A Message From Elizabeth II This Christmas Day

Posted on | December 23, 2024 | No Comments

Mike Magee

Hanukkah, the Jewish communities 8-day Festival of Lights begins this Wednesday on December 25, 2024. This is a rather rare calendar coincidence, one that will not repeat again until 2052. Those who witnessed the conspicuous Trump and Musk-induced infighting last week over shutting down our government will have to agree that “enlightenment” couldn’t come soon enough.

Bad behavior is especially glaring at this time of year. Our holiday music is incredibly optimistic. Think of the phrases ingrained in our minds and hearts since childhood: “All is calm, all is bright,” “Good tidings we bring,” “Making spirits bright,” “Oh hear the angels voices,” “Sleep in heavenly peace,” “Have yourself a merry little Christmas,” “Comfort and joy,” “Do you hear what I hear?” “The stars are brightly shining,” “Let your heart be light.”

And that is why David French’s headline this week was so shocking, timed as it was. The headline asked, “Why are so many Christians so cruel?” French and his wife and three children have experienced the cruelty first hand since he openly expressed his opposition to Donald Trump during the 2016 Presidential campaign. That resulted in threats to his entire family by white supremacists who especially targeted his adopted Ethiopian daughter. Ultimately, he was “cancelled” by his own denomination, the small, Calvinist “Presbyterian Church of America.”

The entire article is worth a read and careful consideration. But to cut to the chase, French suggests the core problem is religious certainty. As he states it, the “answer often begins with a particularly seductive temptation, one common to people of all faiths: that the faithful, those who possess eternal truth, are entitled to rule. Under this construct, might makes right, and right deserves might.”

Of course, the notion that “might makes right” has been a recurring theme over human history. Notably, European empire building (and Royalty in lock step) aided by organized religions have unleashed centuries of death and suffering which arguably continue into the very present. Marshaling fear and worry, and targeting vulnerable “others,” often accelerated by new technology-induced societal turmoil, arrived long before the emergence of Trump and Musk. It is as old as human history.

Consider King George VI, Queen Elizabeth’s father. His nickname, “Bertie,” derived from his given name, Albert Frederick Arthur George. The name was not a casual choice. He was born on December 14, 1895, which by poor luck happened to be the 34th anniversary of the death of Queen Victoria’s husband, Albert (“Bertie’s great-grandfather). As you might imagine, this was not the aging Queen’s happiest day of the year, and bonding with her new grandson was not a foregone conclusion, in fact the new parents were informed that the Queen was “rather distressed.”

The suggested solution was to name the child after Victoria’s dead husband. It worked exceedingly well. A few days later the Queen wrote, “I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me, especially as he will be called by that dear name which is a byword for all that is great and good.”

Through a series of improbable happenings (including the abdication of his older brother, Edward, who served only from January to December 1936, so as to be free to marry commoner Wallis Simpson) Albert became King George VI on December 11, 1936.

Aside from his skill at collecting stamps (over 250,000 in 325 volumes during his lifetime), and overcoming a crippling speech impediment, he is best remembered for managing a short, inspiring Christmas message aired worldwide by a new technology – radio – in 1936. His lasting legacy however was having helped create Queen Elizabeth, his daughter and successor to the throne on his death from cancer of the lung on February 6, 1952.

Ten months after the coronation of 27-year old Queen Elizabeth II, she delivered her first Christmas message on December 25, 1952. It too was heard around the world thanks to radio. In that address, she began by paying tribute to her “beloved father.” But she finished that morning by humbly acknowledging her youthful inexperience and insecurity personally requesting that on the date of her formal coronation (June 3, 1953), “You will be keeping it as a holiday, but I want to ask you all, whatever your religion may be, to pray for me that day.”

Five years later, she delivered her 1957 Christmas Message for the first time using another new technology, television. expressing the hope that day that it would be a “more personal and direct” connect to her people. Direct she was, acknowledging that Christmas morning that, “It is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure for many of you.”

Ten years later, on Christmas Day, 1967, she had clearly grown into a world leader, speaking to an increasingly troubled world of “have’s” and “have-not’s” (this time on color television) with these words, “No matter what scientific progress we make, the message will count for nothing unless we can achieve real peace and encourage genuine goodwill between people and the nations of the world.”

A quarter century later, on November 24,1992, Queen Elizabeth II, in an uncharacteristic moment of despair, labeled the year “Annus Horribilis,” referencing worldwide turmoil, a fire that destroyed a portion of Windsor Castle, and the divorces of three of her children.

Encouraging “public scrutiny” of the government and the Monarchy, she said aloud, “criticism is good,” and uttered these words that now, thirty two years later, seem to be directed to our incoming President,

“There can be no doubt, of course, that criticism is good for people and institutions that are part of public life. No institution – City, Monarchy, whatever – should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support, not to mention those who don’t. But we are all part of the same fabric of our national society and that scrutiny, by one part of another, can be just as effective if it is made with a touch of gentleness, good humour and understanding.”

Twenty-eight years later, in the midst of the pandemic, and with her lifelong companion, Phillip, now 99, failing, she reminded those who had lost love ones, “You are not alone,” and thanked caregivers worldwide for “joyous moments of hope and unity despite social distancing”. But in the end, as she said, “We need life to go on.”

In her 2021 Christmas Message she deflected concern for herself on the prior year’s loss of her husband, saying, “But life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings; and as much as I and my family miss him, I know he would want us to enjoy Christmas.”

In what would be her final message, before passing on September 8, 2022, the aging Queen, now 96, chose to focus on the promise of children and rebirth. She said, “I am sure someone somewhere today will remark that Christmas is a time for children. It’s an engaging truth, but only half the story. Perhaps it’s truer to say that Christmas can speak to the child within us all. Adults, when weighed down with worries, sometimes fail to see the joy in simple things, where children do not.”

Her final words that day, resonate this Christmas Day in America, “As the carol says, ‘The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight’”.

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A Message From Elizabeth II This Christmas Day

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