The Blessed Virgin Mary and political life

As any reader of Catholic World Report knows very well, May is designated by the Church as the Month of Mary. It is the time of the year in which we especially celebrate the many graces and virtues of the Blessed Mother of Our Lord—her sinlessness, her dedication and constancy, her solace for sinners, and any of a long list of attributes and patronages.

St. Mary is an icon of devotion and docility, providing the model of how to say, “be it done according to your will.” Usually, this translates into acts of personal piety and devotion, and rightly so. But we can also discern “public” or even “political” implications of the life of St. Mary, and May is as good a time as any to consider how titles of Mary can teach us how to live our public lives, as well as to conduct private prayer. St. John Henry Newman’s meditations on the Litany of Loreto suggest some of those implications.

Mary, the Queen of Angels

After the fall of the man and woman in the third chapter of Genesis, God tells the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel” (Gen. 3:15).

God is telling the serpent that he has won the battle but will ultimately lose the war. This is because the anti-types of the man and woman in the Garden of Eden will remedy the harm that was done by their respective types. St. John expresses the ultimate resolution in the Book of Revelation, as the culmination of Heavenly conflict, with St. Mary directing the actions of the angels who fight the war. As St. John Henry Newman puts it, “Michael and his Angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought [with] his angels; and that great dragon was cast out.”

The upshot? “The Blessed Mother of God has hosts of angels who do her service; and she is their Queen.”

As the Queen of Angels, Mary is the exemplar for and sovereign over the angels, directing them as they guide us deeper into the truth of the Gospel. This is a reign that transcends earthly kingdoms and powers, as exemplified by Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin that she would bear the Messiah. “Angel” means “messenger.” Gabriel’s message to St. Mary mediated the divine to the human.

And then, as one of the great both/and paradoxes of Christian faith, as Mother of Our Lord, Mary assumes the role of Queen over that very Gabriel and the other Angels.

Mary, the Mirror of Justice

The classic Christian definition of “justice” is to render another his due. While it may traditionally take one of three forms—commutative, distributive, and legal—the basic principle of justice is to distribute something according to proper desserts. Whether goods of services, punishments or rewards, affirmations or sanctions, justice is the virtue by which private individuals or public authorities mete out whatever is due—whether by nature or convention—to others.

While all this is well and good, St. John Henry Newman, in contemplating St. Mary as the “speculum justitiae,” refines our understanding of justice as putting things in right order. “By ‘justice’ is not meant the virtue of fairness, equity, uprightness in our dealings,” explains Newman, “but it is a word denoting all virtues at once, a perfect, virtuous state of soul—righteousness, or moral perfection.” As the Mirror of Justice, the Blessed Virgin exemplifies this principle not in her own person, but rather in reflecting the perfection of justice in her Son.

“A mirror is a surface which reflects, as still water, polished steel, or a looking-glass,” Newman continues. And Mary, “as far as any creature could, reflected His Divine sanctity.” This is a perfection of sanctity that transcends our human approximations of justice, calling us to order our lives according to the principles of Heavenly sanctity rather than earthly rule—on earth as in Heaven.

Mary, the Gate of Heaven

It logically follows that the Queen of Angels and Mirror of Justice would also be recognized as the Gate of Heaven.

“Mary is called the Gate of Heaven,” Newman explains, “because it was through her that our Lord passed from Heaven to earth.” And, of course, our Lord passed from Heaven to earth so that man may pass from earth to Heaven. We cannot consider this appellation of St. Mary without recourse to the authority of the Apostles to loose and bind. As the medium through which our Lord became incarnate, Mary has a direct place in the process of our own salvation.

This is not, of course, to ascribe salvific authority to the Blessed Virgin. It is sufficient—and more—to note that the Apostles and their successors maintain the keys to the kingdom because Our Lord gave them to them, after Our Lord came to earth through St. Mary. As St. John Henry Newman summarizes the point, “it was God’s will that she should undertake willingly and with full understanding to be the mother of our Lord, and not to be a mere passive instrument whose maternity would have no merit and no reward.” And, thus, Mary had the “initial part” in “the world’s restoration.”

As the Gate of Heaven, St. Mary is a constant reminder that our proper home is, indeed, with her in Heaven. This, in turn, reminds us that our sojourn on earth is both ordered toward and conditioned by that eschatological reality. This relativizes and subordinates all other social, political, legal, or other commitments. Our hope to pass through the Gate of Heaven necessitates subordinating all other claims on our lives, including political claims.

Mary, Help of Christians

St. John Henry Newman ascribes five historical events that have been ascribed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, each of which represents a temporal victory of the Church over her oppressors.

“Our glorious Queen,” he explains, “since her Assumption on high, has been the minister of numberless services to the elect people of God upon earth, and to His Holy Church.” For my purpose, the particular events that Newman lists are less important than the principle that the Blessed Virgin remains vigilant over her children, offering solace and protection. This tells us that the graces and benefits of St. Mary’s prayers are not confined to future reward. “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,” says the Memorare prayer, “that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.” Inspired by this confidence, we ask our Blessed Mother never to despise our petitions, confident that Mary, Help of Christians, will not leave us unaided.

The Blessed Virgin Mary brought Heaven to earth so that we may live on earth as in Heaven. This tells us that our hope lies in Heaven, indeed. But Mary’s role in the economy of salvation cannot be separated from her reign of peace and justice, in this world in which we travail. The Incarnation tells us that the Gospel is the redemption of all things. As the Vessel of that Incarnation, the political implication of St. Mary is no less than that of her Son, our Savior.