Mary, Queen of the Universe

As a Catholic, if you’ve gone to Disney World in the past 20 years, you’ve probably been to the nearby shrine that serves visitors to the theme park: the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe.

Is it bad that I laugh every time I hear that name?  It’s not that I disagree with the theology behind it, I just think it sounds a little bit ridiculous, like she won some intergalactic beauty contest or something.  If I were funnier, I could write an Onion piece on this….

But those who named the Shrine were right–as the mother of the King of the Universe, Mary is the Queen of the Universe.  It’s really that simple.

And yet this understanding of Mary as our mother and our queen is one of the issues that most deeply divides Christians.  As I pointed out before in my discussion of Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant, the Old Testament often has more to tell us about Mary than the New Testament does.¹

As Christians, we know that the entirety of history built to the climax of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ.  Salvation history (the story of God’s redemptive work in the world) is directed towards Christ, which means that the people and events of the Old Testament have significance beyond themselves.  Throughout the Old Testament, we find “types” or foreshadowings of New Testament realities.  So the flood is a type of baptism, manna is a type of the Eucharist, and David is a type of Jesus.

Now every Christian knows that Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords.  So it stands to reason that the king of Israel is a type of Christ, just as Israel is a type of the Church, the people of God.  If the king is a type of Christ, then the king’s mother would be a type of Christ’s mother: Mary.  So we want to pay attention every time we see the mother of the king mentioned in the Old Testament–which, as it turns out, is quite frequently–to see what it tells us about the mother of our Lord.

As the mother of King Solomon, Bathsheba’s our best example of the queen mother in Israel (yes, she does more than bathe on the roof), particularly because we see her both as the king’s wife and as the queen mother, two very different roles.

Let’s start with Bathsheba as wife of King David.  In 1 Kings 1:16 and 1:31, Bathsheba visits King David to ask a favor.  Twice she enters his presence and twice she pays homage to him.  The wife of the king in ancient Israel had no role at court for the simple reason that the king might have many wives.  So there was no real queen in Israel, only a queen mother.²  Despite her intimate relationship with David, Bathsheba approaches the king as his subject, not as his queen.

After David dies and Solomon takes the throne, however, everything’s different.  Adonijah, Solomon’s half brother, wants something from Solomon, so he asks Bathsheba to intercede on his behalf, saying, “Please ask King Solomon, who will not refuse you” (1 Kgs 2:17).

Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and 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.  She said, “There is one small favor I would ask of you. Do not refuse me.” The king said to her, “Ask it, my mother, for I will not refuse you.” (1 Kgs 2:19-20)

This is a totally different story.  Before, she paid the king homage.  Here, as the queen mother, the King pays her homage and then gives her a throne at his right hand.  The placement here is key: it tells us that she’s second in authority.  This isn’t just some honorary title–she plays a real role here.  And as his second-in-command, she has a particular privilege to intercede for others.  Adonijah pointed it out and Solomon confirms it when he tells her that he will not refuse her.

As it turns out, Adonijah’s asked for something that Solomon can’t grant.³  But I don’t think it hurts our case for the queen mother’s intercessory power that he refuses her.  The queen mother isn’t the ultimate authority, she just has some serious influence.  He won’t refuse her if he can help it, but it’s really his decision.

So we see from the beginning of the line of David that the queen mother is someone really special, just not as special as the king.  She’s honored by the king and by all the people and is given the power to intercede.  See where I’m going with this?

And it’s not just Bathsheba–throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles (the books that talk about the deeds of the kings of Israel and Judah), each time a new king takes office, his mother is named.  In 1 Kings 15:13, we see that the office is so official that a queen mother can even be deposed.  In 2 Kings 11, the queen mother kills off all her son’s descendants (she thinks).  When they’re all dead, she becomes the ruler of Judah automatically.  Since there is no heir, the crown seems to revert to the second-in-command: the queen mother.  This isn’t some ceremonial title, it’s something real.

And then there’s Jeremiah 13:18: “Say to the king and to the queen mother: come down from your throne; from your heads fall your magnificent crowns.”  Here the king and the queen both have authority, both have a throne, both have a crown.

Throughout the Old Testament, the mother of the king plays a very important role, one that must be honored by all the king’s subjects.  It stands to reason that this would extend to the queen mother of the New Testament as well, and the book of Revelation supports this.  In Revelation 12:1 we see Mary crowned with twelve stars, the number of completion.  This tells us that the mother of all believers (Rev 12:17) is the queen of everything.

So when Catholics talk about Mary, we’re not trying to give her a place above or equal to or even close to Christ’s.  Any good Catholic painting of the Blessed Mother in heaven shows her lower than Christ and off to the side.  We know better than to worship her; all we’re asking is to treat the mother of the King of kings the way we would treat any queen mother.  We want to honor her (Lk 1:48) and to ask for her intercession simply because she is particularly beloved by the Lord.  We revere her above any other creature but we know that she is just that: creature, not creator.

I’ll leave you with the inimitable words of the second Vatican Council:

“Mary’s function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it.” (Lumen Gentium 60)

Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth and all the Galaxies and the Whole Stinking Universe, pray for us!  Happy Coronation of Mary to you all.

1. For much of this, as with most of my understanding of Marian theology, I am eternally indebted to Scott Hahn, particularly in his book Hail, Holy Queen. [↩]
2. In fact, the word “queen” in the Old Testament always refers either to a pagan queen or to the queen mother. Jezebel isn’t even considered a queen, although she bosses people around like she is. [↩]
3. He wants to be married to David’s concubine Abishag. Not only is this creepy, it would set him up as David’s successor and give him a claim as rival for the throne. Adonijah thought he was all clever–right till he got killed for it. [↩]