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Peace Father.

How are you?

Mary is Queen of all reality (she being Gebirah): what role does she have in relation to Jesus, given that they are queen and King?

The Jewish Gebirah did not have the same role as the king, did she? If so, what distinguished the king and queen, and how does this impact the heavenly kingship of God and of Mary later?

Is there any reference to Mary Queen before the Council of Ephesus?

Thank you very much.

I wish you a good and blessed Sunday.

Martin

Priest’s answer

Dear Martin,

1. Who is the Gebirah?

In Israel the Gebirah was the queen mother. She had very great power as emerges from 1 Kings 2,19-20: “Then Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right. “There is one small favor I would ask of you,” she said. “Do not refuse me.” “Ask it, my mother,” the king said to her, “for I will not refuse you.”

2. In the New Testament the Madonna is praised by Elizabeth who at that moment was filled with the Holy Spirit with these words: “The mother of my Lord” (Lk 1,43).

That Lord in the Apocalypse is defined as “the King of kings and the Lord of lords” (Rev 19:16).

Mary is therefore the mother of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, “of the prince of Peace” (Is 9.6), of him who “will rule over the house of Jacob forever” (Lk 1.33).

With these last words: “The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father and he will reign forever over the house of Jacob and his kingdom will have no end” a royal mission is entrusted to Mary. She is the mother of the King of Kings with full title of Queen Mother, of Gebirah.

Even Elizabeth saying: “What do I owe that the mother of my Lord comes to me” since “my Lord” is of a royal nature there is implicit recognition of the dignity of Mary: she is the queen mother, the Gebirah.

It is as if Elizabeth had said: “What do I owe the Queen Mother for coming to me?”.

3. It has been noted that the Gebirah, the queen mother, as such has an official role, which entails special dignity and powers, which do not belong to the queen bride.

The Gebirah is the mistress and is parallel to Adòn (Lord) which in Hebrew does not have the feminine.

4. We have already noted that Solomon made his mother sit at his right hand.

In the ancient East, sitting at the right hand of the king was the same thing as possessing the same power (evidently delegated) as the one whose right he stood at.

To Caiaphas who begs Jesus to tell him if he is the Christ, the son of God, Jesus proclaims his divinity before the highest assembly of the nation, replying thus: “You have said so.  But I tell you: From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.'”(Mt 26,64).

This expression recalls Psalm 110 which begins like this: “Oracle of the Lord to my lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps 110.1).

Here it is the Father who speaks to the Son and recognizes in him a sovereign power equal to his own.

Likewise we read in Mark 16 19: “So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God”.

6. You ask me for a statement that talks about Mary as queen before the Council of Nicaea. Here it is: we even have it in Sacred Scripture. Likewise Beersheba is the queen mother because she is the mother of King Solomon, so Mary is the queen mother because she is the mother of him who is the King of heaven and earth.

7. And so that at the name (before the presence, editor’s note) of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

” (Phil 2, 10-11), so similarly Mary’s kingship extends in heaven, on earth and under the earth.

Rightly, therefore, she is called queen of heaven and earth.

8. The oldest Marian prayer “Under your protection we seek refuge, Holy Mother of God, do not despise the pleas of us who are in trial, but always free us from every danger, oh glorious and blessed virgin” is from the 3rd century and is therefore prior to the Council of Nicaea which dates back to the 4th century (325).

This prayer implies Mary’s royalty when she is called she: Holy Mother of God. She is the Queen Mother.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to talk about this beautiful reality, about the power given to her by the One who from the cross gave her to us as our mother to assist us and provide for us in everything.

With the wish that you will always be able to make use of this royal service, I bless you and remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo