5) CROWING OF MARY

QUEEN OF HEAVEN

Does every life have a crowning moment?

When have been your crowning moments?

What about those folks who feel like they have been miserable failures all their life?

Do we all spend a lot of our time rehashing or rethinking the moments of our life – the decisions, the what if’s, the choices, the things we thought were fair and unfair.

Do we all spend time trying to figure out the motivations of others from the moments of others?

Every funeral has people – especially family – trying to figure out the life of the one who has just died.

We stand there in the funeral parlor talking to each other about the person whose funeral it is.

Every life has defining moments – and if we look deep enough and talk to each other enough – we’ll be able to figure some of the meanings of each other’s life.

People are fond of quoting Andy Warhol’s famous comment, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” This statement appeared in the Catalogue of his Stockholm photo exhibition in 1968. Andy Warhol certainly had his fifteen minutes of fame.

How about each of us?

Mary of Nazareth has had her moments of fame. She has had her picture on the front cover of more magazines than any woman in history – and based on the number of pictures of her, she is the most pictured woman in history.

If the Annunciation was the defining moment in her life, then the crowning moment was her “arrival” in heaven. This crowning moment flowed out of the moment in time when Mary said “Yes” at the Annunciation.

“Hail Mary full of grace.”

Obviously, it’s difficult to picture what life after death is like. We’re dealing with a great mystery.

However, when we use the image of “crowning” pictures come to mind and our imagination.

We’ve all seen kings and queens crowned in movies.

We’ve all seen people honored at banquets.

We’ve seen athletes or teams being crowned as winners – winning the World Series in baseball or the Super Bowl in football or the Stanley Cup in hockey.

A couple of times a year we see advertisements on television to watch the Miss USA or Miss World beauty contests.

So obviously, our imagination can picture God crowning Mary, the spotless one, the one who brought Jesus into the world.

But God is not the only one who has crowned Mary. Christians, but especially Catholics, have honored her right from the beginning.

The words of Elizabeth in the Magnificat have certainly leapt in the womb of human consciousness: pictures and statues of Mary are everywhere – and often she is crowned.

Go into any famous art museum and you’ll find paintings of Mary – by some of history’s greatest artists: Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, El Greco, and on and on.

Go into Catholic homes – especially those of the poor – and you’ll spot an honored picture or statue of Mary on top of a bureau or on the wall.

· Our Mother of Perpetual Help,
· Our Lady of Guadalupe,
· Our Lady of Czestochowa,
· Our Lady of Lourdes,
· Our Lady of Fatima,
· Our Lady of Knock,
· Our Lady of Aparecida
· The Pieta,
· The Immaculate Heart,
· The Immaculate Conception,
· Our Lady of Chartres
· Our Lady of Mount Carmel
· Our Lady of Africa
· Our Lady of Medjugoria

“Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you.”

And the message of the crowning is simple and basic. It is known by everyone: “No cross, no crown.”

Why God chose Mary? Now that’s mystery.

Why God created us? Now that’s mystery.

God calls us to say “Yes” to life as Mary did. Bring Jesus to our world, as Mary did. Then when we march into heaven, we too will realize our life has been royal. We have helped make, “Thy kingdom come!” we will realize that was the crowning moment of our life.

“Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with you.”

The angel Gabriel is not the only one who has greeted Mary with those words. We do over and over again when we say the Rosary – and God says it in the crowning of Mary – the favored one from Nazareth.