Earthly Kings and the Heavenly Queen

Queenship of Mary (22 Aug)

In the first reading for today's Mass (Wed after XX Sun in Ord: Jgs 9:6-15; Ps 21; Mt 20:1-16) chose Abimelech to be their king. That was a great idea, they thought. But there was a problem - wasn't the LORD supposed to be their King? Jotham, a judge and prophet of Israel, went up into their country and spoke to them a parable of sorts on behalf of the LORD. He pled with them not to take a King aside from the LORD. He seems to have known our modern addage but with a different spin. We say, "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach," and thus ignore much wisdom. He said to them, "Those who have something useful to do, do; those who don't, rule." A bit later in her history, as the clamour rose up across Israel for a King over all of Israel, the LORD consented to give them one, but saw it as a punishment and tragedy, much as a parent might view his child's choice to drop out of high school. Human rulers lord their rule over their subjects. Our Lord noted as much hundreds of years later, though by then Jews living under Roman oppression needed no such advertisement. But yet, the tendency is not just in Romans, but in all of us. As Christians, we must fight tooth and nail to keep it from being so among us (Mt 20:25).

We Christians have a King in Heaven, and He has chosen for us a Queen. "You are the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel; you are the fairest honor of our race," (Jdt 15:9). Those words were spoken by Israel to the widow Judith, but have ever been applied by the Church to another Widow of Israel, to her own Virgin Queen. The mighty lord Abimelech may have ruled a little patch of Gaza, but the meek peasant Mary has inherited the Earth. The Kingdom inherited by the Virgin of Nazareth is not the sort of Kingdom for which the strongmen of the world fight. Today's reading of a parable from the Gospel of Matthew tells us what it is like. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like," someone who owns a field and brings men into it to work, and is fair and just to all of them, and to some pours out an abundance of mercy and grace - especially to those meek who know how little they have that they can contribute to it. To those who think they can earn a share of the Kingdom, even to those who have worked long and hard to do so, strongmen who have bowed their heads to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, to such men there is a rebuke and a question,

"Are you envious because I am generous?"

(Mt 20:15). Our Lord and Our Lady do not rule such a Kingdom. Their pecking order isn't tallest first, strongest first, smartest first, richest first - Lord Jesus and Lady Mary aren't like us and don't give two figs for such things. They pour out abundance grace and blessings upon the little, the weak, the dull, the poor of the Earth, and among those especially the ones who know it and are happy just to be loved by God.

We ought to be careful of powerful people who want to govern us. Better to trust those who care about and are generous with even people who have little or nothing to contribute. If we would enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we must become like little, weak, dull, poor children (Mt 18:3); if we become meek, we will inherit the Earth (Mt 5:5).

Oh Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, pray we become meek and faithful servants of your Son, so that He may at last bring us to share the glory He has shared with you, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.