Today we celebrate the Queenship of Mary. This feast was instituted by Pope Pius XII with the Encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam in 1954 to give the faithful hope that reign of Christ may be attained with faith and cooperation in his divine plan. In today's readings for Mass we hear:
Dominion is laid on his shoulders; and this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace. Wide is his dominion in a peace that has no end. (Isaiah 9:6)
Here is my homily from Mass today with the Marist Sisters:
If you have trouble listening click here.
The most royal and regal quality of Our Lady is her humility. Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. At the news from the angel that she would be the Queen Mother of the King of Kings, she replied, "I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to thy Word." Her life was full of opportunities to grow in humility, i.e. humiliations. She had to endure the terrible yet wonderful throne of the King of Heaven, the Cross, where her she saw Jesus crowned not with glory but with contempt. Yet because of this, she was highly exalted with, in, and through him. Jesus shares his holy throne with us too.
Do we see the Cross as the way to entering into his royal kingdom? Do we see the wisdom of the words, "To serve is to reign"? Our Lady helps us with her great maternal love and her royal intercession to allow the difficult opportunities of life, or humiliations, to be converted into authentic humility, the mark of the King.
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