?”

Who knows a boy better than his mother?

I’m a father myself, and I can sense some things in my children, but nothing like their mother. Call it women’s intuition, call it what you will, I think there’s a certain grace poured upon a mother that binds her to her child like no other. Maybe it’s because a mother’s womb is our exclusive home for the first 9 months of our lives; Mom is all we know and all we can know. Everything we need for life comes through her and depends on her.

Consider that in the context of Christ and his mother. Who has ever known Christ better than she, and who would love her more than he?

Ask yourself: How would he, who wrote the commandments, including, “Honor your father and mother,” honor his mother? She who was his exclusive home for the first 9 months of life, who cradled him in her arms, fed him, dressed him, taught him to walk, helped him learn the Scriptures he gave the world, sang to him, shared a home with him for 30 years, and ultimately laid him in the tomb – all the while pondering these mysteries in her heart and loving him as only a mother can.

The answer can only be that he would honor her perfectly.

As the First Book of Kings shows, the king’s mother was queen; the only person for whom he would stand when she entered the room. In Heaven, the King of kings would do no less, and giving her to us from the Cross asks that we do no less.

Mary, our Mother and Queen, pray for us.

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