November 08, 2009
Karen Bowles
Remembrance Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
The Bridge
Lest we forget – we have all heard that phrase – lest we forget – It is not ‘Until we forget’, or “Do not forget’ or “We shall not forget’. It is lest we forget – It is literally: ‘for fear that we will forget’. It seems those who coined this phrase know of our human propensity to forget – to put out of mind that which is not last weeks sports scores or this weeks star sightings or the latest political scandal. I exaggerate to make the point – but we are almost 100 years from the First World War and some 70 years from the Second. It is a fear that we will forget – forget what?
We will forget how precious and precarious are our freedoms and our democracies. Each time I hear of the pathetic voter turnout in elections I fear we forget.
That we will forget how precious and precarious is the life of each – my son tells me that 10,00 1,000 were killed by mud at Passchendale. Each time I hear of aid not coming or of distended bellies not being fed – or of bonuses paid out that are a gazillion times larger than the salary of the secretary, I fear we forget. Each time I hear of greed or graft, I fear we forget. Each time I hear of the industrial military complex – the sheer number of weapons of bullets of guns we invest in, I fear we forget.
And even more disturbing, each time I see the creeping anxiety of meaningless and emptiness engendered by the preoccupation of so many of us with ‘stuff’ that has no meaning – that leads only to further anxiety and more stuff – and the certain and triumphant confidence in any ‘ism’ – capital, fundamental, social, national, consumer, I fear we not only forget but we regress. How dare we who still live – preoccupy ourselves with naval gazing or with the mad denial of death to the exclusion of shouting out loud “Le Chaim” – To life!
We will all die – that fact governs the machinations and investigations of most of religion, philosophy, biology, genetics, indeed most of human endeavour – the inescapable fact of death begs the question – of the purpose of life. What are human beings for? When we ask that question and find facile answers and easy outs or even worse when we avoid even the asking, then we forget.
And this brings me to what it is we should remember? What is it we are called not to forget? Sacrifice certainly. The insanity of war. The perversion of power. The presence of evil. Certainly we are called to remember and be vigilant about each of these – in our own governments and institutions and in others around the world. But what is it we are called to never forget when we remember? Simply, we are called to remember – to re-member – these boys.
We are called to remember the vulnerability, the mortality and the impermanence of each of their lives. We are called to remember their lives and their sacrifice, their suffering – the things that cannot be spoken by those who have experienced them.
And it is out of that place – that place of remembrance, of honesty, of remembered and present suffering, that we become aware of the immense power of compassion. And it is there in that place of compassion for each of these boys – when we re-member them – that we connect one to the other –you to young Ernest Eames Hopkins – like lights on a grid –and we are called to face, finally our own, utter vulnerability, mortality and impermanence; we are called to face honestly Jesus on this cross, to remember, his vulnerability, his mortality and his impermanence – and it is here that we will become aware of the presence of the Spirit – of that which connects us all – Where we become aware of the love that knows of itself only through its opposite – Just as light presupposes the experience of darkness, and love of lovelessness and aloneness, and hope of despair, and faith of doubt, so life becomes the miracle only if we confront its antithesis. Honestly. As each of these boys did – as each of us will – as Jesus did – and then we must choose – If we trust in that place, that place of compassion that opens our hearts and enlarges our understanding, then we are free to hear the life changing words of Jesus:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
And with such peace, we are free to be cognizant of and compassionate towards the suffering of others. We busily defend liberty and we demand equality and these are two we should not forget – but it is the third of this trio that Remembrance should highlight – we have somehow not yet found our way to fraternity.
And with such peace, we are free to search for meaning to ask with perhaps greater insight – What are human beings for?
And with such peace, we are lightened, become more aware of this love that God offers, that Jesus lived – this love that is the bridge between the land of the living and the land of the dead.
There is light and there will be understanding. This we must remember – Lest we forget each of these boys. Amen