The Book That Will Make You a Saint by Brian Schnell

Author:Brian Schnell [Schnell, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brian Schnell
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Our Advocate Before the King

The last attribute of Mary’s we will consider combines her roles of Mother and Mediator: her Advocacy. Here we will see just how powerful and significant the intercessory prayers of Our Lady truly are.

We see Mary’s intercessory role on display in Cana. Speaking on behalf of the new couple, she approaches Jesus with this problematic detail for a long and successful wedding feast: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). In response, Jesus tells her that his “hour has not yet come” (Jn 2:4). It’s as if he is saying, “No one knows who I am yet. My hour—the inevitable road to the Cross—hasn’t arrived. If I do what you ask right now, I will begin to expose myself and the path to Calvary will begin. Are you OK with that?” Whether or not the conversation continued from there, John does not record. He simply records Mary seeking out the servants and, anticipating and expecting her Son’s action, tells them to “do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). To her Son, whether explicitly or implicitly, her answer was—as it always was—yes.

But this lone example from Scripture is not just a way of showing what a keen-eyed wedding guest the mother of Jesus was. Next time you’re at a wedding and the deposit on the open bar runs out and you suddenly find yourself at a cash bar, invoking Mary’s intercession at Cana may not be your best approach. Rather, this exchange is exemplary of another of Mary’s roles and one which is key to understanding her intercessory prowess: Queen Mother.

In the book of First Kings, shortly after King Solomon ascends to the throne of Israel, his half-brother Adonijah approaches Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba, with a request. Note that he does not approach Solomon himself. What he desires is compensation for not being the one chosen to succeed David, his and Solomon’s father. To Bathsheba he says, “Pray ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite [a maidservant to King David in his old age] as my wife” (1 Kgs 2:17). Notice Adonijah’s confidence. He asks Bathsheba to make this request rather than making the request himself because he believes that Solomon will not refuse his mother.

This confidence does not seem ungrounded, either. “So Bathsheba went to King Solomon, to speak to him on behalf of Adonijah. And the king rose to meet her, and bowed down to her; then he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right” (1 Kgs 2:19). What unusual behavior for a king! What king rises to meet anyone? What king bows to anyone? Who but only the most important people sit at the king’s right hand?87 Bathsheba was definitely no ordinary woman.

Now, not only did Solomon not grant Adonijah’s request, but he had him killed. You see, a lesson that Adonijah likely learned from his rebellious older brother Absalom is that if you marry the king’s women—or at

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