An hour ago, the world learned that England’s longest-reigning Monarch, Queen Elizabeth of the House of Windsor, died peacefully in Balmoral Castle. I offered my prayers for her and sat at the shore for a bit, pondering her life. Ascending to the throne in her 30s after the unexpected reign of her father and his subsequent early death, she provided the world with an example of duty not often seen in the secular economy of our times. I offer a few of her thoughts for your edification before I continue. Remember that these are remarks of a monarch, not a member of the clergy, though I can imagine a clergy expressing similar promises:
“I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice. But I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.”
“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”
“As we mark this anniversary, it gives me pleasure to renew to you the pledge I gave in 1947 that my life will always be devoted to your service.”
I have never met the Queen, but she has touched me. How has she touched me? How is it that her life inspires so many who have never met her to pause and say a prayer when she died? The Doctor David Anders Show staff on EWTN prayed for her before they began their broadcast today. The secular media may not be praying, but they remember. What is everyone responding to? I submit we are responding to her soul. We are taking in the universals she exemplified these years: duty, honor, loyalty, and trust. We know these concepts, though we cannot see or touch them; they do not come into us from our senses, nor do our material bodies perform them. Things act according to their being; if something performs immaterial acts, it must be immaterial. Queen Elizabeth’s soul is reaching our souls. And that soul, having no parts, cannot pass out of existence unless God, who causes existence, withdraws his causality.
So, fare-the-well Queen Mum lovely Lilibet, may your soul rest in the Peace of Christ.