Feast of Our Lady the Queen

In my Father’s house are many mansions › Jn 14, 2.  Since we commemorate the coronation of the Virgin Mary a week after the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, let’s stay with the Marian theme. When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger reflected on this topic, he pointed out that today’s teaching about the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is somewhat foreign to us. We perceive almost all words in this context as foreign and cannot perceive their meaning: Mary, heaven, glory. We understand only one word well—the body. However, if we start from this one word, which is understandable, the possibility opens up for us to reach everything. What is affirmed here is faith in the body and, thus, in the earth, matter, and the future of everything. The Church, seemingly hostile to the body, seems to have sung a new hymn to the body with this dogma. In this sense, the human body is related to heaven and, thus, to God. 

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger explains it this way: “This statement is very timely: today there is a danger that the discovery of the body will turn into dehumanization. In seeking to possess it freely, it is removed from the sphere of moral responsibility and is reduced to a mere thing that can be used without the guarantee of human relations. The human body is transformed into matter; a new dualism arises, the destructive effects of which we have already experienced. Only when the wholeness of the human being is completely preserved, only then does the future for the body open up. Only when the human dignity of the body is recognized will the spirit retain its human character; only when we know how to appreciate a person in the light of God’s promise, we give honor to the body.” 

Therefore, the true rooting of God’s action in profound physicality is very important. It began with the birth of the Virgin Mary, culminating in the Lord’s resurrection, and the eyes of God through his Son could be realized in the eyes of the first Christian woman. And this is how all the words of the dogma are connected: first heaven and body, now also Mary and glory, body and heaven. The name Mary refers to everything concretely realized in a simple woman who calls herself a humble servant (cf. Lk 1:48). Let’s not forget that the glory rested on her. Not the queen, but the humble servant is glorified. Not to power, but to faith is the promised future.