The first reading, from Isaiah, already sets the whole context for today's memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We can only understand the whole mystery of Mary and her place in the work of our redemption from the perspective of the mystery of Jesus, especially in the Incarnation.

In Genesis 3:1 God made a promise: a saviour, born of a woman, would come to undo the power of the serpent, Satan. All that God did in the history of Israel was in function of that promise. However, nothing in the history of Israel determined the way in which God would fulfil the promise of a Saviour, for all that God does for us is done out of the freedom of divine love.

God could have fulfilled the promise in any way he chose. God chose Mary and clearly associated her in the work of our redemption, not only in giving birth to Jesus, but in her total engagement in all that Jesus did, as symbolized most powerfully in this: she stood beside the Cross and received a new mission, to be mother of the Church.