Do you see what else is locked in this marvelous story of the Annunciation? Mary the Queen of Heaven is there.

Gabriel–The Angel of the Lord says of her son, “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and the his kingdom will never end.”

Jesus Christ the Lord is therefore the king of the Jews by direct appointment of the Father in heaven, and by announcement of his own angel Gabriel. This connects with Jesus’ later preaching about the kingdom, and cannot be disconnected from his own role therefore as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the High King of Heaven.

If this is so, then who is his mother? In the Jewish monarchy, the Queen Mother played the role of the intercessor Queen. She sat at the right hand of her son in majesty. If Jesus Christ is therefore the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, then his mother is seen as the Queen of Heaven. This is not some Catholic adoption of paganism as fundamentalist critics of Catholicism would like to suggest, but it woven into the Scriptural account of the Annunciation.

Furthermore, if Mary is the Queen of Heaven, but virtue of being the mother of the King, then this role too has been ascribed to her by God himself. The angel Gabriel says that “The Lord himself shall give to her son the throne of his father David.” The Lord himself is also, therefore, granting her the role of Queen Mother.

Finally, the unfolding of this truth within the mystery of the Incarnation illustrates perfectly how the role of the Blessed Mother has unfolded within the history of the church and the development of doctrine. The doctrine itself about the Blessed Mother is present in Scripture. It is seen in the role of the Queen Mother in the Old Testament kingdom. It is hidden in this simple story of the meeting of the angel and the girl, and yet packed within this annunciation story is so much more, and as time unfolds and the mystery of the Kingdom, (which St Paul says was hidden for eons, but is now seen in Christ) unfolds we see unfolding with it a clearer and purer understanding of the role of the Mother of God.

What sort of Queen Mother is she? First of all, if she shares in the kingdom of her son, then her rule, with his will never end. She reigns with him and shares the eternal dimension of his rule. If she is a Queen Mother after the Jewish model of monarchy, then she has an intercessory role. She plays the part of an advocate for all those who beseech the monarch for his mercy and favor–and her relationship to us?

The king decreed this from the throne of the cross when he looks to us and says, “Behold your Mother.”