Tuesday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 22, 2023

The Feast of the Queenship of Mary

Matthew 19, 23-30

Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you that you who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

This feast, established by Pius XII in 1954, does not have proper readings in the current lectionary but the Gospel Reading for today’s Mass can certainly help us to learn more about the Blessed Virgin and her queenship over heaven and earth.

“Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven.”  The Lord Jesus is speaking after the rich young man has left, preferring his many possessions to Jesus.  A more literal translation of the Greek is: “I say to you that it a rich man will hardly [or, with difficulty] enter into the Kingdom of heaven.  The Greek text implies that it is nearly impossible for a rich person to enter heaven while the English translation lessens the near definitive tone.  The Lord Jesus reiterates this with an image: “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”  It has been suggested by some that this “eye of a needle” refers to one of Jerusalem’s gates and that a camel carrying a merchant’s goods could pass through it only when unladen of the goods, but there is no basis for this.  Indeed, Jerusalem, a city on trade route, possessed gates plenty wide for camels and caravans.  Now, the disciples, hearing this, must have suffered a severe shock as a result.  They had been taught all their lives that material wealth was a sign of God’s blessing on a person or family.  Certainly this sign would apply to their place in the coming Kingdom of heaven.  But if this was not true, “Who, then, can be saved?”  To them it was inconceivable that anyone except the wealthy — the “blessed” — could be saved.  If not them, than who?  We should not underestimate or discount the shock they experienced.  Imagine if Jesus descended from heaven and announced to us that we had it wrong: that only the very rich would be saved and the rest of us would be lost!  

The Lord’s answer, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible” did not relieve them, and it seems not to answer the desperate question they ask: Who, then, can be saved?  But Jesus is saying that no human can be saved except by the grace of God.  That is, he shows that all of us are utterly dependent upon grace, which enables us to cooperate with the divine will, for salvation.  Property and riches, as such, do not mean anything to God.  Peter is deeply distressed: “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?”  His question reveals the sense that, along with his personal love of the Lord, Peter expected that in return for his giving up “everything” to follow Jesus, he would be enriched and ennobled when the Lord ushered in the new Kingdom of Israel after the defeat of the Romans.  The Lord answers Peter partially in accord with his expectations, but also raises them to what they should be: “You who have followed me, in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  This sentence could do with some rearranging so that it makes more sense.  As it is, it follows the Greek sentence structure.  “You who have followed me will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory in the regeneration [or, new birth].”  The Lord may refer to the judgment at the end of the world or possibly the role of the Apostles in heaven, not judging, strictly speaking, but overseeing the joy of the Blessed.  This is confirmed by Revelation 21, 14: “And the wall of the city [the New Jerusalem] had twelve foundations: And in them, the twelve names of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb.”  There will be rewards for all the other faithful as well: “And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.”  Clearly, the Lord is speaking in a figure here, but his point is that those who have given up everything for him will receive more in return that anyone could conceive.  St. Paul puts it another way: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2, 9).  And the Lord concludes, “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”  That is, All who are first will be last.  The “first” are those who strive for material gain to the exclusion of the spiritual.  They do not think of God or of themselves as servants.  Their god is their belly, as St. Paul says, “and their glory is their shame.  Their mind is set on earthly things” (Philippians 3, 19).

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the very “last” in this world because from the beginning of her life she made herself the Handmaid of the Lord and consequently the servant of all.  Her utter poverty for her Son’s sake is seen in her leaving Nazareth and her family and house in order to be with her Son.  She gave up everything, even giving up her Son because this was his will.  She humbly followed along with his other women followers without expecting, demanding, or receiving any special attention.  Whereas the mother of James and John asked for special places for her sons (thus, for herself also), we never see Mary doing anything to attract attention to herself.  At the Wedding at Cana, she is among the servants,  at the Cross, she stands with a former prostitute and near two thieves dying on their own crosses in order to be with her Son, to render him any service that she could.  This is how she is Queen, in her devotion to service to Almighty God and to those who love him.  He has established her above all the angels and the saints not to bask in her own glory but in order to have a high place from which she might intercede for us who have recourse to her.  One day, we pray, we will see her who was the least of the children of men raised on high as the highest in the court of heaven.