REGALITÀ DI MARIA S.MA. - This is the title that indicates the social functions of the Virgin with regard to the Mystical Body and her relations with the entire universe. The Fathers, the liturgy, the ordinary magisterium and the whole teaching Church attribute this title to Mary (cf. G. Roschini [v. BIBLICA.]).
I. CONCEPT
The royal dignity of Mary cannot be conceived except as dependent on that of Christ, of which it is a participation. Mary's messianic prerogatives have a true resemblance to the powers of Christ the Savior, but they present specific characteristics. Christ communicates to his Mother a particular affinity, which makes her capable of collaborating with him, of acting in union with him, for the same ends, although with an efficacy that, in itself, would be insufficient. To the work of Christ the King, as to that of Christ the Redeemer, Mary brings a kind of complement, which the Father foresaw, willed, and deigns to accept as intimately joined to the action, which alone is necessary, of the Savior. Therefore, although she participates in the royal dignity of Christ, that of Mary does not perfectly coincide with it, above all because of the character of subordination that is inherent in it. It would be to alter the genuine concept of the royal dignity of Mary if one saw in it only a primacy of excellence, founded on the gifts of nature and of Grace. Mary is the masterpiece of the universe and by her perfections she rises above all men and angels, and this moral primacy is affirmed in the litanies, where she is invoked as queen of the Patriarchs, of the Prophets, of the Apostles and of all the saints; but it does not constitute the royal dignity of Mary. Nor would one arrive at the essence of this royal dignity if one recognized in it only that universal dominion which St. Paul attributes to the Christian (1 Cor. 3:21-23). Union with Christ introduces the faithful into his rights, making them so many sons in him who is the eternal Son. Mary too is, with singular excellence, a daughter of the Father, and has a share, more than anyone, in the universal dominion of the adopted sons. But the royal dignity proper to the Mother of Jesus is of another order, immensely higher, inasmuch as it confers on her an authority that exercises its influence on the destiny of men and of the world.II. FOUNDATIONS AND NATURE
One must leave the sphere of [ordinary] realities; a queen-mother does not share in the royal prerogatives of her son; from him she derives nothing but a moral prestige. The case of the Mother of Jesus is totally different. Her dignity as mother of the King of kings constitutes her a true queen, since her motherhood, by the will of God, is surrounded by particular privileges that raise up for her a throne beside that of her son. The bull of Pius IX Ineffabilis Deus (v.) affirms that motherhood associates Mary in an intimate manner with her Son, making her a sharer in his messianic functions, which she exercises with him in dependence upon him and with certain restrictions arising from the condition of woman. St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 27, a. 5 ad 3) emphasizes this aspect: «There is no doubt whatever that the Blessed Virgin received in an excellent manner the gift of wisdom, the grace of miracles and also the gift of prophecy, as Christ had them. Nevertheless, she was not granted to carry out fully the activity of these gifts or of other similar ones, as Christ did, but only to the extent that befitted her condition... For this reason she did not make use of her wisdom to teach, because that would not have befitted a woman». The teaching of Pius IX is founded in Revelation. The Protoevangelium (Gen. 3, 14-15), considered in the light of the New Testament and of Tradition, announces the arising of a woman who will be a sharer in the messiahship of her Son and in dependence upon him. As a new Eve, she must participate in the functions of a new Adam, who will be born of her and who will gather for God a new people, redeeming it, sanctifying it, governing it according to the eternal designs of mercy. The Gospel better delineated the features of the woman of the promise, and the living thought of the Church became ever more clearly conscious of the place of this woman in the economy of salvation. By now the woman of Genesis appears clearly in the plan of an intimate participation in the messianic prerogatives of her Son.This law of the «communicatio» of his attributes as Savior made by Jesus to his Mother, for a very close cooperation, however subordinate, is the principle on which rests the Virgin's participation in the redemption of the human race and authorizes the proclamation of the r. of M. With her assent the Virgin, on the day of the Annunciation, gave in the person of Christ a head, who was to guide all men of good will, in that organic body which is the Church, to the possession of the infinite Good. In this way, a new impulse toward the Father was born from the fiat of the Virgin. Mary, however, did not remain only at the beginning of this orientation. Through her participation in the messianic prerogatives of the Son, all the redeemed are placed under her government. The God-Man, born of Mary, is the king of the universe by absolute right, inseparable from his person (iure nativo) and also by acquired right (iure quaesito) through the new title of Redeemer (v. REGALITÀ DI GESÙ CRISTO). Now since it is certain that the Virgin cooperated with the Redeemer in the salvation of the world, it is to be held that she also shares in that r. which her Son acquired with his blood. The correlation is a new title to the universal r. of Mary. Mary's existence unfolded parallel to that of Jesus, but modeled upon it and moving in the orbit of his Mysteries. It is in heaven, at the right hand of the Father, in the omnipotence of his glorified r., that Jesus is fully Christ and Lord. Similarly, from the moment of her presence beside her Son, in her Assumption, Mary, gathering the fruits of the correlation, exercises her universal r. over the redeemed and over the world, whose destiny is bound up with that of souls (Rom. 8. 19-22).
