LOCAL NEWS

Mother of God, Queen of Heaven

Mother of Christ, Mother Most Pure, Refuge of Sinners, Help of Christians, Comforter of the Afflicted — we know the Blessed Mother by many names.

By J.D. Long-García, jdlgarcia@catholicsun.org
May 15, 2008 

She is Queen of the Angels and Queen of the Apostles, Tower of David and Health of the Sick. We know her by her works and we know her as our Mother.

In May, Catholics crown the Virgin Mary, recognizing her as the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven.

“Mary, from the very first moment of her life, was conceived without sin,” said Fr. Daniel McBride in his May 2 homily to St. Mary-Basha Catholic School students in Chandler.

First, Fr. McBride placed a circlet of flowers on this year’s May Queen, Molly Elkins. Then, Elkins climbed the steps around the altar to crown the statue of the Blessed Mother with a similar floral arrangement.

“She wants to show us Jesus so that we can be like her — she was the first and best disciple,” Fr. McBride said of Mary. “She comes here and she goes there to tell people what a precious gift Jesus is.”

Roger W. Nutt, professor of theology at Ave Maria University in Florida, also stressed the Virgin Mary’s active role in the Incarnation.

“Mary was not just a passive vessel in the plan of salvation,” he said. “She freely said yes to God’s plan and journeyed with Jesus from the moment of the annunciation to the foot of the cross.”

Mary lived the life and joy of the resurrection with the first generation of the Church, Nutt added. 

“Mary is both the exemplar of Christian discipleship and, as the Mother of the Savior, a maternal presence in the life of the Church and each of our lives,” he said. “Biblical Christianity never deletes the Mother for the sake of the Son; Mary is an integral part of the unfolding of God’s plan.”

At Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Scottsdale, a swarm of children laid flowers at the foot of their Marian statue at a May 4 Mass.

Two young girls, Sydney Carnie and Sophia Perez, helped crown the statue. Carnie’s mother, Jenny, lifted her up to the statue as Sydney gently placed the crown of flowers on Mary’s head.

In his homily, Fr. Thomas Hever noted the Blessed Mother’s presence at the foot of the cross, where Jesus said to John, “Behold your mother.”

“It’s by recognizing the place for Mary in our lives that she becomes Mother to all of us,” he said. “So we ask for her intercession.”

Professor Nutt explained that the Church’s understanding of intercessory prayer “stems primarily from the biblical teaching of the Church as the body of Christ.”

“If members of the Church on earth can pray for each other, why wouldn’t members of the Church in heaven be able to?” Nutt said. “The Church on earth is a pilgrim reality journeying toward heaven, and life in heaven is an integral sustaining part of the Church’s earthly journey.”

Catholics turn to Mary “because our lives as members of the Church on earth are connected to hers in virtue of our common membership in the Church of Christ,” Nutt said.

Mother of God

From early on the Church professed the queenship of Mary and recognized her as the Mother of God, Nutt said.

In particular, he noted the Virgin Mother’s meeting with Elizabeth at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. Elizabeth asks, “Why is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

“In short, from the first days of her pregnancy Mary is recognized, not simply as Jesus’ mother,” Nutt said, “but the Mother of the Lord, which is one of Jesus’ divine titles.”

The Church upheld the Virgin Mary’s title as Mother of God — or theotokos in Greek — at the Council of Ephesus in 431, he said. A philosopher named Nestorius argued against the title before the council.

Nutt explained that denying Mary the title of Mother of God leads to “serious error about who Christ is.”

“The second person of the Trinity, the Word, was already a person — a Divine Person — prior to the incarnation in Mary’s womb,” he said. “Insofar as the human nature of Christ was born from Mary, passed through her womb, she is His mother.”

Recognizing Mary’s role in salvation helps Catholics understand the person of Jesus Christ, Nutt said. 

“Mary’s relationship to Christ as His mother, reminds us of the radicality of what God has done on our behalf,” he said. “He didn’t just decree our salvation, He became man and offered His manhood, united to the Word, to God as the most perfect sacrifice for our sins.”