In the classic series of eleven Horatio Hornblower books, which I love, the phrase "Make it so" appears only once, and not said by Hornblower.
“About that breakfast, My Lord?” said Gerard.
An officer was touching his hat to Fell with the request that it might be considered noon.
“Make it so,” said Fell. The welcome cry of “Up spirits” rang through the ship.
According to others, this was a standard naval phrase used all the time in British heritage navies
for hundreds of years. It was, as some have noted, used officially when it is time
for an action to occur, but requires the senior officer present to issue
the order and officially begin the carrying out of that order. For instance at sunset,
the officer of the day is advised "sunset sir/ma'am" and the officer
looks at his watch and says "very good, make it so" allowing the ritual
to begin and initiating the evening watch routine.
According to a movie (another favorite), Richard Widmark use the phrase "Make it so." in the film
'The Bedford Incident' (1965). In the movie 'The Sand Pebbles' In the movie it was said by the character Lt. Collins, commander
of the US gunboat San Pablo in China, played by Richard Crenna. Long before any of these, in Frederick Marrayat's 1832 seagoing novel "Newton Forster": Newton Forster: Or, The Merchant Service, the line also occurs.
In the order of command, there is much to the calm voice of the one in charge who issues such a command. Indeed, the mark of a good commander is that he is calm when everything else is in chaos. Perhaps it is best to reserve this to God. He is the calm voice in the midst of chaos created by man stealing himself from His creator by listening to the enticing whisper of the devil against the calm and almost boring Word of God. Certainly, we might say that the first violence to appear in God's good creation was when Eve sought the counsel of Satan to make it so against the will and purpose of God.
Some have tried to make the Church and her leaders reactionaries who run and jump and turn on a dime at every movement in the world. We must act. Well, maybe not. The Church is not some wild voice against other wild voices but the voice of calm, echoing the calm voice of God who is never controlled by whim but always works His will and purpose (which does not and has not changed). The flurry of comments on every political and social development by those who are jurisdictional leaders is not a good thing. What we need is calm and that calm in the storm of sin and its death is the voice of the Lord addressing us with His Word through the voice of His servant, the pastor. Though we are gravely tempted to presume that it is our calling and our power to make the things of God so, the One who makes it so is Him whose calm prevailed against the chaos of our willing sin. God is always making it so. It may not be fast enough or be the thing that we desire, but it is always exactly what we need and our only hope. So every Sunday God is making it so -- bringing the lost and condemned from their darkness into His light where redemption and salvation is to be found. That is the power of the efficacious Word. It makes it so. That is the power of the efficacious Sacraments. They make it so. It is not about symbolism or a sign of something that is not there but exactly this -- God making it so. Of course, you only see it by faith.
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