Wednesday, Queenship of Mary
(Judges 9 and Matthew 19)
Fables are short stories humanizing animals or other non-human entities to deliver a moral. Most of us have heard of Aesop’s famous fables of antiquity. The reading from the Book of Judges today tells a fable about the appointment of a king for Israel. Nobler trees refuse the honor of kingship among trees so a buckthorn, which is no more than a scrub bush, assumes the office. The buckthorn represents Abimelech, the cutthroat son of Gideon, who slaughtered seventy half-brothers to secure his throne. He proves consistent in maliciousness by burning alive the people of Migdal-shechem as the reading anticipates.
The moral offered by the story is that Israel should not seek a king but accept the kingship of God. Accepting anything less will only bring heartache on the people as the full story shows. Jesus in the Gospel passage is preaching the Kingship of God as well. He begins by the familiar statement, “The Kingdom of heaven is like ...,” and proceeds to tell the parable of the workers in the vineyard. In the parable some of the workers grumble because the landowner, the God-figure in the story, chooses to pay all his workers the same salary. The point is that God would have every worker earning enough to feed his family. The grumblers insist on a more exacting form of compensation.
Today we celebrate the Queenship of Mary. This title, of course, points to the Kingship of her son Jesus Christ. These are no honorary or meaningless offices. Jesus and Mary rule over us when we live by their standards. Besides the compassion demonstrated in the parable, they show us – among other virtues -- prayerful attentiveness, implicit honesty, and courageous love.
