HOMILY: ON THE WAR Given On the 21st of January ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Brothers and sisters, today we come together in joyous celebration of a victory which left tens of thousands of Sendrassian forces dead but too, in mourning of our fallen brethren who sacrificed themselves in love for the Spirit and the nation and for the betterment of their shared mission. It is the Holy Imperial Spirit who tells us of the end of times when these days of sickness and conflict shall be over and days of faith and of love and purely of virtue shall grace this world in their divine providence. It is these days that we look to; the foretold future, a time of oneness with the Lord and when I believe this world shall ascend as we do and become one with the Everwatch. A time where there is no sickness, no death, no fear. Where all is the Lord and nothing but Him. These times are why we toil. For the unimpeded reign of the Spirit, when the divinity, infallibility, and omnipotence of the Holy Spirit shall be irrefutable and when all shall share in His grace, in His love, in His light. It is why, right now, we wage war against the Void Allar of Sendras. Not necessarily offensive but in defense of those values and those beliefs; the forever eternal truth that the Holy Spirit shall reign and that these Allar shall be cleansed before Him or placed in chains in failing to do so. However, I wish to speak about one particular thing, in theme with Paradise and providence; the dangers of a society without the Spirit. We see such in other nations who find themselves debauched and immoral, however none such to a degree as those of the Void. Whether it be the Dread Empire or those we face now, it is in the absence of the Spirit that there is too an absence of those morals, of those values, of those virtues. It is a society without Him which is not good, which is not godly, which is not bound by morals. Instead, it is a society of chaos, of violence, of greed, of intemperance; of those sins which would otherwise damn a man’s soul in the absence of the Spirit’s Mercy. The point that should be made is the fact that through the Spirit and only through the Spirit, we are here, and it is through the Holy Spirit that we have avoided those dangers of a society without Him. As I have made clear, those are such things as immorality, anger, violence, chaos, and so on. It is with these things that society cannot exist for society is in turmoil, in conflict, and no one likes a society of immorality, a society of anger and violence, of chaos; such things are unbearable. It is without the Spirit that only a void remains; a darkness of immeasurable silence, not of sound but of the Lord. It is this plight which the Void Allar in Sendras face. A society without the Spirit at its center and therefore a society which is corrupted by savagery; of terrible rituals and incantations. It is this which is even worse than such perversions as secularism and relativism for it is not man which replaces the Spirit but it is something of pure evil; something not redeemable; something which consumes light instead of being illumined by it. That corruption of which the Void is seeps it’s way into every facet of their nation, even corrupting the plant life around them and taking a physical toll on the world; an unnatural toll. It is this which, along with the Kathar of the Dread Empire proves to us their evil and reinforces the necessity for the dominion of the Spirit and Him alone. So, it is through our wars and this one too that a righteous mission is found at its core; that mission of the Spirit. The mission of bringing about the morals of Union to the non-believers. Healing the lands tainted by evil with the light of the good. Cleansing the souls of those corrupted with the Holy Truth and raising them in virtue through those Creeds. It is this war which is righteous. It is these armies which are righteous. It is the banner of which shall soon mark their tainted lands which is righteous! Why? They are inspired, based, and founded upon those Holy Creeds, forever good and morally just, so long as they keep the Spirit close at heart and by the Lord, they will. Why? For His path is one of victory, one of love, one of virtue. His path is one which shall ensure that goodness reigns above all else for He is good. That morals reign above all else for He is morality itself. That virtue is raised high above all else for He is virtue. The Spirit is all these things and in keeping core to our nation the Holy Imperial Spirit in unity, we too are all those things. So, I deem this war righteous. I deem the armies righteous and I deem the purple and gold banner righteous. I deem all these things righteous for they are of the Spirit and so therefore, they are good! It is this mission which is righteous for the path that we walk is of the Lord and in this, I call upon us to continue walking upon this path. In the name of the Spirit for He has bestowed us this vocation of the faithful. In the name of the nation for it is of the Spirit and therefore good. And in the name of the fallen, no matter their faith, for they have sacrificed themselves for this cause on the Spirit’s path. May they be blessed with eternal peace and may we ensure that they are to smile upon us in the Everwatch for the work we continue to do in the name of the Spirit. In this, I end as I began. Brothers and sisters, we have come together today in joyous celebration of victory but too, in mourning for the fallen. Through this celebration and mourning, we have reflected upon why the Spirit is necessary and what is necessary now. We have made a vow today to continue, steadfast in our service. We have made that vow to hold vigor in faith and in patriotism close to our hearts. We have made that vow today to ensure that these Allar are indeed defeated and that the world is finally cleansed of their Voidal taint. We do this in the name of many things. In the name of the good Regalian Allar. In the name of the fallen soldiers. In the name of that nation under the Spirit and so, in the name of soon seeing it’s banner upon the tainted shores of their home. But most importantly, we do so in the name of the Spirit. Why? For He is good, loving, virtue. He is these things, the embodiment of them and we shall ensure that through Him, they are bestowed upon all shores and melded close to the hearts of every man and woman in Aloria. For the better future and in the name of those who have come and gone. But most of all; in the name of the Spirit. With the love of a Father, Reverend Aelfric Harhold,
