It’s November again, and on the 11th, we gather together for Remembrance Day—a solemn occasion with years of tradition and significance. We will wear poppies; we will sing hymns; we will hear the Last Post, and stop, and remember. Through these acts of remembrance, we knit together the memory of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice with our sacred duties as Christians, recalling Christ’s words: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)
For us as Christians, this act of remembrance is a theological one—a moment to face the costs of our human failure to maintain peace, and work to end violence in our world. And yet we still live in a world of conflicts, and they can escalate with alarming speed. Friends are divided by the current political realities, and we all see horrible wars that continue to drag on with no end in sight. Modern conflict is brutal, and often erases the lines between those who are actually fighting and civilians. When we honour those who have died in world conflicts, we must also remember those countless civilians whose lives were also destroyed, the vulnerable, the displaced, and the silenced victims of war. Of course, we must honour the fallen soldiers, but also these others, casualties in our worldwide inability to be peaceful.
We must pray for peace, and ask ourselves how we can bring that about. We may not be able to change the world, but we can most certainly make a dent.
Striving for peace is not a passive activity; it demands our participation. We can work to build just and equitable systems, always keeping in mind Christ’s words “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). This is not an option for followers of Jesus: we are called to come together in this ongoing work, and shared vocation, of conflict prevention, seeking justice and peace for all.
None of this is easy, and I certainly cannot hope to solve it in this simple editorial. But as we gather together this year on November 11th, and we stand around the Cenotaph, we must be careful not to glorify past empires, but seek the Kingdom of God. We must work to dismantle any system, whether old or new, that perpetuates injustice and pours fuel on any kind of violence and inhumanity. We can best honour those who have given their lives by working to ensure that such a sacrifice need never be made again. They did not fight to be celebrated, but they did fight for peace, for justice, and for freedom from oppression and cruelty.
As followers of the Prince of Peace, we are called to let our remembrances become more than a simple yearly ritual. We have a responsibility to be peacemakers, here and now.
Almighty God, we hold in memory those you have sheltered, drawing them from war’s great tempest to the stillness of your peace. Let that profound peace soothe the anxious spirit, awaken the cause of justice for every life, and knit together all nations in harmony; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
