THE WORD AND THE FEAST
2 Thessalonians 1: 1-15, 11-12; Matthew 23: 13-22
Today we celebrate the Queenship of Mary - but why today? It is very logical. It is one week after we celebrated the Assumption of our Blessed Mother. Assumed into heaven, she is crowned as the Queen of Apostles and Saints. As we celebrate this Queenship of our Blessed Mother we are rightly reminded of something fundamental to our Christian call.
Reflecting on the Word and the Feast today, I was strangely reminded of one of my experiences a few years ago on a journey! One knows quite well that a photo identity card is essential on journeys and those days, I had the habit of carryinh a colour photocopy of my driving license as a identity proof. On one of the journeys, this habit suddenly became an issue, when a Ticket Inspector took exception to the fact that it was a photocopy! By rule, it has to be an original document... not that I did not know that rule! I understood I was at fault and fotunately the Inspector was kind enough to merely warn me and let me go without any fine. What I wish to share here, is not what happened till here, but what has happened after that event. I began to carry an original document with me as a proof of identity, and every time I travelled after that, and specially when the Ticket inspector came to my direction, I could hold my head high and feel so confident about the fact that I have every thing right on my part - that's feeling like a king!
Jesus is referring to a life confused with varying standards, footless principles and self-centered schemes! When a person lives that way, he or she has to be all the time on the guard against people who would find fault, who would accuse or atleast murmur against. But when some one has everything right in his or her part in life, there is an inner freedom that is akin to living life like a king or a queen!
Queenship of Mary from this angle seems a natural outcome of our Blessed Mother's way of life - the absolute freedom she enjoyed, the total personal commitment she manifested and the bother-about-nothing-else attitude she had when it came to obeying God's will... that is what made her the Queen of Heaven and Earth, inspiring us to live our Christian life like her: like a King or a Queen!