Audio only:
From ancient times, Christians have celebrated the Assumption of Mary on August 15. In modern times, the celebration of the Coronation of Mary has been joined to that feast. Father Hugh Barbour reviews the history and theology of these Marian celebrations, and explains why they should fill you with joy.
Cy Kellett:
We’ve got a special episode in honor of Mary, our queen right now on Catholic Answers Focus.
Hello and welcome to Focus. The Catholic Answers Podcast for living, understanding and defending the Catholic faith. Don’t forget to subscribe, wherever you subscribe for your podcast, so you’ll be notified when new episodes are available. And Please leave us that five star review, if you’re willing. That’ll help us grow the podcast.
From ancient times, Christians have celebrated the Assumption of Mary on August 15th. In modern times, we added a celebration of the coronation of Mary to be joined to that feast. The idea of the queen of Mary has been around for a long time, but this new feast was connected only in recent years to the assumption of Mary, which gives us a nice little season of Mary right in the middle of summer. So we had father Hugh Barbour come in and record this special episode in honor of Mary the queen to talk about the history and the theology of these Marian celebrations. So we can explain really why they should fill you with all kinds of joy. Here’s Father Hugh.
Thanks for doing this. This is a special episode father for a very special person and a very special occasion. So thank you for doing it with us.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Yes. Well, I’m not the special person in this case.
Cy Kellett:
You are a special person, but in this case you are not the one.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
It’s the most specialist person.
Cy Kellett:
The most specialist, yes.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Most special of human persons since our Lord is not a human person, he’s God of the human nature. So the only most special human person after that could be, and she’s the first-
Cy Kellett:
Can I go even farther than that? I can go even farther than that. The most special non-divine person, not just the most special human person.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Right. She’s the most special human person and she is the most special non-divine person. You’re exactly right. Those little metaphysical categories are taken care of in Mary. She’s the first in one line and the absolutely fourth in the other.
Cy Kellett:
We’re going to talk about her Assumption and Coronation. These things go together. I’m very glad she was assumed in heaven. That’s good for her. I’m very glad she was crowned Queen of Heaven. That’s good for us because you couldn’t get a better person to be Queen of Heaven. She’s the best person for the job.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Without a doubt.
Cy Kellett:
Without a doubt.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Well, to rule over others, you’re supposed to be good and you’re supposed to be powerful, and you’re supposed to be wise.
Cy Kellett:
Yes.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
And you’re supposed to be happy. So she has all the qualities of a perfect ruler. She’s good. She’s powerful. She’s wise. And she’s happy. That’s the model ruler, according to Saint Thomas. So right there she is, our Lady, happy, wise, powerful and good.
Cy Kellett:
Okay. So let’s start with the Assumption then.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Yes.
Cy Kellett:
Because these-
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
We always start with assumptions but sometimes they’re mistaken, but in this case we have an assumption which is not mistaken, which has been dogmatically defined as absolutely certain. Okay.
Cy Kellett:
There is no knowledge in this life without assumption. But the Assumption of Mary otherwise is… Okay. So it is good for Mary that she is assumed into heaven, but it’s also the kind of culmination of the good news for us too, right?
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Absolutely.
Cy Kellett:
Okay. So could you explain that?
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Well, when you consider that our lady’s Assumption is simply the reward of her almost infinite merits touching on the infinite as Saint Thomas says, very great charity and the fulfillment of her human nature and her spiritual struggle in union with her son. So it’s supremely important and appropriate that she should share in his fate, suffering with him at the foot of the cross, and then sharing in the glory of his resurrection and his heavenly exaltation.
So our lady is a share and what we celebrate the last few days of Holy Week with Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter. And it becomes that reality for her. So true is this, that in the Byzantine rite in the Middle East, at least, and Jerusalem and other places, they celebrate an actual burial service of our lady, venerating her tomb, and then celebrate her exaltation and Assumption and a resurrection just as a little mini Marian Easter in the middle of the summer.
Cy Kellett:
In the summer. Yeah.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Right. And so, consequently, yes, it’s specifically appropriate for her, but it’s the end and the goal for all of us, because we’re all meant to share in the resurrection of Christ. I am the resurrection and the life. He believes in me, even though he die yet shall he live. And it says, Jesus Christ is the firstborn among the dead. And there are many others to follow, including you and me-
Cy Kellett:
Yes, praise God. Thank you.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
… and everybody listening to this. I hope they’re many. I hope I don’t look and check and see the podcast and see, “Oh, one person liked this.”
