Lest we forget

I loved the way my children would count down the days to their birthdays and Christmas. For if parts of the media have complained bitterly about how early the Christmas juggernaut begins its journey, many are grateful for the warning and do, in fact, begin preparations.

We human beings have a strong sense of optimism, it is a part of the religious drive we experience throughout our lives. Though it is often blurred when times are difficult, we either anticipate or retrospectively see the positive outcomes: death is a release from pain; from a tragedy comes a stronger, more resilient family; from a mishap we learn valuable lessons.

The apocalyptic literature we find in the sacred scriptures is a response to the same dilemmas we face each day when as a single human being or as a single humanity, we face up against the odds: that is, how can God be righteous and yet allow us to suffer? While the earliest prophets expected a messiah to restore Israel to the Hebrews, the continued delay extended that expectation past the immediate future to an afterlife, and for Christians – the anticipation of a parousia, the second coming of Christ. In this coming he would be clearly revealed, and he will then vindicate the righteous and faithful.

These three aspects, preparation, optimism and expectation are to be found in Mark’s account (13:24 – 32) in which Jesus describes the end times, his second coming. In a parable he explains that just as twigs grow supple on the vine and the leaves come out, we know that summer is close. So too, do we have to read the signs around us to recognise his impending coming – though he sternly warns (verse 32): But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.

As Remembrance Day passed us yet again, these three words echoed in me: preparation, optimism and expectation. Though totally captured by the excitement of fighting for the Mother Country on the battlefields of Europe, our young men and women left their homes, prepared to give their all in the greatest adventure they could imagine. Their optimism would save Australia, the world, their children’s children, from the tyranny of German aggression. They expected to be home by Christmas, they expected an early victory, they did not expect to die in such numbers. 416,000 young Australians enlisted, 332,000 embarked for war, 215,000 were listed as casualties.

As Australians, as a nation, the deep wounds and the darkness of that ‘Great’ war, gave a renewed sense of who we were as a nation, it was bloody, but it fortified the spirit of this young country, it was terrifying and bleak, but its yield has been nothing less than a brilliant optimism.