Along with millions upon millions of other people I watched on television at least some of the pomp and pageantry surrounding the wedding of Prince William and his bride the ‘princess’ Catherine. It cannot be denied that they made a handsome couple and that the people of England put on a show that would rival or surpass the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Their enthusiasm for this union matched and to some degree made up for their despair following the death of their darling Diana.
As grand as it all was, I was saddened to learn (I guess Royalty-watchers knew this for years and apparently didn’t care) that the couple had been living together for several years prior to their nuptials. The bishop of London, in his wedding sermon I think almost unwittingly revealed this: He said, “As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life.” Alas, a true observation.
But what the bishop didn’t say was that this wedding was supposed to represent the nation’s highest ideals. Beauty and youth and enthusiasm, as highly valued as they are today and were in the decline of Rome (see my last essay), are not the highest ideals, not substantial enough to rest the hopes of a nation, which was what this wedding was supposed to represent.
What would have been, I think, a disqualifying scandal a generation or two ago, was blithely overlooked because God and his purposes, notwithstanding William and Catherine’s ‘prayer,’ are in reality out of the picture, as their bishop said.
Finally, what I do take issue with is the bishop’s remarks that “We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.” Though an “increase of loving wisdom and reverence for life, for the earth, and for one another” are laudable, they are not foundational.
Knowledge of the ‘type’ of which the Royalty is based (the Kingdom of God), knowledge of the purposes and laws of God for which the hopes of a nation or a newly wedded couple can be achieved (repentance, goodness and trust in God) must be essential (the essence) in the mix.
2 comments:
I didn't know that they had lived together. That really cheapens their romance to me.
I refused to watch the 'pomp and circumstance'. Even without knowing of their premarital affair, the ceremony itself is a 'kingly' tradition that we in America discarded over two centuries ago. What came to pass was the 'sealing' of Husband and Wife and families together forever. How totally different is that blessed ceremony, isn't it?
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