70 years ago on 3 September the United Kingdom responded to Hitler’s invasion of Poland: the war that was declared was to cost upwards of 25 million military deaths and somewhere between 40 – 52 million civilian deaths. Despite the horror that was the Great War, the casualties of the second world war were almost double.
No single country on this earth escaped unaffected from this most tragic and destructive war. Eastern European countries lost up to 14% of their entire populations. The magnitude can be expressed in a myriad of statistics, but is most aptly portrayed in the stone memorials that reach across the globe and upon which are etched the names of those who lives were lost.
They had names. Gabriel Wallace Douglas, Adrian Vincent Douglas, Tommy Awatere, they were loved, they had promise, they had futures, they had dreams. Yet they were buried in foreign lands, far from home, far from the hearths of their childhoods.
And this is how we must measure war. Its victims are not fragile, faded memories: they lived and breathed, were present, were flesh and blood, they sang and cried. They are real.
And that is why the Christian has an unshakeable belief in the resurrection. There are songs that are yet to be sung, stories yet to be told, love still to be shared. It is not just a promise, it is because our God is a God of justice and mercy. Such a God could not desert those whom he loved to be mere scratches on stone, he will make amends. In the liturgy this Sunday we pray:
Lord our God
In you justice and mercy meet.
With unparalleled love you have saved us from death
And drawn us into the circle of your life.
Open our eyes to the wonders this life sets before us,
So that we may serve you free from fear
And address you as God our Father.
(Opening prayer from the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)
We too are named, loved and known and our place in the heart of God is assured when we too call him by name: Father.
To all our fathers, may your Sunday be blessed, and may you come to know and celebrate God’s love for you. For us all, let us make true peace foundation stone of our nations so that we will no longer know war.
