Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
When we were children and heard tales of kings and queens, we understood the roles in a more European light: the queen is the wife of the king. However, Mary is the wife of Joseph, not Jesus, and while the European models of monarchy certainly have room for a queen-mother, she usually has little power or authority and mainly is notable simply because of who her son is (though she might have been the reigning queen prior to her son’s rule). However, the Hebrew model of monarchy is quite different.
Looking back to the time of David, we see a king who is not merely ruler but also high priest, but also a king who has many wives and many more concubines besides. Which is queen? None of them: in Israel, the mother of the king was queen, and we see this in the story of David’s son, Solomon.
In 1 Kings 2:12-25 we hear the story of a man named Adonijah, who approaches Bathsheba, the mother of the newly-crowned Solomon, asking her to go to her son to ask if he may marry a former concubine of David’s named Abishag, who used to keep him warm in his old age. Why did Adonijah ask Bathsheba to go on his behalf, instead of going to Solomon himself? “Please ask King Solomon,” he says to her, “who will not refuse you…” (1 Kings 2:17). She goes, and what happens? First we read that “…the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right,” (1 Kings 2:19). The king stands to do homage to his mother: he treats her at least as an equal, but in some ways a superior! And then he places her in a seat not merely of honor, but of power. She mentions she has something to ask of him: “Ask it, my mother, for I will not refuse you,” (1 Kings 2:20). Unfortunately for Adonijah, Solomon sees through his request, as by marrying Abishag their offspring would have a claim to the throne, and since it was God who established David and his offspring as the royal line, Solomon cannot grant his mother’s request, for he cannot grant what is contrary to God’s will.
How many times through the Gospels is Jesus addressed as “Son of David?” If the first son of David in ancient times honored his mother as we see above, how much more must Jesus honor His own mother? Jesus once said of Himself, “…there is something greater than Solomon here…” (Matthew 12:42), and therefore, in Mary, there is something far greater than Bathsheba. If the queen mother of old was so honored and was not to be refused by her son, how much greater must Mary be, and how blessed are we that she intercedes for us as our queen mother as well?