Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
On our patronal feast day I offer this reflection on the prayer Hail, Holy Queen:
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Mary is a woman of mercy because she was a woman of suffering. She knew the sorrows of being an unwed mother, refugee, widow and mother of a condemned and executed criminal. Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and weeping over Lazarus reveals a man of deep compassion. In Jesus we see the heart of his mother.
Hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope! Mary’s great gift to Jesus was his Jewishness, embracing life in all its splendor and sorrow. Like faithful Jews of her day, Mary was a woman of the psalms, which she taught by heart to Jesus. She was a woman who joined in the dance at weddings and the wailing at funerals. She stands ready to sing, and dance and wail in our lives, too.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve! As part of their Advent activities, a fourth grade class illustrated any Old Testament scene of their choice. There were plenty of Noahs and Jonahs, but one talented little girl drew a most unusual picture — a car driven by a white bearded old man with two people in the back seat. She explained that it was God the Father driving Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden.
To thee do we send up our sighs mourning and weeping in this valley of tears! John Baptist Purcell, the first archbishop of Cincinnati, traveled to Europe in an attempt to raise money for his frontier diocese. On the return home, his ship hit a violent storm and almost sank. Purcell cried out to Mary, Star of the Sea, to save them. He promised to build her a shrine on the highest spot in Cincinnati.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us! Returning home, the Archbishop found the right spot to honor his Stella Maris. Years earlier, upon visiting Cincinnati, John Quincy Adams made a speech atop one of the city’s seven hills, renouncing Catholicism, meriting Adams the name of that great hill. “Mount Adams” stands today with Mary’s statue atop in view of the entire Ohio River Valley. Adams might have won over political opponents. But he lost his bout with Purcell’s Star of the Sea!
And after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus! The fourth grader’s drawing of God driving Adam and Eve is loaded with truth. God does not want them to eat the fruit. But when they do, God orders, “Get in the car!” God drives on without threat of “turning this car around” despite Adam and Eve (our) constant haranguing “are we there yet?” The car is Christ, a statue of Our Lady of Grace magnetized on the dash.
O clement! O loving! O sweet Virgin Mary! When the great St. Bernard of Clairvaux first heard the Hail, Holy Queen, he fell to his knees and pronounced the invocation now added as part of the prayer. We ride along in that car that is Christ, refueling at our altar each Sunday. Our compassionate Mother of Mercy assures us from the dashboard, especially when the highway of life gets rough in this valley of tears. “I’ll talk to your Father.” And so she does. O clement! O loving! O sweet Virgin Mary!
—Timothy J. Cronin