Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth

Today, we Catholics celebrate the Feast of Mary, queen of Heaven and Earth.  The Gospel of today's liturgy is from Luke 1: 26-38, which tells the story of the Annunciation.  An angel, a messenger from God, appears to Mary at age 13 or 14 and tells her that she is "highly favored." "The Lord is with you," she is told. The angels' message disturbs Mary.  She asks herself what this message could possibly mean!  Assuredly, the angel tells Mary to not be afraid. She "has won God's favor! Listen," the angel says to her. "You are to bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the the House of Jacob  forever and his reign will have no end."  What? Mary must have said to herself.  "...[H]ow will this come about," Mary asks the angel. "...I am a virgin?"  "The Holy Spirit will come upon you...and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called the Son of God."  The angel then tells her that her elderly cousin Elizabeth has also conceived and is in her sixth month of pregnancy. "For nothing is impossible with God." Mary then says to the angel: "'I am the handmaid of the Lord,...let what you have said be done to me.' And the angel left her."  

Imagine being this teenage Jewish girl!  Imagine "the Holy Spirit [coming] upon" this teenager and "the power of the Most High [covering her] with its shadow." At that moment, while betrothed to Joseph and not yet married,  she conceives the Son of God.  Mary is pregnant not by man but by God's power and will! She has been chosen to be the Mother of God!

What does Mary do?  Learning that her elderly cousin Elizabeth is six month's pregnant, Mary leaves Nazareth to assist her cousin and confide in her!  She stays with Elizabeth until John the Baptist is born and then returns to  Nazareth three month's pregnant!

At some point, Joseph, her husband-to-be, is told by an angel to not be afraid to take Mary into his home as his wife and that the child she is bearing has been conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit  (See Matthew 1:20-22)! With Mary, Joseph learns to trust God deeply and that "nothing is impossible with God!"

How trusting are you and I?  How does the story of the Annunciation touch our hearts?  Do we recognize that Mary is Queen of heaven and earth, Queen of our hearts and minds and wills?  Do we confide in Mary, as Mary confided in her cousin?