The work of objective redemption is finished. But Christ now applies redemption to individual souls in the Church (subjective redemption). Christ's royal priesthood is in act because through the individual impulses of Grace and, in a particular manner, through the gift of perseverance, the faithful are led toward their supreme destiny. To designate this activity of salvation, the liturgy employs the verb gubernare, which brings out the royal character, that is, the impulse it gives to souls so that they may reach the supernatural end (cf. Hebr. 9, 24; 7, 25; 4, 9). In her dignity as a new Eve, beside Christ, Mary reigns from on high over the redeemed. In union with her Son, the Co-redemptrix continues the work begun at the Cross; she completes her mediation: she obtains that the accumulation of merits and graces acquired, and to which she added the imploring of her prayer and her tears, be distributed. Certainly, the distribution of any Grace cannot be conceived without the intervention of the Most Holy Trinity and of Christ; only this intervention is absolutely indispensable, only it is sufficient. No one, however, can deny that God willed that Mary exercise her maternal influence in the distribution of Grace. The supreme pontiffs, the theologians, the faithful subscribe to the affirmation of St. Bernard: «Everything comes to us from Mary» (cf. Pius XII, Discorso dell'incoronazione della Madonna di Fatima, in AAS, 38 [1946], p. 266). The Virgin Mary, because she is queen, guides the faithful toward heaven, and introduces them into it, inasmuch as she participates in the distribution of all Graces and in a wholly particular way in that of final perseverance. Thus at every successive moment of their life the faithful are governed by a tenderness and a royal authority, conducted surely, if they second her favors, into eternal happiness.
Pius XI, in his encyclical Ingravescentibus malis of Sept. 29, 1937, invites all the faithful to invoke the august Queen of heaven against atheistic communism (AAS, 29 [1937], p. 380), which looms threateningly over Europe. He further blesses and approves the erection of a cathedral at Port Said and the plan to dedicate it to Mary «Queen of the Universe», and sends there a Legate for the consecration, offering a necklace of gold and diamonds for the statue of Mary Queen. And he also permits that in the diocese of Port Said there be added in the Litany the invocation: «Regina mundi, ora pro nobis» (ibid., p. 373). Pius XII in the solemn formula of consecration of the Church and of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary invokes the Most Holy Virgin as «Queen of the world». The liturgy continually uses toward Mary the title of «Queen»: «Ave, Regina caelorum», «Regina coeli, laetare», «Salve Regina», «Gloriosa regina mundi», etc.
III. FUNZIONI
It is now natural to ask what part the Virgin can have in the legislative, judicial or coercive power of Christ the King, what contribution she can make to the exercise of such powers. The answer, with St. Thomas, isthat Mary can be invested with these powers without having their full use, which is conditioned by Mary's position "secundum quod conveniebat conditioni ipsius" (Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 27, a. 5 ad 3). Christ the King is the supreme legislator of the New Covenant; he is the source of the laws that form the substance of his spiritual Kingdom. The Virgin Queen contributes to these laws, insofar as they are destined for a people that is also her people. In reality she promulgates them together with her Son, approving them with the fullness of her wisdom, adhering to them with all the strength of her spirit. She obtains for the faithful the graces necessary to love the law effectively, to apply it to concrete conditions, to practice it without weakness. Rightly, therefore, the liturgy sometimes addresses to Mary the prayer: "Nutantia corda tu dirige." Moreover, St. Thomas affirms (Sum. Theol., 1a-2ae, q. 108, a. 1) that the New Law consists principally in the grace of the Holy Spirit and that all the rest is but secondary and relative, whether to dispose one to receive the interior law or to indicate how one must submit to all the demands of that same law. It follows that, even if Mary were extraneous to the promulgation of the precepts of the New Testament, its essential element, which is a law of love that acts by influencing inwardly, would belong fully to her, since every grace is hers and the interior law of love is the noblest and most necessary manifestation of the government that guides souls to their end. Thus the royal power of the Madonna is evident in the part that belongs to her in bringing to birth and developing the dynamic interior law, which is the characteristic aspect of the New Testament. As for the judicial and coercive powers, it is not indispensable that they be found in the Madonna's royal function. On the other hand, there seems to be no reason whatsoever not to attribute them to her in their substantial reality. As regards their actual exercise, it is sufficient, in order to safeguard the maternal character of her royalty, to appeal to the principle enunciated by St. Thomas concerning the restriction of the gifts really possessed by the Virgin with respect to their use. In fact, Tradition, which recognizes in her the Mother of mercy, does not seem to grant her any part in the exercise of the Son's ministry of justice. With the Church we hail the Madonna as the Queen of all mercy: "Salve Regina, mater misericordiae." - See plate XXXI.
BIBL.: sources