well roughly once a month the church has
a great feast in honor of Mary and one
of my my concerns is that the Marian
feast can be seen is a little bit you
know twee or sentimental and really just
the opposites the case a really good
example is the Feast of the Queen ship
of Mary and I know when you you hear
that phrase you think oh yeah my
grandmother would like the Feast of the
Queen ship of Mary but actually it's a
very strong statement being made and
I'll give you the best biblical example
of why we speak of a queen ship of Mary
where this feast is coming from it's in
the 12th chapter of the book of
Revelation and we know this scene well
but listen and a great sign appeared in
heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and
the moon under her feet and upon her
head a crown of twelve stars so you're
dealing with a coronated figure you're
dealing with a queen right now but
what's happening is this Queen this
Queen Mother is pregnant and she brings
forth a child and immediately a war
breaks out because a dragon in this
vision is there to devour the child and
the child is swept away to safety but
then this great war breaks out among the
Angels so the Queen ship of Mary is not
sentimental it's associated right away
with a great cosmic struggle a battle
between good and evil this birth being
brought about through God's grace which
will save the world but only after a
terrible struggle and now right before
the scene and you know the chapter
headings come much later so in the
original text of this they weren't
divided in chapters right before that
here's what you find the visionary is
seeing visions right and the temple of
God in heaven was open and there was
seen the Ark of his covenant in the
temple and there came flashes of
lightning and peals of thunder and
earthquake and great hail you say well
okay the vision of the arc in the temple
why is it important remember the arc
which which bore the remnants the Ten
Commandments the arc was brought into
Jerusalem by King David who does a great
festive dance in its presence it then
becomes the focal point of the temple in
the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the
Covenant it was the sign of God's
presence among his people well around
the time of the Babylonian captivity the
ark was lost
hence the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie
right is based on that idea of the Ark
being lost where did it go the ark was
taken away so there was a very deep
sadness at the heart of Israel because
their central sign of God's presence
among them was was gone and so for a Jew
of the first century to hear of a vision
of the temple restored so that the arc
is now within that was a sign of God
saving his people God coming again among
his people now no way that that image of
the Ark in the temple and the image of
the woman clothed the son are unrelated
to right next to each other and here's
the relationship who was the Queen
Mother who's Mary she is in the fullest
possible sense the Ark of the Covenant
because she bears within her own body
the living presence of God she is if you
want the temple she is the place now
where God has come to dwell right away
she's involved in a fight well go back
to the Old Testament before the Ark was
ensconced in the temple Israel would
carry it around into battle or think of
the story of Jericho right when the
walls come tumbling down
they walked around the city seven times
burying the Ark they brought the ark
into battle with them because it was
God's presence opposing the powers of
the world same points being made about
Mary that Mary is not some twee little
sentimental figure just the contrary
she's the queen mother involved in a
cosmic struggle
she's the Ark of the Covenant here's a
lovely detail you know when the pregnant
Mary comes to visit her pregnant cousin
Elizabeth John the Baptist leaps in her
womb right
what is that but his version of David's
dance before the Ark of the Covenant
so all those associations are meant to
show us it's time to get involved in the
struggle on the right side
anyone acquainted with st. Ignatius and
the Spiritual Exercises knows the
meditation of the two standards when
Ignatius asked us to imagine this great
battlefield and there is Satan's army
and then there's Christ's army there's
one great decision we have to make which
army you in every other decision will
follow from that one for whom are you
fighting because he's Satan in a million
ways will try to lure you into his army
and it means you're going to walk the
way of hatred and violence and egotism
and and of cruelty and that's them says
you got to make am I in that army or am
I in Christ's army am I going to walk in
a fight this is the good Battle of love
and compassion and non-violence every
other decision you make is predicated
upon that fundamental decision and so I
would say this Feast of the queenship of
Mary can sound sort of sentimental
anything but it's about which army are
you going to fight it are you going to
join in the great battle with the Queen
of Heaven with the Ark of the Covenant
or will you be on the enemy side that's
the question raised by this feast