Cy Kellett:
By the way, father checks. So could you just, every time father does one of these, put a like on there because father checks.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
When I’m done checking, it’s just like, “Well, okay. It must be something they did in the office,” but anyway, it’s okay. But any case, somebody didn’t hear the good news, what’s the good news? Eternal life risen and glorious and incapable of suffering the dead in the company of all God’s blessed ones with the vision of his face. That’s what our lady has. And in this way, she’s no different from the rest of us. She’s just the first to receive this gift who was a mere human person.
And consequently, because the just whom our Lord visited on Holy Saturday and gave the vision of his face and brought to heaven that is Ascension, they didn’t all rise from the dead yet. Some of them did. There’s a very beautiful homily of John the 23rd on Ascension Thursday 1962, in which he asserts that when it says that many came forth from the tombs at our Lord’s death and resurrection that we may possibly believe that these include Saint Joseph and perhaps Saint John the Baptist.
So there are other people who have risen from the dead. That’s why when our lady was defined as assumed into heaven, Pius XII doesn’t say by a singular privilege. He doesn’t say that. Now with the Immaculate Conception, that’s a singular privilege. But our Lord rose Lazarus from the dead who of course died subsequently. And there been other resurrections of people who died only to die finally and again. But who knows what might’ve happened with these others who rose when our Lord suffered and died for us and John XXIII mentions that in his homily there. A little known reference. I throw it out there.
Cy Kellett:
I know you listened to that a homily live because even as a baby, you listen to papal homilies. That’s how holy you are. You were a tiny little baby.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
I listen to my father’s sermons, which were not pontifical. They were just simply ministerial.
Cy Kellett:
Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. So, okay. So that’s actually beautiful to connect that too. Because there’s this kind of a weird thing in Matthew’s gospel about these resurrections and you go, “Wait, what is that all about?” It’s connected to the kind of a sign of the general resurrection. Yeah.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Resurrection. And also that not only would the apostles bear witness to our Lord’s resurrection into its reality, but also some of those to whom he descended would also bear witness in the flesh to the living. So there’d be a complete witness of Earth under the Earth and above the Earth, the angels bear witness, men on Earth bear witness, the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, and then even the dead to whom he descended. So everybody gives witness.
Cy Kellett:
Uh-huh. Okay. How ancient is this August 15th commemoration of the Assumption of Mary?
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Well, the date of August 15th is exceedingly ancient. In fact, it’s so ancient that it’s sort of like the original Marian feast period. Just like we always say Easter is the most important feast of Christ. Well, the Assumption was the earliest feast of the blessed mother, which was for her. It was the passing or the Dormition of the Virgin Mary or the Mother of God celebrated normally in August, but also celebrated in some places in Ethiopian church it’s later on. It’s like in February, I don’t know why, but anyway, they’re early dates.
But the August 15th date goes way, way back to the earliest records in the late 3rd century. Which means that if it was in late 3rd century and written down, it meant that it was older than that because they didn’t make stuff up and say, “Hey, why don’t we try doing this?” It wasn’t the liturgical mentality of the ancient church. Normally when you see something happening at one date, it means it kind of started a good day before. You can push it back a bit.
Cy Kellett:
And then in the Constantine church, it starts to get written down and recorded.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Right, right. With elections of homilies and then also because of the question of worship then the reflection on the event itself, which of course in the case of our lady’s Assumption gets a great deal of reflection. Finally, most importantly, by Saint John Dennison and Saint John of Constantinople and several others. And of course the liturgical texts of the eastern church in particular.
Cy Kellett:
But now we have a kind of, I shouldn’t say kind of. It is an octave actually, right?
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Well, it’s not officially liturgically octave, but let’s say the church has a tradition of extending the celebration of a major feast for until the 8th day that isn’t until the eight days go around, eight full days, right. The ancient sense of eight days. And now in the current liturgy, we only have two octaves, Christmas and Easter. In the extraordinary form in its last incarnation, it was 1962. It was Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.
But before then, a lot of other fees had octaves. Epiphany, Corpus Christi, the Sacred Heart, and then major saints days, Immaculate Conception. There were a lot of them, which meant that although the liturgy continued according to the season on any given day, there’d be still be a little lingering commemoration of the feast that have been celebrated so many days before.
So what we have now is we have the Assumption of our lady, but then the 8th day after we have the celebration of her coronation or her heavenly glory. And so that forms a little kind of Marian season there in the middle of August, between her Assumption and her glorification. Similarly, we have with Mary, her Nativity on the 8th of September, and then on November 21st, a little bit longer, we have her presentation in the temple as a young girl.
And of course the whole thing really starts with December 8th with her conception, which then goes to September 8th, her birth and so on. So the calendar has these little sub themes that are moving around underneath. There’s also a little cycle that has to be John the Baptist, at least his birth and his beheading, but also his conception, if you follow the Eastern Rite. And so they’re various things like this. All right? So we have a little Marian season between August 15th and August 22nd.
