Woman of Faith: The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Like the majestic, jubilant final Amen of Handel’s Messiah, the Rosary closes with the triumphant heavenly coronation of the Virgin Mary.
Each note of the Rosary has been a preparation for this royal trumpet blast, the crowning of Our Lady by our Triune God. The first meditation, the Annunciation, announced the coming of the Messiah to save us; this final mystery proclaims the eternal victory of God’s plan. We see Mary as “the woman crowned with twelve stars,” (Rev 12:1) the infallible sign that all the followers of the Victorious Lamb “will reign for ever and ever”! (Rev 22:5).
The Coronation of . . .
Like all the mysteries of the Rosary, the Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven centers on Jesus.
It is only because of the redemptive grace of Christ the King that the Most Holy Trinity now crowns the faithful Mary as the exemplar of discipleship. Mary is Queen only because her Son is King.
The Kingship of Jesus is then the underlying insight into the meaning of this last of the rosary mysteries. Why is Jesus truly our King? First, He is the Incarnate and Eternal Wisdom of the Father, the personal expression of God in and through our humanity. He is the peak of the mountain of all creation, our Brother who is Our God enfleshed. He is, then, not someone who becomes King but he is the Lord of all from the first moment of His Incarnation in Mary’s womb.
Jesus is also King because He has conquered us. He has vanquished us by Love. Every action of Jesus is a cry of obedient love to the Father in our name, an obedience “unto death, even death upon the Cross”. (Phil 2:8). The Lamb who sits upon the throne has conquered sin and death. As Victor of the cosmos, He is our King.
. . . the Blessed Virgin Mary
He is also King because it is only through Him and in Him that divine life comes to this broken creation. He alone is ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). Jesus is Grace in Person, for us. He is the Divine Treasure, He is the Infinite Goal. Without Him, there is no entry into the Kingdom. He, the Lamb who was slain, is “Lord of lords and King of kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful“. (Rev 17:14).
Why is Jesus King? All the reasons find their foundation in the bold statement; He Himself is the Kingdom of God in Person. He is the Reign of Yahweh, Infinite Love poured out upon this broken creation. Jesus calls each one of us to share in His life, to enter therefore into the Kingdom and to reign with Him. In Christ Jesus, we are “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”. (1 Pt. 2:9).
No one shares so intensely in the Kingdom of God, the Victorious Risen Lord, than His Mother, Mary. No one reigns with Him so uniquely as Mary, the Maiden of Nazareth. For she is the Mother of the King. Moreover, it is through her divinely-willed consent that the Word of God enters our Creation and as her Divine Child, is the King of all his brothers and sisters. By her faith-participation in all the events of His Life, including His death where “she was to be present in order that He might make with her but one same sacrifice and be immolated to the Eternal Father by her consent,” (True Devotion, No. 18) she shares in a unique way in the royalty of her Divine Son.
Madonna and Child: painter Elisabetta Sirani: 1663
Elisabetta took over the studio of her father Giovanni Sirani in 1654-1655. This painting resides in the National Museum of Woman Arts in Washington, DC.
Why is Jesus King? All the reasons find their foundation in the bold statement; He Himself is the Kingdom of God in Person. He is the Reign of Yahweh, Infinite Love poured out upon this broken creation. Jesus calls each one of us to share in His life, to enter therefore into the Kingdom and to reign with Him. In Christ Jesus, we are “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people”.
Return to The Queen: Articles
Mary Shares In His Royal Dignity
Pope Pius XII sums up this teaching in his encyclical, Ad Coeli Reginam,
“Jesus Christ alone, God and Man, is King in the strict, full and absolute sense. Mary shares in His royal dignity in a secondary way, dependent on the sovereignty of her Son. She is the Mother of the Christ God and is His associate in the work of redemption, in His conflict with the enemy, and in His complete victory. It is from this union with Christ the King that she reaches a height of splendor unequaled in all creation.“
Mary is also Queen because she is “full of grace”. (Lk 1:28). Her sharing in the life of God is of such intensity that she rightly is called Queen of the Angels for she surpasses all creatures in her union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Moreover, she is Queen because she is Mother of All. As Saint Louis de Montfort explains it, “Mary . . . cannot make her residence in (souls) as God the Father ordered her to do and as their mother, form, nourish and bring them forth to eternal life . . . unless she has a right and a domination over souls by a singular grace of the Most High . . . and so we can call her . . . the Queen of All Hearts”! (TD, 37-38). Mary’s Queenship is the effective maternal influence which she exercises so lovingly over all her children. She is Queen because she is Mother.
Mary is Queen of All Hearts
The final mystery of the Rosary is, then, the jubilant celebration of the certain glory of the disciples of the Lord. The Queenship of Mary is the sure sign of our ultimate goal when we also shall reign with the Lord. Meditating on this concluding movement of the great Rosary symphony, we not only adore Christ the King, we not only venerate the Queen who by grace so uniquely shares in Her Son’s royalty, but we contemplate our final destiny and that of all creation; “Hallelujah! For the Lard our God the Almighty reigns . . . and his servants shall warship him, they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads . . . and they shall reign for ever and ever”. (Rev 19:6; 22:3-5).
The last note of the Rosary is the regal, victorious cry of the Book of Revelation. “Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen! (Rev 7:12).
Vol. #xxx Month 2022
