While growing up, this grandson of a Baptist preacher never really had any gripes with the way Catholic and Orthodox Christians regard Mary.
Artwork of her is holy and points to God. And praying to her didn't strike me as bad, since it's not like those saying the prayers ever ask her to do God's job or go against his will.
Her being sinless didn't seem like a stretch, though admittedly, the thought of her remaining perpetually virgin did. But then again, perpetual virginity only seemed like a stretch, for how could the thought of such a singularly remarkable woman having lived in a remarkable way be out of the question?
If my younger self had to pick a specific thing that felt like it had a strong chance of being false, it would have been the title Queen of Heaven, because attaching a royal title to someone known for the very non-royal qualities of humility and servanthood just felt off.
Well, I started this series almost a year ago and have spent much of it encouraging "fellow Protestants" to set aside preconceived notions and look at Mary through the lenses of capital-C Catholicism and capital-O Orthodoxy - and not being a hypocrite where faith is concerned, I have walked that walk myself where this matter of queenship is concerned.
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My main hang-up with referring to Mary as a queen sprang largely from my Western conception of what it means to be a queen. When those of us from the West and particularly the United States hear that word, we think of monarchy and all the pretentious and authoritarian baggage it entails. To us, a queen is usually a stern individual who rules from on high, not a helper who subjugates herself to the good of others.
The Bible, however, is neither modern nor Western. To properly understand it you must look at it from the non-modern, non-Western context that created it - or at least make an honest effort to look at it from that context - and once you do, things shift.
Its books were produced by ancient Hebrews, for whom the queen was not the king's wife but rather his mother. You see this reflected in the Davidic line - to which Jesus belonged - when you consider that in all four Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles, when new kings get coronated, their mothers are named while their wives go unmentioned.
Think also of the fact that when Bathsheba's husband David was king, she "bowed with her face to the ground and paid homage to the king" (1 Kings 1:31) yet when her son Solomon was king, it was he who "rose to meet her and bowed down to her" (1 Kings 2:19).
And don't downplay the significance of 1 Kings 2:19 going on to say that Bathesheba "sat on his right," for in biblical terns, to be situated to the right of a powerful person meant you too had a level of authority. This is why Jesus is repeatedly said to be "at the right hand" of the Father.
Scripture's original readers and hearers wouldn't need to be told that Bathsheba's motherhood is what made her queen because it went without saying. When they heard Jesus described in kingly ways - you know, King of Kings, King of the Jews, King of Israel - they likewise would have thought of his mother in queenly ways, especially in light of Revelation 12:1 depicting her with "a crown of twelve stars."
When you consider that Jesus described himself as a kind of king, what would have been strange is for early Christians to not think of Mary as a kind of queen.
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In light of the above, I feel like I could go ahead and end this post right now, but first I want to add that it wasn't helpful that the first time I heard the word "queen" associated with Mary, it came in the packaging of the phrase "Queen of Heaven." The concept is more properly called "Mary's queenship," and it certainly would have landed on my ears better if that was how I first heard it rendered.
Regardless, if I had applied more thought back whenever that was, I should have grasped that Heaven is a kind and serving realm and thus I should have concluded that being called its queen is not on par with being called monarchical and authoritarian. Unfortunately, my reactive brain did take it to mean monarchical and authoritarian, then erroneously assumed that calling someone a queen of Heaven, which is "higher" than Earth, implies that person is even more monarchical and authoritarian than a monarch on Earth.
When I type it out like that, the error of my gut reaction is clear. When I remember what Heaven actually is and take into account what queen meant to ancient Hebrews, there is no reason to recoil from the thought of Mary as queen. But my brain recoiled simply because of the preconceived notions I held as an American, and I'm convinced I am far from alone in that, and, getting back to where I want to go with this section: Queen of Heaven is just one of many phrases that are used to evoke Mary's queenship, and if I had heard any of the others first, I would have reacted differently.
Only one of the 22 chapter titles in this Fulton Sheen classic refers to Mary in queenly ways, and does so by calling her Queen of Mercy. That fits beautifully, and bears no contrast to those qualities of humility and servanthood I mentioned earlier. Queen of Mercy feels right even with modern Western/American pre-programming, does it not?
Mary is also called Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Peace, Queen of Christians, Queen of Saints, and Queen of Angels. When you recall again what queen meant in the culture whence Christ deliberately came to Earth through her, none of those appellations should seem off-putting to a person who believes in Christ's divinity.
I will close by quoting from the aforementioned chapter from Sheen's book: "There are many sheaves in the field that the priests and sisters and the faithful are unable to gather in. It is Mary's role to follow these reapers to gather the sinners in... It is easy for the brothers of Christ to call on the Father, but it is not easy for the strangers and the enemies. This role Mary plays. She is not only the Mother of those who are in the state of grace but also the Queen of those who are not."
On that note, as they say in France: Profitez de vos bénédictions.
Note #1: The prior posts in this series are as follows:
Part I: Introduction
Part II: The New Eve
Part III: Genesis to Revelation
Part III-b: The Ark of the New Covenant
Part IV: Historical Perspective
Part V: Perpetual Virginity
Part VI: Prayer
Part VI-b: Worship
Part VII: Involvement and Femininity
Part VIII: Our Lady of Guadalupe
Part IX: On Good Friday
Note #2: The photo at the beginning of this post was taken at the grotto of Saint Leo Abbey in Florida.
Note #3: If you're interested in listening to a deeper dive into the topic of how "the queen was the mom," this eighteen-minute presentation by Brant Pitre does a great job delving into it.
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