Thy Will Be Done
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| (Blessed Karl of Austria) |
He was the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, taking the throne in 1916, in the throes of World War I, and only because his uncle Franz Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo two years earlier.
At the end of the war — as Karl fought to bring peace to Europe — he lost the throne, in part because of the influence Woodrow Wilson had on the peace process.
As he and his wife, along with their children, were forced to leave Austria, their properties were seized, their assets frozen — they were banished, poor, and in exile. Karl attempted to retake his throne, but he was prevented.
Just a few years later, living in Madeira in a borrowed house, he caught a cold. That became pneumonia. He died at 35, in April 1922.
His last words were ‘thy will be done…. As you will it, Jesus.’
Karl was a king. He was a good one, because he saw his office as a kind of stewardship, a Christian vocation to care more for his own people than he did for himself.
That’s why he died the same way he lived — giving over his will to the Lord’s, and giving over himself to the people in his care, whether an empire, or his family.
There’s something to that. Leadership, whatever the form, is exercised well through virtue, especially through humility, because we want to see other people flourish. Leadership is squandered in vice, selfishness, and ego.
King or pauper, exiled or safe at home — ‘as you will it, Jesus.’
Thy will be done.”
~J. D. Flynn
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