Fairest of Them All 

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” It’s the best-known line from one of America’s best-loved films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), which ushered in the golden age of Disney animation and is considered an all-time classic. In a few weeks the Disney Corporation plans to release a live-action version, certain to be far inferior to the one they made almost 90 years ago. Skip it. But as good as the story of Snow White is, I am suspicious about that magic mirror. If it really knew what it was talking about, it would have known that the fairest of them all is neither Snow White, nor the evil Queen, but Our Lady. And it’s not even close. 

Last weekend we introduced at Mass the Marian hymn Ave Regina Coelorum, which means “Hail! Queen of the Heavens.” We will sing it as a Communion meditation until Holy Week. It’s a short hymn, that praises Mary as glorious (gloriosa), lovely (speciosa), and beautiful (decora). Of course, in Heaven there is nothing more beautiful than God, the Most Holy Trinity, who is the source of all beauty and all glory and thus infinitely more beautiful and glorious than His creatures. But among God’s creatures in Heaven, none is more beautiful than Mary. It is a sign of God’s special love for her. While it’s true that God loves everyone with His whole heart, He also loves some people more than others. If that sounds confusing, we might find the following analogy helpful. The sun that shines in the sky, pours forth its light indiscriminately. But a tree receives more of the sun’s light than a blade of grass. The intensity of the light from the sun is the same for both, but its size gives the tree greater capacity to receive the light and so receives more. It’s kind of like that when it comes to the way God loves His creatures, and He made Mary with the greatest capacity to receive His love because He loves her most. And that’s what makes her so beautiful. She is filled to overflowing with grace and love, as all the saints in Heaven are. But she can receive more – far more – than all the others. To use another analogy, Our Lady is like the moon in the night sky, which shines more brightly and more beautifully than anything else, receiving all its lovely luminosity from the sun. 

When we learn that God loves Mary most, it shouldn’t make us feel like the evil Queen in Snow White, who burned with envy at the beauty of the young maiden. To envy the beauty of Mary would make no sense. It would be like envying the beauty of the moon, which is a gift to those who behold it, just as much as it is a gift to the moon. Her beauty should fill us with wonder, and love, and gratitude, just as it fills Mary herself with wonder, love, and gratitude to God. For that reason, after receiving Communion, we sing: Ave Regina coelorum/ Ave Domina Angelorum/ Salve radix, salve porta/ Ex qua mundo lux est orta/ Gaude, Virgo gloriousa/ Super omnes speciosa/ Vale, O valde decora/ Et pro nobis Christum exora (Hail! Queen of the Heavens!/ Hail, Lady of the Angels!/ Hail root and hail gate,/ Through which the Light has risen upon the world!/ Rejoice, O Glorious Virgin,/ Loveliness surpassing all!/ Hail, O hail Beautiful One!/ And pray to Christ for us). 

posted 2/8/25