22 August 2018
Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
We are made for eternal and ecstatic union with the Lord. So, too, are each of our neighbors made for the same end. And yet, when our hearts become forgetful of the One for whom we are made, this forgetfulness impacts how we view those around us, too. We may begin to think that our neighbors exist simply to help us towards our own self-determined goals of financial advancement or social comfort. There is a temptation which must be acknowledged and resisted, a temptation to see the Lord’s flock as made for ourselves. This temptation arises when we ask, “How can this other person benefit me?” A heart which has become accustomed to asking this question then complains loudly when others benefit at all. This is the sad state of the envious, whom Christ warns in today’s parable of those rewarded for beginning work even at the eleventh hour. Forgetting that the Lord is the shepherd of others and that He has the fullest right to be generous to the lowly, begins to blind us to our relationship to the Lord as our shepherd too, and hence makes us forgetful of our duty to be joyfully dependent on His generosity.
Mary, our Mother and our Queen, was never forgetful of her dependence on the Lord, and so she had the sharpest of memories for remembering and praising His kindness towards her. Based in this humble gratitude, she sought first to meet the needs of others (recall how after the Annunciation, the first thing she does is hurry off to take care of her cousin Elizabeth). And so the Lord teaches us what it means to be first in His kingdom by showing us the Queen of that kingdom as above all humble, grateful, and generous in her service of those around her. May our Queen intercede with our Lord, our Shepherd, that He grant us the grace to come to know others as the rightful recipients of the Lord’s generosity and to cooperate with His charity in serving them.