God Save the Queen!

I have always been fascinated with kings and queens. Perhaps this is because my name, from the Gaelic for "Little King", has given occasion to reflect on my vocation, which is every person's vocation, to be an image of the "Great King", Jesus Christ.

In this country, where we have never had a monarchy and have fought a Revolution against the government of a corrupt monarch, we tend to be suspicious of monarchy. And there is good cause for suspicion. Even as the people of Israel clamored for a king, the Lord warned:

These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots [...] He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your menservants and maidservants, and the best of your cattle and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. (1 Sam 8:11, 13-17)

This is the Lord's own warning about kings: They will take, and take, and take. Surely there have been bad kings and queens throughout history, perhaps even more bad than good. But then Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, provides the model for true kingship: not to take and take and take, but to give and give and give. "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mar 10:45).

Something of this divine model of benevolent service was echoed on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's succession to the Throne of England. On that occasion, the Queen said, "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." Notice that the Queen speaks of her reign as a service, and not merely in the cold terms of law and duty, but of familial affection.

This year, Queen Elizabeth celebrates her Diamond Jubilee, only the second monarch in British history to do so (Queen Victoria was the first). Reflecting upon her 60 year reign, I cannot help but be impressed by such a distinguished service, in an office which is so often susceptible to corruption. And there are few who would disagree--even many an anti-monarchist--that her service has been distinguished by wisdom, strength, and grace. For Elizabeth was never meant to be Queen; her uncle abdicated the Throne, and her father, who succeeded him, died young. At the breathtaking age of 26, she accepted her destiny with dignity and resolve, which has remained unabated in the ensuing 60 years.

Queen Elizabeth II is a model for us all of a life dedicated to service, and so I proudly say,

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

Candlemas, Saint Brigid, and the Light of True Faith

Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, known in English-speaking countries as "Candlemas" for the tradition of blessing candles on this day. Yesterday, she celebrated the Feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of the patrons of Ireland. These two feasts, which occur within a day of each other, speak to the great Christian theme of meeting and parting, of assimilation and rejection, in short, of Incarnation.

Last October, I wrote of the pagan origins of All Saints' Day in the Irish harvest festival of Samhain. I wrote of how the Church affirms and assimilates all that is good and true and beautiful in every culture with which it comes into contact. But if this principal, called "inculturation" be true, it necessarily posits a corollary: the Church emphatically rejects all that is not good and true and beautiful in a culture.

Thus, even as the the Christian missionaries to Ireland affirmed the people's veneration for motherhood and fertility in the cult of the goddess Brigid, they insisted that there is only one God, not many, and He is not a mother, but the Creator of motherhood. It is appropriate, therefore, that Saint Brigid, foundress of one of Ireland's most ancient monasteries, shares a name with the old goddess. For Brigid was a mother to the community of which she was abbess, having influence over even bishops and chieftains, a patroness of literature and the arts, and a revered spiritual teacher. It is also appropriate that her feast (February 1) falls on the same day as the festival of the old goddess (Imbolc), for the cult of the saint replaces that of the goddess; the shadows of superstition are replaced by the pure light of Faith. Brigid, like all the great saints, is a light that points beyond herself to a higher Light.

This Light is the "light to the nations" (Luke 2:32) that the prophet Simeon greeted in the Temple. This Light is the Son of God who became like man in all things, except sin. Here again, in the person of Jesus Christ, we see the theme of assimilation and rejection. For Christ, possessive of a divine nature, takes upon Himself a human nature. He assimilates everything that is good and true and beautiful in human nature, while emphatically rejecting that which is not, namely sin.

So let us not confuse true religion with false religion, as if it were all-of-a-piece. There are many points of contact between Christianity and the many cults of the world, and these should be celebrated. But when God becomes man in the person of Jesus Christ, something occurs that is genuinely new and unique in the history of mankind. And this Jesus Christ compels a choice; He "calls us out of darkness and into his own marvelous light" (1 Pet 2:9).

St. Brigid of Kildare, show us the light of true Faith!