The fifth Glorious Mystery celebrates Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. We may wonder why this is so, since in contemporary kingdoms a queen is the consort of the king. However, in ancient Israel the queen was not the consort of the king, but rather his mother! The Hebrew word was Gebirah, “Queen Mother” or “Great Lady”. The queen mother played an important role in establishing her son on the throne, such as Bathsheba did for Solomon. However, Mary did not seek the throne for Jesus. She serves Jesus and points to Jesus as the true king.
The Gebirah also influenced the kingdom because of her status as queen mother. In Israel, the queen mother would sometimes rule in the place of her son. Our Queen Mother, Mary, never rules in place of Jesus, but he does follow her wishes, as he did at the wedding feast at Cana, when Mary commanded the servants to, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn. 2:5) The queen mother also interceded on behalf of the subjects of the kingdom. She was their advocate. Mary, THE Queen Mother, is our advocate as well, interceding on our behalf. We pray in the Hail Mary: “Pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.”
Mary is acknowledged as Queen of Heaven and Earth because of her role as Mother of God. She was the first disciple of Jesus. She leads us to him. Jesus honors her as his mother and gave her to us to be our mother: “Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’” (Jn. 19:27) Just as John took Mary into his home, we need to take Mary into our homes, so she may bring us to her son, the King. Mary, our Queen, pray for us.
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