Immaculate Battle Queen

by Fr. Donald Calloway, M.I.C.

Did you ever notice that the bookends of time describe a spiritual battle in which a war is being waged between a woman, her offspring, and a serpent (see Gen. 3:15 and Rev. 12:1–17)?

The very fact that Sacred Scripture reveals to us this aspect of divine Revelation should make us understand that the person of the woman involved in this spiritual battle is of major significance for understanding God’s providential plan. As a matter of fact, even St. Paul noted the very important role of the woman in God’s plan when he addressed the Galatians in the following words: “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4). It seems like this woman is an indispensable part of salvation history, playing a major role in God’s battle strategy to save us from the serpent and bring us into a filial relationship with Him.

God is perfect and doesn’t make mistakes. He only has one set plan for mankind—to create, redeem, and sanctify man and bring him into a filial relationship with Him. And nothing will get in the way of that but man himself. When Adam and Eve fell at the beginning of time, the Holy Trinity and the obedient angels did not break into small groups and hold workshops on how to develop a “plan B” since things went awry. On the contrary! If God did not anticipate the fall of man and allow for original sin and its consequences in His original plan, then God would not be omniscient and He would appear to be simply rolling dice in eternity. Yet, this makes no sense in light of the fact that God cannot make mistakes. If we hold that God has a plan B because His original plan did not work, then we deny His perfection as God. In short, God has no plan B because He is God.

Why is this little theological treatise important when speaking about the importance of the woman described in the passages above? It is important because without the Virgin Mary, to whom all of these passages refer, none of these things—redemption, sanctification, filiation, etc.—would be possible!

Yes, I know—this is a bold statement. However, any person who claims to be a Christian should accept this aspect of divine Revelation and consider its implications. Why? Because God most certainly could have created, redeemed, sanctified, and made us His sons and daughters in many other ways. Instead, He chose a plan that intrinsically involved the role of the woman, the Virgin Mary.

Once we understand this truth, we must affirm that there is another being who also knows this: the serpent. This explains why the serpent, in his never-ending thirst to destroy God’s plan, first goes after the woman. True, the serpent does not have divine omniscience—but he is very, very intelligent. He knows full well that if he wants to wreak havoc in God’s plan, he is going to have to take out the pivotal piece, the crown of all creation, through which the whole plan is going to take place—namely, the woman who is to give birth to the Messiah. It is ultimately the Messiah who, with the woman, crushes the serpent’s head and assures the victory by redeeming us and giving us a share in His divine nature (cf. 2 Pt. 1:4).

In essence, the battle strategy of the serpent is to separate us from the woman, the one through whom victory comes, and to make us distrust God by thinking He has a plan B. This is what the devil thinks because he has no trust in God. This is why, after all these centuries, Satan still attacks the woman, believing that somehow he can destroy her. What the serpent actually believes is that God has made a mistake and in no way could have made the entire plan depend upon the cooperation of a woman.

The Virgin Mary, then, is not only the masterpiece of divine mercy and the tender mother of Jesus Christ. She is also God’s Immaculate Battle Queen and ultimate fighting machine! However, this warrior queen, the Immaculata, is not to be understood as some impersonal mechanistic robot. Rather, she is the one who has been fully equipped for the mission given to her: She is “full of grace” (cf. Lk. 1:28), the terror of demons, conqueror of all heresies, and pattern of the unconquerable fighting machine that has been established by God in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

The Catholic Church is unconquerable for two reasons: First of all, Jesus Christ said it was so (cf. Mt. 16:18). Second, the Immaculate Battle Queen serves as the blueprint of the Immaculate Battle Church, and since the blueprint can never be overcome, neither can the Church that is modeled after her. God has not entered upon the project of creation and redemption unprepared. On the contrary, He has confounded His enemy, the serpent, by making Mary—and the Church by participation—the refuge, protectress, and hope of mankind.

This explains why the ancient serpent will always attack the Catholic Church! He longs for the destruction of the woman, and since he knows he can’t have her, he seeks to destroy those who are being patterned off of her because they are still in a state of transition to their immaculate, perfected form. We can now see how the Church on earth will always be the Church Militant. We are at war!

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to understand these theological truths is through the game of chess. This may seem odd, but many holy men and women have offered this insight. For example, did you know that St. Maximilian Kolbe (the founder of the Militia Immaculatae) loved and played chess? Or what about St. Teresa of Avila, the great Carmelite reformer? Did you know that she included a discussion of the game of chess in her classic work, The Way of Perfection? It’s true. Even John Paul the Great loved chess.

So why chess? Simply put, the entire meaning and purpose of the game are centered on the king. Anyone who denies that is crazy. However, anyone who denies that the role of the queen is indispensable is also crazy! Try playing a game of chess without a queen and you will most certainly lose. Though the game is all about the king, every piece on the board seeks to serve the king by serving and protecting the queen.

In a sense, every piece on the board can be seen as a particular vocation in the Church Militant. Each must seek to come to the defense of the queen—Mary, and the Church that is patterned off of her—and protect her, because to protect her is to protect the king. When the pieces work together, they can defeat the enemy quickly. In addition, when the bishops work together, they can dominate a board and allow the queen to crush the head of the enemy. It’s as easy as that!

Just as it is in chess, so it is in life. The woman, the battle queen—and by extension, the Church—is indispensable for victory. The serpent, the opponent, knows this. Do you?

Fr. Donald Calloway is the house superior and director of vocations for the Marians of the Immaculate Conception in Steubenville, Ohio.

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