August 10 – Crowning Glory

As we have taken an overall look at Elizabeth II and her royal life, let us now look more closely at the event which gives her life its depth of character and, for her, reality.

When King George VI died quietly in the night of February 2, 1952, his elder daughter, Elizabeth became Queen. When he drew his last breath, she breathed her first as Monarch.

It was sixteen months later that the Coronation Coach drove up to the doors of Buckingham Palace and collected the young Queen for her celebratory and ceremonial ride to Westminster Abbey where she was to be crowned with the magnificent St. Edward’s crown, worn only once in the life of any monarch. From then on, whenever attending State functions, she would don the Imperial Crown of Great Britain, also surmounted by a cross, and it would come to be revealed whether or not all the holy and symbolic rite of coronation would be, in her life, carried out under the influence of the Cross.

For us, the “nuns” of Cor Unum, we have to look inside out. We are crowned with “glory and honor” (Psalm 5:8,) and it gains for us sometimes derision . . . may it never be because we are prideful, aloof, foolish or contemptible! We are crowned with “lovingkindness and tender mercies.” Who sees this glittering diadem? Its brilliance is more dazzling than the sun at its morning zenith, but no one sees anything more than the reflection of our own kindness and compassion toward others.

Crown and sword, orb and scepter, robes of state and ring and anointing oil; Elizabeth was vested with earthly tokens which we ought bear in at least as much majesty.

As she was assiduously taught what was about to take place on that rainy June morning, let us remember what “became of us” on that glorious Third Day.