Service of Choral Evensong to mark the death of Richard III
3.00pm, 22 August 2014
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law.” Romans 13 verse 9
On this occasion last year, I spoke about how our Cathedral and our City as a storied
place. At the time when the question of the final resting place of King Richard III was still
in dispute, it seemed right to notice that King Richard’s story has been and will always be
associated with this part of our City and with our County.
One year later on this anniversary of the death of King Richard, it is all too evident how
that story has moved on in this Cathedral. The visible evidence of the preparations for the
creation of a tomb and a suitable memorial space is all around us. And it has been
particularly good to have Miranda Cannon and Julian Haywood who are intimately involved
in the project management of the events surrounding the reinterment next year as our
Readers this evening.
As the story continues to unfold, the controversy and the debate about King Richard also
unfold and intensify. “Richard III, saint or sinner?” remains the way that the media tend to
portray this debate, reducing everything characteristically to black and white, good or bad.
As the events for the reinterment are planned and developed over the next six or eight
months, no doubt this debate will continue to grow and deepen.
On this day as we come together to mark the anniversary once again, we can perhaps
acknowledge that Richard like all of us, is both saint and sinner. By the standards of
today, it was impossible for anyone to acquire and retain the throne of England in the
fifteenth century without facing intense conflict and being ready to act decisively, even
ruthlessly in defence of the Crown.
So the significance of this day and of the unfolding story through which this Cathedral will
become the final resting place for King Richard is perhaps this. That in honouring an
anointed king, in interring his mortal remains with dignity and honour, this Cathedral makes
no final judgement about the virtues or faults of King Richard. Indeed, no such judgement
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is either necessary or appropriate. Because King Richard, like all those memorialised in
any Cathedral, or indeed any human being whose life is remembered, carved in stone in
any churchyard, is honoured as a child of God with precisely the mixture of desirable and
undesirable qualities which constitute the make up of every human being.
So those who come to visit here in the coming years and to see the place where King
Richard will lie will be invited to reflect on this truth Of course there will be the story – the
particular and fascinating chapter of English history which came to a climax in our own City
and County and which will forever be part of the story of our communities.
But those who visit may wish to reflect more deeply than that. As they contemplate the
tomb deeply incised with the cross of Jesus Christ, they may consider that Richard III and
indeed every single one of us are created in the image of God. We have come forth from
God and we will return to God. We reflect part of the mystery of God. Each one of us is
unique and will never be created again. As the psalm tells us, being human is just a little
less than God: “Yet you have made him little less than a God, crowning his head with glory
and honour.” (Psalm 8 verse 5)
It is therefore every human being who wears a crown in the sight of God. All humanity
bears greatness in God’s sight. And it is, I think reasonable to claim, that when civilisation
has flourished, when great music, art and literature have emerged, it’s always when
human beings have felt good about being human. When they have grasped this essential
truth about who we all are and why we are here.
And this is especially important in a cynical age which has become intensely lacking in
confidence about what it means to be human.
When we see that God has indeed crowned every head with glory and honour, that the
world is enchanted, then we see the revelation of God in each individual. Our task is not
to be like Richard III, or indeed like Mother Teresa, or Saint Francis, or any other great
figure of history. Our task is to find out what part of the mystery of God it is ours to reflect.
There is a unique truth that our lives alone can reveal. As we reflect on and give thanks
for the lives of those who have gone before us we do not do God or the Gospel a service
by spending our life comparing ourselves to others’ gifts and calls. Our responsibility is to
give back to God what God has given to us – nothing more and nothing less.
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So to mark the anniversary of the death of King Richard III is to be committed to seeing
who he was, but more importantly to reflect honestly and courageously on who we are and
then to act on it. To be really faithful to that purpose takes immense courage and humility.
The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own
reality. And that is the challenge and the glory which faces each one of us.
In the letter to the Romans read for our second lesson this evening, St Paul exhorts his
readers, at the centre of Roman imperial power, to be “subject to the governing
authorities”. He even goes so far as to say: “Whoever resists authority resists what God
has appointed.” It’s almost as if Paul sees earthly power (even in a ruthless and often
cruel form as practised successive Roman Emperors) as somehow reflecting Divine
authority. There is none of the subversiveness or rebellion here which we can see in the
prophetic tradition of the Old Testament or which are implied by some of our Lord’s
teachings in the Gospels.
But it is all put into perspective when Paul says: “Owe no one anything, except to love one
another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” This is how we honour each
other’s humanity. This is how we come to see each other as reflecting the image of God.
It is through the giving and receiving of love that all human beings are in the words of the
psalm “crowned with glory and honour”. That is our task in our day. And it is only when
humanity grasps the significance of that truth more deeply, that we shall learn to avoid
repeating the horror and obscenity of war in our day.
So today we pray that the story of Richard III and the immense effort now being put into a
permanent place of memorial in this Cathedral stimulate and release reflection on that
profound truth in all who come to visit here.
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