Mary Queen of Heaven

Abraham and Mary

The role of Abraham in Judaism provides a parallel which can shed some light.

At the time of Jesus, the Jews called their "heaven" the "bosom of Abraham" (this was, in fact, not heaven proper but what is known in Catholic theology as the "Limbo of the Fathers"). It was to this "bosom of Abraham" that Jesus made reference in his parable about Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16.

If the blessedness of the "Jewish heaven" flowed from intimacy with the greatest of the Patriarchs, Abraham, how logical that the joys of the ultimate Heaven should flow, in part, from intimacy with the most perfect human being ever created, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Sabbat Queen and Mary

There is also another, more mysterious, way in which it is natural for me as a Jew to see the Blessed Virgin Mary as the "Queen of Heaven." In Judaism the Sabbath is the summit of pre-Messianic life on earth, a kind of antechamber of Heaven, a foretaste of the life to come. And the Sabbath itself is seen, mystically, as a Virgin (i.e. bride) Queen—the Sabbath Queen. Each Friday evening the oncoming Sabbath is greeted with the following song/prayer:

"Come, my Beloved.

Let us welcome Sabbath the Bride, Queen of our days.

Come, let us all greet Sabbath, Queen sublime,

Fountain of blessings in every clime.

Annointed and regal since earliest time,

In thought she preceded Creation's six days.

Arise and shake off the dust of the earth.

Wear glorious garments reflecting your worth.

Messiah will lead us all soon to rebirth.

My soul now senses redemption's warm rays.

Awake and arise to greet the new light

For in your radiance the world will be bright.

Sing out, for darkness is hidden from sight.

The Lord through you His glory displays.

Then your destroyers will themselves be destroyed;

Ravagers, at great distance, will live in a void.

Your God then will celebrate you, overjoyed,

As a groom with his bride when his eyes meet her gaze.

Come in peace, soul mate, sweet gift of the Lord,

Greeted with joy and in song so adored

Amidst God's people, in faith in accord.

Come, Bride Sabbath; come, crown of the days.

Come, my Beloved.

Let us welcome Sabbath the Bride, Queen of our days."

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Repeatedly thoughout this prayer there are parallels between the images of the Sabbath Queen and the Catholic understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven.

It is Mary who is the "fountain of blessings"—that is, the channel though which all of the graces won by Christ flow (source).

In thought she preceded Creation, which is the justification for the Catholic identification of Mary with the personification of Wisdom in the deutero-canonical Book of Wisdom and in Sirach.

Through her the Lord's glory of God is displayed, as sunlight through a flawless crystal.

The destruction of her enemies was foretold in Genesis 3:15, a passage known as the "protoevangelium" precisely because in it Eve foreshadows the Blessed Virgin Mary.

And so forth, throughout the prayer. And just as the Sabbath is the precursor and foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth for Jews, so is the purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary a precursor and foretaste of the perfection of virtue of the God-Man.

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Roy Schoeman

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