大象传媒

A reflection and prayer marking the death of Her Majesty the Queen with the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell.

Good morning. 鈥淪end her victorious, happy and glorious鈥�, said the National Anthem for our late Queen.

The little word happy - a slightly trivial word, you might think. Wouldn鈥檛 joy be a better word to end with? We can鈥檛, in any ordinary sense, arrange for happiness; rather, 鈥渉appiness must somehow befall us.鈥� 鈥淗appy are the poor in spirit鈥� Happy are those who mourn鈥︹�� was the 鈥� at the time - controversial translation of the New English Bible in the 1970s.

But this translation had a point. The Greek word makarios carries both meanings 鈥� blessed by God and filled with joy.

Jesus鈥� beatitudes make sense of our English word 鈥榟appy鈥� by showing that joy is found by choosing to live our lives in particular ways.

They are vocations. They don鈥檛 necessarily come naturally. But they carry blessings. They are the reason that we can say that the Queen鈥檚 life and reign was a happy one, because of the way she chose to respond and inhabit the role life happened to give her. Likewise we also pray and sing that the reign of His Majesty the King will be happy and glorious.

Or as the psalmist says: 鈥渁 path of life that leads to the fullness of joy.鈥�

Amen.