Casablanca Queen

Making our moves out of love for Mary

Revelation 11:19A; 12:1  

God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.   

          Do you like to play chess, or do you prefer checkers? You may know that chess is a lot harder and more complicated than checkers. But for that very reason it is far more enjoyable. I recently came across this saying; see if you can understand the gist of it. People say, “He’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.” Do you get it? That means the chess player grasps the gravity and grace in a given moment while the checker player only sees and skims the surface of things. The chess player sees a lot more of what’s going on. By the way, in the movie Casablanca, do you remember what Humphrey Bogart is doing in the opening scene when you first see him? He’s playing chess, and remarkably, he’s playing chess against himself. There’s no worthy opponent. In fact, throughout the whole movie, I believe Bogie is “playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers,” as he anticipates and moves people around the city of Casablanca, as if he were moving pieces on a chessboard.   

          Now, in chess, which piece is the most preeminent and powerful? It is obviously the queen. She can move in multiple directions and glide gracefully from one end of the chess board to the other. In the real-life chess game that Bogart played in Casablanca, who was his queen? It was Ingrid Bergman, and his love for her motivated every move that he made. You see, those who play chess rather than checkers always realize the role and respect that is given to the queen. She is immensely important.   

          Well, I believe we will understand the Scriptures today a little better if we played a little more chess rather than checkers. What do I mean? Well, throughout the Bible we hear about an institution called the “Gebirah” or the “Queen Mother.” In the Old Testament, after King David himself, the second most prominent and powerful person in the kingdom was Bathsheba, the Queen. No one had more influence in the royal court than the queen, just like on the chessboard. That’s why today Psalm 45 says, “The Queen stands are your right hand (at the king’s right hand) arrayed in gold.” In the first reading, Revelation 12:1, John sees what is happening in heaven: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” She is obviously a queen because she’s wearing a crown! And in the gospel Elizabeth says, “And how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” That is, she sees Mary as the Gebirah, the queen-mother of Jesus, the King of Kings. You see, just like Bogie in Casablanca, so too, King David and the Apostle John and Cousin Elizabeth all play chess while everyone else is playing checkers, because they know how important the queen is.   

          On this feast of the Assumption, the Church invites us to start playing more chess and less checkers, spiritually-speaking. That is, try to catch the complexity of Catholicism which is organized more like chess than checkers, and then you’ll realize the role and respect that Catholics accord to Mary, the Queen Mother, the Gebirah; why Catholics love and honor and show such devotion to her. Indeed, the whole of creation is laid out more like a chessboard, with kings and queens, knights and pawns and castles. And John sees this holds true in heaven as well as on earth. Those who play chess always grasp the gravity and grace in the moment because they can catch the complexity of creation, and especially the role of the queen.

          Few have understood how Catholicism is more like chess then checkers than G.K. Chesteron, mainly because he understood Mary. He attributed his own conversion to her intercession. He wrote: “The instant I remembered the Catholic Church, I remembered her (Mary); when I tried to forget the Catholic Church, I tried to forget her (he means Mary); when I finally saw what was nobler than my fate, the freest and the hardest of all my acts of freedom, it was in front of a gilded and very gaudy little image of her (meaning Mary) in the port of Brindisi, that I promised the thing that I would do, if I returned to my own land.” Chesterton promised Mary he would become Catholic. Chesterton loved to play chess while everyone else was playing checkers, especially in his spiritual life, and he couldn’t help but become Catholic. Why? Well because when you play chess, you know that no one can beat the queen.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!