At his general Audience this past Wednesday, Pope Leo looked ahead to today's feast of the the Queenship of Mary and made this special request:
"Next Friday, 22 August, we will celebrate the memorial of Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary is the Mother of believers here on earth, and is also invoked as Queen of Peace, while our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world.
"I invite all the faithful to devote the day of 22 August to fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice, and to dry the tears of those who suffer as a result of the ongoing armed conflicts. Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the path to peace."
Peace is a perennial preoccupation of modern popes and has been a persistent theme of Pope Leo so far in his brief pontificate. Historically, papal diplomacy has been less than successful in such ventures, and has been especially ineffective in regard to recent conflicts.
Indeed, an unjust peace may meet the desires of those for whom peace is an end in itself, but it only incubates increased conflict over time. Meanwhile, most of us can contribute nothing useful to the peace-making process, apart from prayer.
Perhaps the political resonance of Mary's title as Queen makes today a particularly apt one to appeal for such prayer. Such was evidently in the intention of Venerable Pius XII when he established this feast some seven decades ago:
Following upon the frightful calamities which before Our very eyes have reduced flourishing cities, towns, and villages to ruins, We see to Our sorrow that many great moral evils are being spread abroad in what may be described as a violent flood. Occasionally We behold justice giving way; and, on the one hand and the other, the victory of the powers of corruption. The threat of this fearful crisis fills Us with a great anguish, and so with confidence We have recourse to Mary Our Queen, making known to her those sentiments of filial reverence which are not Ours alone, but which belong to all those who glory in the name of Christian. (Encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam, October 11, 1954, 2)
Linking this feast to the Assumption in the post-conciliar liturgical calendar was a logical development. It highlights her ongoing intercessory role in the fullness of her heavenly glory, which, while implicit in the celebration of the Assumption, may risk getting under-emphasized in the doctrinal emphasis on Mary's bodily glorification. In the daily life of the Church on earth, it is Mary's ongoing intercessory role in the fullness of her heavenly glory that seems so immediately significant. Thus, the Second Vatican Council proclaimed: Taken up to heaven Mary does not lay aside her salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into the happiness of their true home. (Lumen Gentium 62)
Originally, however, this feast was assigned to May 31, obviously reflecting the historical preoccupation with May as Mary's special month. This harmonized with the widespread custom at that time of celebrating a "May Crowning" on or shortly before May 31. Curiously, Pius XII's barely remembered Commission for the Reform of the Liturgy toyed with the idea of May 1 instead, which would perhaps have anticipated what seems to be the more contemporary custom of holding a "May Crowning" at the beginning of the month. In any event, a parallel preoccupation produced the somewhat less successful feast of Saint Joseph the Worker on May 1 (then widely observed as the international workers' holiday May Day). So Maria Regina got May 31.
Whatever the vagaries of liturgical calendaring, Pope Leo's intervention has recalled some of the intentionality of a just peace originally underlying this feast.
We are convinced that this feast will help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises. Is she not a rainbow in the clouds reaching towards God, the pledge of a covenant of peace? ... Whoever, therefore, reverences the Queen of heaven and earth - and let no one consider himself exempt from this tribute of a grateful and loving soul - let him invoke the most effective of Queens, the Mediatrix of peace; let him respect and preserve peace, which is not wickedness unpunished nor freedom without restraint, but a well-ordered harmony under the rule of the will of God; to its safeguarding and growth the gentle urgings and commands of the Virgin Mary impel us. (Ad Caeli Regina, 51).
No comments:
Post a Comment