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WHO SITS AT JESUS’ RIGHT HAND? Folks, Today’s Gospel reading from Mark 10:35-44 recounts the request of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, to sit one on His right hand and the other on His left when He comes in His glory. Matthew 20:202 has the request being made by their mother. Maybe the two men had their mother make the request on their behalf, thus fulfilling what Mark records. Nevertheless, aside from that little nuance, there is something else important here. Jesus was the Son of David and hence heir to the Throne of the Kingdom of Israel. As such, He occupies the same status that Solomon, David’s immediate son by Bathsheba, held. And 1st Kings 2:19 records that Solomon had his mother – whom we would call the Queen Mother – sit at his right hand while he was on his throne. In the same way, just as Bathsheba was Queen Mother to Solomon, so is the Blessed Virgin Mary Queen Mother to Her Son, Jesus. And it is She who sits at His right hand in Heaven, having (like Enoch and Elijah) been assumed body and soul into Heaven at the end of Her earthly life. Thus does Revelation 11:19-12:1 state: Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant, the Mother of God (for Jesus is fully God) is Queen Mother of both Jesus and His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, having been given to the Church in John 19:26-27, and the Church to Her: When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.