Well, let me tell you a story. I am completely stealing
expanding on this analogy from St. Louis de Montfort (I can’t help it, his comparisons are just way better than anything
I can come up with!) but here goes.
Imagine for a moment a city from the past, ruled by a wise and majestic king. Now in the city there are many beggars, formerly respectable citizens who squandered everything they had and now live miserably in the streets. The king often gives them funds and bread, out of his great kindness, but they, after momentary to gratefulness, waste the gifts, fall back into their squalid ways, and then grumble about how the King should improve living conditions. Now, one hobo, feeling ashamed of his ungratefulness, decides he wants to give the King a gift. The problem is, he doesn’t have much, and what he does have is pretty gross: his clothes are dirty and ragged, his blanket the same, and he has no money. The only thing that might be acceptable is the ration of food given to him by the King’s charity service.Now to give the King back this small loaf of bread in its present form would be more insulting than reparatory, and the beggar knows that. So he goes to the palace, but instead of requesting an audience with the King, he begs to see the queen, and offers her the loaf, saying, “This is for the King. It isn’t much, but perhaps if it is from you, he will accept it.”The queen, feeling sorry for the poor cowering beggar, and admiring his intention, takes his request seriously. So she slips into the royal kitchen, slices the loaf into delicate slices, covers them with butter, surrounds them with fruit and flowers, and arranges the glorified bread on a silver platter. Then she carries it to the throne room, presents it with a little bow and a smile, and places it by his side. He smiles back and takes a slice, greatly pleased. For how could he refuse such a gracious gift?
Queen of Heaven
Mary is the queen of Heaven. Sometimes we take that title
for granted. We don’t stop to think what it implies. First, that God put her in charge of the entire universe.
She co-redeems us with her Son. She’s the Trinity’s secretary of prayers and
blessings for everyone in the whole world. She is the intercessor for the
condemned, the gentle hand on the Hand of God, the heart of heaven. Almost any
way a queen would act, would be how Mary acts on our behalf.
So how can we even begin to approach her? She is the crown
of His creation, the New Paradise, the epitome of all virtue. She is in the
most literal sense a perfect human being, and has terrible (in the sense of
just how great it is) power before the throne of God.
Well, think for a moment about an earthly queen, who has
children. She loves them just like any other mother, with tenderness. She plays
with them and giggles at their infantile jokes and cuddles them, and doesn’t
get offended if they mess her hair, or in childish ignorance say things that no
other subject would dare say, but gently corrects them. However, when she is in
full regalia, on the throne, in court, they can see her in her other office.
She is powerful, and they must respect that. They may ever be in awe at her
majesty, and stand solemnly at her side, addressing her with the formal title
everyone else must use. But this doesn’t change the fact that she is really and
truly their mother.
One more fact that often gets passed over or misunderstood:
by giving honor to Mary, we are not just currying her favor to get stuff from
God, but indeed honoring Him through her. This makes sense for three reasons:
1.
Mary is, to quote the Scriptures, “the Crown of
All Creation,” the new Eve and the new paradise. In other words, she is, above
all the beautiful mountains and rivers and forests on the earth, above all
human beings, above the awe-inspiring stars and supernovas, and even above the
angels, His best creation. In her every virtue reached perfection, as did the
simple beauty of bodily form. Or as good old St. Louis put it, God created her
to be the aqueduct of all His grace. When you stop to think about it, this is
really a magnificent analogy: the aqueducts of Roman times were amazing
structures, graceful in form and well-designed for their purpose So by honoring
her, we are essentially saying, “What an awesome job you did there, God.”
2.
Since Mary is possessed of all virtues in their
perfection, she has perfect humility. Yeah, sure, we might say, that’s great
and all, but why does that explicitly honor God? Because, as much power as God
invested Mary with, she would never dream
of taking one smidgeon of glory to herself. She’s like a better version of
Galadriel from the Lord of the Rings: she is handed the Ring of Power, but
chooses to “diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.” Or something
like that. Obviously Mary was free from all temptation, so it’s not quite
kosher, but you get the idea. We give honor to Mary, it passes straight through
her, she magnifies it, like the opposite of what happens when sunshine passes
through a magnifying glass, and God receives it in better shape than when we
sent it.
3.
If you really want to please someone, don’t
insult his mother, compliment her. Same goes with God.
That’s why we pray to Mary. She is God’s Mother, yes. But
she is also Our Mother, the Queen of the Universe, Treasurer of Grace and the
summit of nature. Instead of wondering
why we pray to her, you would think people would be wondering why they don’t!
There are many more wonderful conceptions and truths about
the Blessed Virgin Mary, some of them so rich in meaning that the saints have
written entire books on the subject. But in the interest of your brain’s
information-processing center, my fingers, and your attention span, we’ll save
those for a later post.
God Bless and may the Queen of Heaven smile on you today!
All you have to do is ask.
~Samantha
Excellent!
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