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Friends, today we celebrate Mary’s Queenship. Mary was the definitive bearer of the divine presence, the Ark of the Covenant par excellence. When she visited her cousin Elizabeth, the infant John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb, doing his own version of David’s dance before the Ark. 

The Queen Mother—like all of the monarchs of Israel—is a fighter. Israel frequently brought the Ark into battle with them. Most famously, the priests paraded around the city of Jericho bearing the Ark, just before the walls came tumbling down. 

The Queenship of Mary is not a sentimental feast. Whenever biblical people spoke of kings or queens, they were speaking of warriors. The question for us is: Which side are we on? Those trained in the Jesuit spiritual tradition know of the “two standards” meditation, which compels us to make the simple choice: In which army do you serve? 

We fight, of course, not with the puny weapons of the world but with the weapons of the Spirit; by God we fight. So don’t just honor and acknowledge the Queenship of Mary; get in her army.