REGINA CAELI, LAETARE

This is the beginning of the wonderful antiphon that takes the place of the Angelus during the Easter season. Here is the original Latin, and my English translation follows: Regina Caeli, Laetare, Alleluia Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia. Rejoice, O Queen of Heaven, Alleluia Because the One you were made worthy to carry, Alleluia Has risen as He said, Alleluia Pray for us to the Father, Alleluia (in some parts, freely translated) This weekend and next we come close to this great celebration, of the Assumption (on 15 August) and its Octave (Queenship of the Blessed Virgin, on 22 August). Both days are on Mondays, but both need to be marked and remarked on. The dogma of the Assumption was only formally declared in 1950, though it was held by the Church since the times of the Church’s early theologians and bishops. Why the delay? Why declare it now, if it’s already been believed? Just for perspective, no papal declaration that the Real Presence in the Eucharist is an item of faith has been made—why bother, when it’s the core of our belief? So, why Mary’s Assumption, and why now? I know one famous person who was a Nazi collaborator, and when World War II ended, he became a professed Buddhist—giving him a convenient way to think that the horrors of the war and the Shoah were less than real (Buddhism, like ancient Greek Stoicism, regarded our lived experiences as “shadow realities”). The alternative to this is to affirm that in the final analysis, no matter the horror, that Love will finally triumph, and that our destiny is not limited to this material, physical existence. Everything will be transformed—even (if I am not speaking blasphemously) the Shoah. This transformation, by the way, does NOT forbid our cry, “Never again!” This transformation, anticipated in the Blessed Mother, is our destiny. It’s the promise of Scripture: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly bodies to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21). If Jesus is the first-fruits (I Corinthians 15:20) of this promise, Mary is the “next-fruits” and the guarantee that what happened in Jesus was not for His own sake, but for all of us who believe and live and move and have our being in Him. Where He has gone, we (like Mary) hope to follow. O Queen of Heaven, Rejoice! And know that if/when we get there, we’ll be queens and kings alongside you, in the power and presence of love of your Son.
-Fr David