by CCW | 5 May 2023 18:00
The story of the raising of the only son of the widow of Nain and the raising of Lazarus provided the context for reflection this week on the Coronation of King Charles III and its significance with respect to the history and life of the School. How? Because these stories contribute to our understanding of the Resurrection as the opening out of essential life. They do so by showing us mercy and compassion in action.
“When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, weep not.” It is a powerful and poignant scene. Out of that look of compassion comes the raising of the young man and his being restored to his mother. We are not left in misery and grief; in short, to endless weeping. “Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted.” And Jesus weeps with Mary and Martha, deeply moved at the loss of their brother Lazarus. He bids the company to take away the stone and says, “Lazarus, come out.” Literally, these are ‘resuscitations’ but they belong to the thinking about the Resurrection as revealing the underlying principle of essential life.
In every case there is a transformation from grief and sorrow, from ignorance and uncertainty, from sin and death to joy and life. God is essential life. In these stories we see the motions of compassion and mercy which are greater than the limits of our hearts and minds. “Lazarus, come out” speaks to the nature of education. It is about being led out of the prisons or tombs of our minds. These stories provide us with a way to face the difficult things of our world and day. They are not about a flight from reality. They are about the possibilities of mercy and compassion alive in us in our lives with one another.
The Coronation of King Charles III marks a significant and symbolic moment in the history and life of the School. He is the tenth monarch in the history of the School and the first King named Charles in its history. The School was born out of the American Revolution in its rejection of the English monarchy and was founded by a loyalist bishop, Charles Inglis. At issue were competing ideas about the nature of sovereignty: republican or monarchical? The idea of sovereignty refers to the fundamental principle of authority with respect to our lives in political communities. In a Republic, the principle of ultimate authority is diffused among the members of the community. In a Monarchy, it is concentrated in the person of the Monarch and its family dynasty. But it is not absolute monarchy. It is constitutional monarchy for England and the countries of the Commonwealth world-wide.
That means that it is about shared power between the principle of sovereignty, the legislative powers and the judiciary. Something of that understanding is captured in the School’s motto: Deo Legi Regi Gregi – for God, for the Law, for the King and for the people. The order is instructive. The King is not above the law. The School was founded during the reign of King George the Third who granted a royal charter to the School on May 12th, 1802 He was a Hanoverian, part of a dynasty which originated in the German principate of Hanover.
In the School’s 235 years, 134 of those years have been under the reign of two remarkable monarchs, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. Victoria was the last of the Hanoverian monarchs. Her consort was Prince Albert of the House of Saxe-Coburg, Gotha. Their son Edward VII reigned from 1901 to 1910 and his son, George V, changed the dynastic name to the House of Windsor in 1917, owing to the conflicts of the First World War. Thus the School in its 235 years has been under the reigns of Hanoverian and Windsorian monarchs.
Charles by name looks back to Charles I and Charles II whose reigns bookend the devastating English Civil War in the middle of the 17th century and which ultimately led to the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 which ushered in the idea of constitutional monarchy. The Coronation on Saturday, May 6th is primarily a religious ceremony with political overtones. It reminds us symbolically that all authority is of God. Instead of arbitrary power and domination by fiat, the monarch has a duty of service and devotion, of sacrifice and commitment to the good of the body politic. That is what we saw in such outstanding ways with Queen Elizabeth II. It is what we pray for King Charles III. We were honoured to have Sir Graham Day with us in Chapel on Friday to pray for the Coronation of Charles III (regrettably Lady Ann Day was unable to come).
No one, perhaps, thought more deeply about Kingship than Shakespeare and perhaps never more wonderfully than in Portia’s speech in The Merchant of Venice about the relationship between mercy and justice. “The quality of mercy,” she says “is not strained;/ It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven/Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;/It blesses him that gives and him that takes./‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; It becomes/The thronèd monarch better than his crown./His scepter shows the force of temporal power,/ The attribute to awe and majesty,/Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;/ But mercy is above this scept’red sway;/It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,/It is an attribute to God himself. And earthly power doth then show likest God’s/ When mercy seasons justice”.
Mercy perfects justice. It belongs to that greater good of our humanity which the Scripture readings reveal in the idea of restoration and wholeness, of joy and fellowship. Mercy cannot be forced nor can it be held back. Portia’s speech transcends the opposition of mercy and justice to disclose their deeper unity. They are the properties of true authority, the authority of God vested in the principle of sovereignty, and they are the properties that belong to the dignity and truth of our humanity as spiritual and intellectual beings. Mercy and compassion teach us what it means to be subjects of the King and thus to the good of one another. This is, to be sure, a counter to the concept of the sovereign self and reveals instead the virtues of service and sacrifice as belonging to the good of self and others.
(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain, Head of English & ToK teacher
Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2023/05/05/kes-chapel-reflection-week-of-4-may/
Copyright ©2026 Christ Church unless otherwise noted.