Sermon for the 18th of September 2022, Requiem Mass for the Queen

So much has been said about our beloved late Queen.

I wonder if there is anything new I can say which might be helpful.

For the last two days I have been part of the Lambeth Palace initiative to

provide chaplaincy to the Queue.

On Friday I was outside the Palace of Westminster where people had just

exited from seeing the coffin lying in state. And yesterday I was where the

queue approaches Lambeth Bridge so before they have paid their respects.

I’d like to share some reflections with you.

We also know that the Her late Majesty expected sermons to last no more

than five minutes, so I will try to keep to this limit.

Yesterday a grandmother, carrying her ten-week-old granddaughter, with

mother in attendance asked me to bless the new-born. Then she said “this is

like being on a pilgrimage.”

Another person said “I can't explain why we have come, but we had to come.”

Perhaps the word “pilgrimage” is the reason.

People have come to venerate our late Queen, rather like pilgrims in earlier

times travelled to be in the presence of a saint's relics.

Somewhere it has been written:

Why were the saints, saints?

Because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful,

patient when it was difficult to be patient

and because they pushed on when they wanted to stand still,

and kept silent when they wanted to talk,

and were agreeable when they wanted to be disagreeable.

That was all. It was quite simple and always will be.

Would you agree that this list contains many of the qualities we associate with

Elizabeth II?

It makes me wonder about the process of being made a saint.

Canonization is conducted by the Roman Catholic Church. Saints are only

canonised from those who are Roman Catholics.

It’s five stages and starts by waiting five years from the death of the candidate

for canonisation. It ends with at least two verified miracles resulting from

prayers to the person to be canonised.

What stands out for me is one of the stages for the tribunal set up by the

Vatican, is to consider the daily life of the deceased and whether it can be

classed as one of “heroic virtue.”

Here’s the Pope’s statement on learning of the death of our Queen:

“I willingly join all who mourn her loss in praying for the late queen’s eternal

rest and in paying tribute to her life of unstinting service ….., her example of

devotion to duty, her steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ and her firm

hope in his promises.”

Cardinal Vincent Nicholls, Archbishop of Westminster

“I am filled with an immense sense of gratitude for the gift to the world that

has been the life of Queen Elizabeth II,” he said. “At this time, we pray for the

repose of the soul of Her Majesty. We do so with confidence, because the

Christian faith marked every day of her life and activity.”

He also stressed her faith, “so often and so eloquently proclaimed in her public

messages.”

Many have commented that the hallmark of the life of our late Queen was

virtue. Perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that the life of the recently

departed Supreme Head of the Church of England was one of “heroic virtue.”

The Queue to venerate a life of heroic virtue are indeed making a pilgrimage.

In closing, we pray we continue to be inspired by her example and that our

lives, like Her’s, may be firmly anchored in the Christian faith.