Cy Kellett:
The Coronation of Mary, however, is not of ancient date.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
No, not as a feast day. As a feast day, it was established, it’s very modern. It’s like the Feast of Christ the King that was established in 1926 by Pope Pius XI to emphasize our Lord’s role, not just as King of Heaven, but also as king of the human race, the natural king of human race. And then Pius XII established the Feast of the Queenship of Mary, which at time was put on May 31st in the traditional calendars, that’s where it’s found traditional as of 1954. And that was in order to emphasize and honor the role of our lady within the Kingship Christ, but also to give her an additional honor in the calendar for the Marian year of 1954, which was to celebrate the centenary of her Immaculate Conception’s definition. Okay. Just as Pius XII defined the Assumption of a lady as a dogma faith in 1950, as a response to the horrors and the errors about human dignity that were committed at that time, and during the second World War to communism and national socialism.
So he emphasized by defining her Assumption, the ultimate dignity of the human person as made in the glorious image of God, to reign forever with him far beyond any human categories of race or politics or whatever. So he established that feast day, but the term queen for our lady goes way, way, way back. Continually, it’s using the church as liturgies, both wast and west. She’s queen of all kinds of things and persons. And of course, since she’s the mother of the king, she’s obviously a queen herself. That’s an Old Testament reasoning even.
Queen mother. So the devotion to her queenship or her depiction as the queen is very, very ancient. And we see that in church art and in the invocation of our lady in the liturgy, but a specific feast day is more recent. That is as of the 1950s and in the 60s, when they revised the missile, they moved that feast day to this octave day, which very appropriate. It’s actually seems more appropriate than May 31st. That is because it kind of compliments then her heavenly glory complimenting her heavenly assumption.
Cy Kellett:
Yeah. So just in a theological sense then, having gotten that kind of history of the Coronation of Mary, what is it? Does it mean she actually is crowned with a physical crown? Does it mean that she actually has a ruling authority that is an office, so to speak?
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Well as for the physical crown, if she wants to appear with one, then she does. Okay?
Cy Kellett:
She gets to do what she wants then.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
But her coronation was not a ceremony like that for the Queen of England or something like that. But that term is used to mean that the crown is the recognition of the supreme value and authority of the person who receives it. Okay? So a royal crown is particularly significant in that regard. That’s why the Pope used to wear a triple crown to show that his authority was especially great. But our lady, so yes, I think when she wants to appear with one, she does. That happened at Fatima. But no, her coronation in heaven was not a ceremony. It was rather the end or fulfillment or there was so much more than a ceremony because it was actually the full revelation or establishment of the order of the universe period.
Like the universe being created or being recreated or being confirmed or completed where everything kind of stops. It’s not expanding anymore for the moment. This lady is God’s wisdom in creation. And she gave birth to God who is wisdom. And so she’s now in her place as the queen of all, as Christ is in this place as the king of all to the triumph of his cross and his resurrection. So it’s an event that goes way beyond a nice court ceremony where you recognize her dignity. And as far as power goes, yes, absolutely. It indicates the exercise of a great power, which she has by way of her intercession and her merits.
Her merits, which touch on the infinite because our lady grew in grace exponentially, which means that unlike lesser saints like you or me or anyone that’s listening to this. Where we grow in grace and merit a little bit at a time, but we rarely use the full measure of love that we’re capable of using at any one point. But if we use that full measure, we would grow in grace. We would say exponentially, like if you use all the charity that you’ve ever gained your entire life, by all your good deeds and all your love for God and all your merit, if it all came to rest on one cup of cold water, like our Lord says. Or any act of love, your charity would just be growing exponentially like wild.
As my mother used to say, she was from the south, “Like wild.” Now that’s our lady’s charity. It grew exponentially at every instant it grew and it grew and it grew and it grew and it grew. So her power of her merit, because merit’s based on love. I remember that so you can tell Protestants that merit is based upon the degree in which you love God and your neighbor.
Cy Kellett:
Because nothing else could merit anything from God. Yeah.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
It’s not just a bare knuckles, white knuckles work. It’s love that matters. That’s why you can have more merit in a loving action than you can have one which is quantitatively bigger. So our lady is therefore has great power by the merit of her charity, but also by her role as the Nother of the Son of God. Because as Mother of the Son of God, she is in a very true sense. A principle of God. She’s something from which God comes. Now that the father is the divine source of the son. But his being father of the son is not a different affiliation than Mary’s being mother of the son that is Jesus-
Cy Kellett:
She’s not two people.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
He’s one son and his affiliation is one. And so the same thing by virtue of which he’s son of the eternal father, God from God light from light, true God from true God, begot not made of one [inaudible 00:17:49] of the father before all things are made by whom all things were made. That one is the one who is also the son of Mary, the same son by the same title. That’s why this such a mystery. How can a mere human person no matter how holy be the principle of a divine affiliation jointly with God the Father? That seems impossible.
