Luke 1:26-38

Isaiah 9:1-6

Psalm 113:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8

Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God

to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,

of the house of David,

and the virgin’s name was Mary.

And coming to her, he said,

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favor with God.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,

has also conceived a son in her old age,

and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God.”

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you called Mary to be the Queen Mother. She has been exalted through her Assumption as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Listen to her as she intercedes with maternal care for us before her Son.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Mary as Queen: Mary is the Queen of Heaven and Earth and our Queen because she is the Mother of our Lord and because she cooperated in Christ’s redemptive work of salvation. “Since she was uniquely associated with Christ’s suffering on the Cross, she was uniquely associated with His triumph and royal reign in the kingdom” (Sri, Queen Mother, 9). Assumed into heaven, Mary entered the royal court of heaven and sat at the right hand of her Son, Christ the King. As our Queen, Mary directs us, protects us, and intercedes for us. Mary is a most excellent queen because of her Immaculate Conception by which she possessed a fullness of innocence and holiness, as well she is a most efficacious queen as she shares in Christ's influence over humanity, distributing graces through her motherly intercession. “With a heart that is truly a mother’s ... does she approach the problem of our salvation, and is solicitous for the whole human race; made Queen of heaven and earth by the Lord, exalted above all choirs of angels and saints, and standing at the right hand of her only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, she intercedes powerfully for us with a mother's prayers, obtains what she seeks and cannot be refused” (Pius XII, Ad caeli reginam, 42). John Paul II developed three aspects of Mary's queenship by which she was more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords, and conqueror of sin and death (Lumen Gentium, 59). First, Mary’s royal office is understood in relation to Christ's self-emptying and royal exaltation. “Christ himself humbly served even to the point of death, and was therefore raised and entered into the glory of His Kingdom, exalted as Lord over all.” Christ’s true disciples reign because they serve: To serve means to reign! Mary, then, is the model disciple. The handmaid of the Lord, “she is the first disciple who served Christ in others and led them to Him. This is the basis of her queenship (Sri, Queen Mother, 18). Second, Mary continues to serve as Queen in heaven. In heaven she does not cease her saving service, which expresses her maternal mediation “until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect” (John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 41). Third, Mary is clothed by the Communion of Saints. Her union with the Son in glory is wholly oriented towards the definitive fullness of the Kingdom, when “God will be all in all” (John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, 41).

2. The Queen Mother in the Old Testament: The Queen Mother had a special place in the royal court, for she shared in the king’s royal authority. She was an advocate for the people and a counselor to her son, the King. For example, King Solomon honored Bathsheba, his queen mother, by bowing before her, having her sit at his right hand, and saying that he would grant her any request she made (see Sri, Queen Mother, 37). The sign of Isaiah 7:14 looks forward to a queen mother who will conceive and bear a future Davidic king and name him “Immanuel.” Because Mary is the mother of the messianic Davidic King, Mary can be seen as the queen mother in the kingdom of her Son. Not only is there a parallel between Solomon (the son of David) and his mother Bathsheba (the queen-mother) and Jesus (the Son of David) and his mother Mary (the Queen Mother), but there is also one between Adam and Eve, on the one hand, and Jesus, the New Adam, and Mary, the New Eve, on the other. In Genesis 1, man and woman were given the mission to rule over all creation. God gave them dominion over all the creatures of the earth. Created in the image of God, man and woman were called to serve as God's royal representatives (Sri, Queen Mother, 59). Adam was lifted from the dust to a royal office. The serpent was condemned to the dust under the feet of the king. The woman’s child in Genesis 3:15 will strike the head of the serpent’s offspring. The passage points to a future king who will crush the head of the serpent in a way that Davidic kings would subdue their enemies (see Sri, Queen Mother, 62). In Matthew's genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, five women stand out: Tamar, the mother of Perez through Judah, to whom the monarchy was promised; Rahab, the great-great-grandmother of King David; Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David; Bathsheba, the wife of King David and the mother of Solomon; and Mary, the mother of Jesus, a descendant of David. When the magi visited Bethlehem, they saw the child, the newborn King of the Jews, with Mary his mother. Mary stood beside her royal child as the magi paid him homage.

