Thursday, August 12, 2010

August 12 – "Vivat!"




As Elizabeth entered the Abbey, the thousand guests heard the music swell, “I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me, Let Us Go Up to the Courts of the Lord!” She stepped into the nave, and the voices cried out with an effect that raised the hair on the back of every neck . . . “Vivat! Vivat Regina! Vivat Regina Elizabetha!” (Live! Live, O Queen! Live, Queen Elizabeth!”)

One wonders if something like that might be heard when we are born again into newness of life, the proclamation resounding on earth just as angels might anthem in joy in the heavens: “Live Now, Born of God! Live Forever!”

The Archbishop, as we have seen, led her in a circuit to face the north, south, east, and west of the Abbey, presenting her to all those in attendance and to all those on the face of the earth over whom she would reign. She took her seat in her Chair of Estate, just a few steps away from St. Edward’s Chair, the throne which would soon be hers, which stood on a raised dais covered with golden carpeting.

The Archbishop led Elizabeth in the Coronation Oath, and she made promises to govern according to the law and to temper all her judgments with mercy. She vowed to uphold the Church in England and to preserve the rights of the Clergy.

With the Sword of State going before her, she went to kneel at the altar, with her hand upon the Bible and to say, “The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.” The Oath was presented to her on vellum to sign.

Are we glad we do not have to go through the exactations of office when we come to God, that we do not have to publicly vow and promise that we will live as we should and live for Jesus Christ? We are very glad! Even so, since our “yes” is taken by God as “yes,” and our “no” as “no,” what difference might it make to us and others if we gave our “yes” to the Scriptures that admonish us to Christlikeness?
What if we should give our yes and keep it, when the message of the Gospel comes to us to encourage and correct and guide us?

Reigning in life! . . . it is our vocation . . . have we given it our "yes", yet?

Just food for thought today, here, in the Monastery of the Heart.

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