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Remembrance
Sunday should be a day both of recollection and resolution. Particularly
this year as our nation has been at war and more Americans have been killed
during the last week in Iraq than in the whole of October. As we look at
the names on war memorials some of those who died were the glorious dead,
heroes and I shall say more about them shortly but the vast majority were
not glorious. They did not lay down their lives. They loved life and hoped
to survive so that they could return to their loved ones, careers and
gardens. Their lives were not laid down but were rudely snatched from them
and in all conflicts others are so wounded in body and mind that normal life
afterwards is impossible.
I recently met a woman
whose father had won the VC. He never talked about it and she only
discovered he was the holder of such a gallantry award when he was called to
attend a reunion of VC holders. It echoes what Jeremy Clarkson said in his
recent documentary on those who hold this highest honour for valour.
A Victoria Cross can be
awarded only for valour in the face of enemy fire. And, as we saw last week
when Trooper Chris Finney was given the George Cross after an action in
Iraq, the only fire British soldiers really face comes from the Americans.
There are plenty of other reasons why Victoria Crosses are handed out so
infrequently In the early days you could get a VC for whirling your sword at
a dervish, but as the years rolled by it became harder and harder.
Let me give you an example. In 1944 a flak shell fired from a German
submarine exploded inside John Cruickshank's Catalina flying boat. One of
the crew was killed, two were injured and Cruickshank himself sustained 72
injuries including punctures to both lungs.
Undaunted, he depth-charged the sub and somehow made it back to base where
he circled for an hour, waiting for the right sea conditions to make the
landing as smooth as possible for his injured colleagues.
He was given a Victoria Cross — although the top brass questioned whether he
was worthy because some self-preservation was involved in the action. And
there’s the rub. What you really need to win a VC is to save everyone else’s
life and die in the process.
Major Cain at the battle at Arnhem was commemorated by the film A Bridge
Too Far. Let down by the officers who had planned the disastrous
attack, Cain was unwilling to let down his own men when his unit was
encircled by a German panzer division and all seemed lost. Despite
inadequate firepower (they had arrived by parachute), and unconventional
tactics (which culminated in Cain firing at approaching tanks with a mortar
he held horizontally, like a machine gun), Cain saved the lives of more of
his troops than any betting man would have dreamt possible. The fact that he
was speckled with shrapnel, temporarily blinded, and had warm blood
streaming down the side of his face from a perforated eardrum didn’t slow
Cain’s assault on the enemy.
When the war ended, Cain returned to working for Shell in Nigeria and the
Far East. He died of cancer in 1974.
This what they did have
in common, like the father of the daughter who I had recently met, there was
a great sense of humility. They do, however, share one common bond once the
award has been made: they will not, under any circumstances, talk about it.
Major Cain who won his for destroying what sounds like half the German army
at Arnhem, left his medal in the pub after his trip to Buckingham Palace.
And his daughter never knew he was a VC until after he had died.
That’s normal, it seems. Winners tend to think that a piece of bronze worth
at most 20p, no matter what it means or says on the back, is scant
recompense for the people whose lives they couldn’t save. And they don’t
like reliving the story because usually it’s grim and full of severed limbs.
Contrast this to the
icons and heroes of our day David and Victoria Beckham. I read this week
that Burberry coat sales are on the increase and more men then ever before
are wearing jewellery in order that people can emulate their heroes the
Beckhams.
So then recollection and resolution. Yes a society which fails to have its
ritual and its memory is one on the way to decay. Remembrance Sunday is
important for the health and wholeness of our society - why?
Firstly - value past
into the present. I hear stories of the companionship, the heroism, the
unselfishness, the patriotism- a united nation. Memories that in the face
of adversary were good and real. This church was full of people on Friday
who had served in the armed services. What they talked to me about was the
pride and sense of belonging that is engendered amongst people in the
forces. Just as important but more painful we recall the waste of war - the
tragic loss of life We are here today remembering those whose lives ended
in the waste of War. We salute their sacrifice.
