This was partly lifted from Roots again (lack of time)
This year there has been a very successful charity song called “Hero” which has raised money for the Haig fund. It is most encouraging because it is from the X factor, and shows a desire among the young to continue to remember. At any victory celebration there must be two emotions: joy that the war is over and sadness at the appalling cost of that victory (which we express today). It used to be the custom on this day to focus on the two world wars of the twentieth century, but in a new century, and as time marches on, we acknowledge with sadness that there are still many conflicts in the world; there are still millions of victims and thousands of heroes and in any consideration of war, we must remember them too, pray for them and press for solutions to be sought. We may have different opinions here about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the faithfulness and courage of her majesty’s armed forces today in going to those places – as Lt Col Stephen Hughes from Stebbing Green has done, returning a couple of weeks ago to Basra, makes them all heroes.
One of the marks of a true hero is their willingness to lay down his or her life in the full knowledge of what will happen to them. Jesus died so that others may have life. St Maximilian Kolbe was interned in a concentration camp and voluntarily took on the death sentence of a young Polish Officer. Before the 2nd world war he had an extensive ministry across the world, setting up Franciscan communities – including one in Nagasaki, Japan. At his base in Poland he and his fellow brothers undertook publication work, including materials considered anti-Nazi. For this work the presses were shut down, the congregation suppressed, the brothers dispersed, and Maximilian was imprisoned in Pawiak prison, Warsaw, Poland on 17 February 1941. On 28 May 1941 he was transferred to Auschwitz and branded as prisoner 16670. He was assigned to a special work group staffed by priests and supervised by especially vicious and abusive guards. His calm dedication to the faith brought him the worst jobs available, and more beatings than anyone else. At one point he was beaten, lashed, and left for dead. The prisoners managed to smuggle him into the camp hospital. When he returned to the camp, Maximilian ministered to other prisoners, including delivering communion using smuggled bread and wine. In July 1941 there was an escape from the camp. Camp protocol, designed to make the prisoners guard each other, required that ten men be slaughtered in retribution for each escaped prisoner. Francis Gajowniczek, a married man with young children was chosen to die for the escape. Maximilian volunteered to take his place, and died as he had always wished - in service. In 1982 when Maximilian Kolbe was decalred a saint by Pope John Paul II in Rome, among the crowd in St Peter’s Square was Francis Gajowniczek, and his children and grandchildren. A very concrete example of Jesus’ words “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” and also a clear example to today’s generation of the way that heroes of the faith end up as saints.
In these times of financial uncertainty it is particularly encouraging that Remembrance time remains a priority. For those who struggle financially it is tempting to think of ones self, not others. We might even be tempted to make a comparison between the daily news of financial losses and the reporting of war dead – thankfully now not every day, but still quite frequent. Both will bring a sense of hopelessness and despair to some, but there is a difference; shares do regain value, but dead soldiers don’t come home.
A sense of perspective then is helpful. We might be suffering, but that is nothing compared to those under fire now or in the past. We might have had to transfer our trusts and shares and savings to another bank, but that is insignificant when compared to soldiers of many armies in many wars since 1918 who had to transfer their trust from a dead officer to a new one who might only just be out of his teens.
The transfer of trust, while it sounds like a financial act really sums up the solution to some of the dilemmas we face at Remembrance time. How do we see an end to this violence? How can we find hope? Was the sacrifice of so many lives worth it?
Just as we might transfer our savings from one bank to another, to be a Christian means making a transfer of trust from humanity to God – from human power to the saving power of Jesus Christ.
There is always talk of sacrifice on Remembrance Sunday, and those who know me well will understand I’m not going to let the chance go to talk of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
This is not to disparage the sacrifice of the many who laid down their lives in the world wars. It may be true that the war to end all wars, which came to an end 90 years ago, didn’t fulfil its potential, but Europe would be a very different place today had not millions of people given their lives for the cause of freedom in two world wars. Individual bravery and sacrifice continues today – its not a co-incidence that medals given for bravery and valour are called crosses, for they echo and recall to mind the cross of Christ, its sacrifice and also its victory.
And that’s what we are transferring our trust into – the power of the cross, a once for all sacrifice that truly is the death to end death. Hope arises from the cross because Christ gave his life, and then overcame death itself in the resurrection; if we trust in the cross it is not to dwell upon death, but to know the power of the resurrection, and the love of God, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Supremely, also, the sacrifice of the cross brought about reconciliation between humanity and God. Today as every Sunday we pray for reconciliation between warring nations and factions; without the reconciliation won by the cross of Christ this would be a futile exercise. “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” – God sets the precedent in enabling us to be reconciled to him; the outworking of that reconciliation comes in he bringing of true peace – more than just an absence of war - to the conflict-ravaged places we see and hear about every day.
As Jesus said, “This is my command, Love each other”.
