‘Mary is our Queen and Mother, who never forgets us’
Celebration of the Feast of the Queenship of Mary at the Mary the Queen Parish, Taytay, Rizal. CAMILLE GUNNACAO/CONTRIBUTOR
TAYTAY, Rizal– In a Eucharistic celebration on Tuesday, Aug. 22, presided over by Antipolo Bishop Francis de Leon for the feast of Mary’s Queenship, he reminded the faithful about the Blessed Virgin as someone Catholics honor not as a goddess but as an ever attentive mother.
“Mary [is] our Queen, but also she is our Mother so she never forgets us. Thus, we should not deny our honor to Mary as our Queen,” he said at the Mary the Queen Parish Church in Taytay, Rizal. “We should rejoice because [Mary’s] honor is our honor, for she is human like us.”
De Leon explained that people should not criticize Catholics for calling Mary “our Queen,” because she has done so much, saying “Mary deserved the title because she is the Mother of God; she is closely associated as the new eve with Jesus’ redemptive work.”
Why we honor Mary
“We honor her not as a god, but as our Mother who followed the will of God who then led to the saving of human race,” he said in the homily.
He identified the Blessed Mother’s two major spiritual fruits: her obedience to the will of God and her becoming an intercessor for all the faithful.
The prelate also noted that Mary suffered just as Jesus suffered, but amid all their afflictions, both of them endured and followed the will of the Father.
“Both Jesus and Mary lived to follow the will of the Father, but following God’s will does not mean there is no suffering,” he stressed.
Mary’s suffering
“Of course, it was Mary’s suffering when Joseph died, when Jesus started His public ministry leaving Mary in the house. It was also Mary’s suffering to feel helpless as her Son was being crucified… But because of doing the will of God, Jesus was resurrected and Mary was assumed unto heaven as Queen of Heaven and Earth,” the bishop added.
De Leon also noted that “…because Mary was close to Jesus… she becomes our intercessor.”
The feast of Mary the Queen is a logical continuity or follow-up from her Assumption, it is why the Church celebrates it after 8 days of the feast of Assumption. With Reports from Russel Villanueva/CBCPNews