Remembering - tension
between past and future. Being stretched. Act of remembering produces such
a stretching - our memories and our present. Captivated by the past or
intimidated by the future. Remembering is the process which opens the
present to the creative power of the past. The immediate present has no
meaning. As meaning can only be given to it once it becomes the past. In
music this idea is illustrated clearly when individual notes receding into
the past give shape and meaning to the notes now being played. Remembrance
Sunday has present meaning as we remember the events of 2 world wars, other
friends and comrades in the services and in the Legion. Act of worship
has meaning because many of us Sunday by Sunday recall the founder of our
faith, Jesus, by obeying his invitation 'do this in remembrance of me'.
But beware, to
remember deeply we need courage. Courage because it allow us to live in an
ambiguous world without demanding absolute certainty, security and
perfection. If we demand certainty, if we demand security, if we demand
perfection we cannot truly remember because we destroy the reality of our
memories as we erect our replacement illusions of them. So courage to
recall the horrors of war, the dead, the holocaust, the waste, Because
remembering will produce feelings, emotions - mourning, sadness, loss - the
courage to face such feelings.
Bringing the past into
the present also brings home to us now - the evil of war - Dresden,, Durham
- bombed cities. Hamburg, Coventry, Cologne and Liverpool Baghdad. The
trenches - Gallipoli - blind obedience, the dehumanising aspect of war -
hatred. A reminder of how skin deep is our civilization. After a battle in
World War 1 the French Red Cross found the body of a German soldier. Out of
his pockets fell a little bundle of food and a letter written in a woman’s
hand. As he read it the French stretcher bearer removed his cap, for this
is what he read:
My dear heart,
When the little ones have said their prayers and have prayed for their
dear father and gone to bed, I sit and think of you my love. I think of
all the happy days when we were betrothed and I think of all our happy
married life. Oh my Ludwig, beloved of my soul, why should people fight
each other? I cannot think that God would wish it.
We also remember that
evil flourishes when good men do nothing. The agony of the present time is
whether the decision to go to war was a fulfilment of this doctrine. Evil
flourishes when good men do nothing. On Remembrance Sunday our resolve must
be to work for a warless world
But, and this is where
we try to put the remembering and the history together, if we stay with just
our feelings of sadness and loss it will deny the fact as God has constantly
taught mankind remembering is not simply related to the past but is also the
doorway through which we meet the present, face the future. To remember is
to change. To remember the Legion motto 'Service before self' can make us
behave differently.
Through the history
both of this year we remember that peace, justice, liberty and truth are not
just things which happen. We have to be stretched in order to preserve and
enhance these values.
And there's another country I've heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know.
Truth is I cannot tell
directly about that country. It hasn't got an embassy although it should
have ambassadors. It hasn't got a flag although it does have a uniform. It
doesn't have an army with conventional weapons but it does engage in
warfare.
We get glimpses of this
country:-
The Emperor Hadrian said to a famous Rabbi 'I want to see your god.' The
Rabbi replied 'that is impossible'. Emperor said 'you must show him
to me.' The Rabbi made the emperor go outside. It was summer. 'Look at
the sun' the Rabbi said. 'I cannot see'. 'If you cannot even look
at the sun, one of the servants of the Holy One, how can you look at the
Holy One Himself?'
I cannot spell it out
any more clearly than this. It has to be wanted and searched for. It can of
course be ignored and forgotten. The lost Kingdom of love.
I conclude by saying
that many people who have been involved in suffering and in warfare are
often moved to reflect on experiences outside themselves which in the face
of such horror they still attribute to a spiritual dimension to life to a
power which is even greater than mankind. As we remember let us too search
for this spiritual country that gives the ultimate meaning to our
experiences and will help us prevent such acts of cruelty and violence in
our own lives. It will give us the courage no to go down the road of
appeasement in the face of wrong doing and give us the strength to overcome
our inherent selfishness and timidity to put service before self.
10 years ago this
month was the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. His last public words were
the words of a warrior turned peacemaker. Just 90 minutes before the Israeli
prime minister was assassinated he addressed a peace rally attended by an
estimated 100,000 people in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square, and joined in
the singing of peace songs. These were some of his final words: ''I was a
military man for 27 years. I waged war as long as there was no chance for
peace. I believe there is now a chance for peace, a great chance, and we
must take advantage of it.
Tom Leary
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