But just like your mother and father, although it seems impossible came together to produce Cy. So our lady and God, the Father by a mystery beyond our understanding joined the human and divine in this one, single affiliation. So as the Father says, “This is my beloved son, listen to him.” So our lady says at Cana do whatever he tells you. [crosstalk 00:18:35]
Cy Kellett:
Yeah. Both parental commandment. Yeah.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Right, right.
Cy Kellett:
Wow.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
She knew what she was doing. Despite of all the scholars, she knew what she was doing, right, she had her moments of darkness and sadness and the dark night of faith and all that kind of thing that everyone has. But that only means it was stronger and better. It didn’t mean that she was ignorant. This is the part I don’t like. Right? She wasn’t ever ignorant.
Cy Kellett:
The modern world is going to pass away and then people will stop talking that way about Mary.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Yeah. They really will. Yeah. Poor little barefoot country girl didn’t know what happened to her.
Cy Kellett:
Well, they say the same thing about Jesus though.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Yeah, of course. Right, right. It’s absolutely ridiculous. And that’s called scholarship.
Cy Kellett:
Yeah. But it’ll pass. This too shall pass.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
You have to learn German to learn that stuff. You should just speak Mountaineer and then you realize that their Christology is far better than that.
Cy Kellett:
So she is assumed. She is our queen. She’s the queen, but not just our queen though. The queen of all-
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Angels.
Cy Kellett:
The queen of angels. Yeah.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Of all the saints and all the ranks of saints and of nations and of religious institutes and of professions and of the souls who are not yet in heaven, the souls in purgatory.
Cy Kellett:
Yeah. And the more you know her and I do believe it’s very possible to know her. She wants you to know her. The more you know her, the more you rejoice in the fact that she’s in that role and no one else is. Because-
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
No one can be. She’s it. It’s just because we would experience her individuality as we would anyone else’s. You want her to be who she is.
Cy Kellett:
Yeah. Right, right. Father, anything else you want to tell us before we go?
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Well, just honor her in this month of August by making acts of love and hope. That you will follow her where she has gone and put your trust in her accession no matter how difficult things are that she really will draw you along with herself, into the happiness of heaven. Just when you’re meditating on the mysteries of the rosary, be sure to meditate carefully on her Assumption and coronation and rejoice in that. And she’ll do the rest because she has lots of better things for us than can hope or imagine.
Cy Kellett:
Father Hugh Barbour it’s always great. It’s always great.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Good to talk with you.
Cy Kellett:
It’s great to talk with you. I feel like closer to Mary now from that, that makes me really happy. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
You’re welcome. God bless.
Cy Kellett:
And what do we say to the Queen of Heaven? Salve Regina? Is that the right word?
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Salve is like hello or hail in Latin. So yes. And in Greek, it’s [foreign language 00:21:12] It’s the same thing, hello or hail. And hail, it all goes to the same word. That means a being of good health.
Cy Kellett:
Oh, okay.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Hail means health. All right? That’s hail. Hail means health. Hail and Hearty.
Cy Kellett:
Hail and Hearty. Yeah.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
Right. Right. Salve means be healthy, as in like Salve to safety. So it’s all the same thing. Be flourishing.
Cy Kellett:
Then I’ll say it, Salve Regina.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
[foreign language 00:21:40].
Cy Kellett:
Thank you, father.
Fr. Hugh Barbour:
There you go.
Cy Kellett:
It’s good to have a queen. I’m not exactly sure why. It just feels really good that God has given us a queen and she’s the Queen of Heaven. She’s the queen of angels. She’s queen of peace. She’s the queen of all of us. She’s the queen of this universe. And we should be grateful for that. And we’re grateful to Father Hugh Barbour for doing this special episode with us. Don’t forget. You can always email us right here. Just send it to focus@catholic.com. Subscribe to Focus wherever you subscribe to podcasts so that you can get updates on new episodes.
And if you’re watching on YouTube, especially during this special episode, as we talk about Mary, the Queen of Heaven, the queen of all of us, she really liked Zach and she would like Zach to keep his job. And the way he’s going to keep his job is if we grow this thing on YouTube. So don’t forget to like and subscribe if you’re a YouTube watcher.
Also, we could really use your financial support. We really good. It costs money to do these. And you can support us by going over to givecatholic.com and giving whatever amount is comfortable for you there. Thanks so much. I’m Cy Kellett, your host. This is Catholic Answers Focus and we’ll see you next time right here God willing when we tackle another important Catholic issue.