3. How Mary Exercises Her Queenship: In today’s Gospel (Luke 1:26-38), we are told that Joseph was of the house of David. The angel declares not only that Mary’s child will be the royal Son of David, but is also the Son of God. As Son of David, God the Father will give Jesus the throne of his father David, and Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob (Israel) forever and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32-33). Mary’s child is associated with the covenant of David, when God promised that one of David’s sons would receive a great name, sit on a throne in an everlasting kingdom, and be called God’s son (2 Samuel 7:9-16). In the Annunciation, Mary is given the vocation to be the queen mother of a Davidic king. In the Visitation (Luke 1:39-45), Elizabeth calls Mary “the mother of my Lord.” In doing this, she greets Mary as the mother of the Messiah-King. In Revelation 12, the “woman clothed with the sun” refers not only to God’s people (Israel and the Church), but also may be seen to refer to Mary. The woman’s Son rules all nations, sits on a heavenly throne, inaugurates the Kingdom of God, and conquers the enemy, the ancient serpent (Revelation 12:5). The woman herself is crowned and has royal status. She is related not only to the twelve tribes of Israel, but also to the Church, founded on the twelve Apostles. Just as Isaiah 7:14 involves the sign “as high as heaven” of a queen mother who gives birth to a Davidic son, the woman in Revelation 12 is a heavenly sign, involving a royal woman giving birth to a royal son. As Queen Mother, Mary has no authority on her own, but rather depends entirely on her royal Son, Christ the King. Jesus is a King of humble origins, who washes the feet of his own disciples, who rejected the temptation of Satan to a false messiahship, who reigns through humility, and who became a servant even to the point of giving his life. Because of his humble service, Jesus is exalted by the Father and enthroned over all things, and is victorious over sin, death, and the devil. “The abasement-exaltation of Christ is seen especially in Philippians 2:5-11, which describes how every knee shall bend to Christ and every tongue shall confess Him as Lord, but also emphasizes that His supreme exaltation flows from His abasement - becoming a slave, being obedient unto death, death on a Cross” (Sri, Queen Mother, 111). Likewise, Mary is the humble servant of the Lord, who perseveres even unto suffering. She is exalted because of her lowliness as the Lord’s servant. Mary’s life, then, is an eloquent witness to the kingdom of God and “it is through her humble, obedient service that she has a share in Christ's reign, reigning with Him over the powers of sin and death” (Sri, Queen Mother, 112). In Mary, we contemplate the fulfillment of the promise that all Christ’s disciples, those who listen to him and follow him, will share in his reign. Those who give up everything to follow him will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28-30). Those who follow Christ through trials will rule over the new Israel (Luke 22:28-30); those who die with him will reign with him (2 Timothy 2:11-12) (see Sri, Queen Mother, 113).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you reign in heaven and have your mother, Mary, at your right hand as the Queen Mother. She is beautiful and continually intercedes for your Bride, the Church. Attend to her intercession and grant her petitions.

Living the Word of God: Mary is the model disciple who heard God’s word and accepted it. She persevered throughout her entire life, following her Son even through the torment of his death. In this, she fulfilled all the conditions for attaining royal status. She inspires all of us to realize the Christian royal vocation in our lives. “Therefore, fixing our gaze on the mystery of Mary’s Assumption, of her ‘crowning’ in glory, we daily learn to serve - to serve God in our brothers and sisters, to express in our attitude of service the ‘royalty’ of our Christian vocation in every state or profession, in every time and in every place. To carry over into the reality of our daily life through such an attitude the petition, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ which we make every day in the Lord’s prayer to the Father” (John Paul II, August 23, 1981).