Opening to the Spirit
Today’s word: Remembrance
1
) Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. For the past week we have worn poppies out of respect for our fallen veterans. The bagpipes and the trumpet call us to pause in our busy lives and, in silence, remember the victims of war. My father and two of my uncles served in World War 2. My great uncle, whom I am named after, died as a result of post traumatic stress after serving in the trenches in World War 1, which was supposed to be the war to end all wars. The word remembrance brings all these thoughts to mind.
There once was a dream, a dream of peace. This inspired the creation of The United Nations. I have memories of peace protests in the sixties and seventies. Songs inspired us to imagine a better world. When the Cold War ended those hopes revived. Instead, each year it seems another war begins somewhere.
A phrase that is usually part of our service of communion is “Do this in remembrance of me.” Reminding us that the sacrament is meant to be shared in the name of Jesus Christ. It also occurred to me that remembrance should lead to action. We mourn the loss of our fallen soldiers. We lament the hatred and greed that led to war. We stand for a moment of silence to show respect. Afterwards we put our poppies away for another year. What do we do after November 11th? Maybe it's time to do something in remembrance. Maybe we need to rekindle the dreams of a better way.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
2
) All that was, all that is, all that yet will be. To remember is to go back in time, in the mind, the heart, the spirit. To bring that memory of the past into the present time ~ to reconstitute, make sense of, attempt to integrate, urge or challenge, perhaps to call us to new ways of living. I have no real visual or episodic memory; most of mine is captured in photographs I have taken and songs that I have written, which I carry in my body and in my voice. (WLP).
Remembering is often thought of as putting parts together again: re-membering. With regards to Remembrance Day, I see it as an important part of our annual cycle of sacred days. We come together, physically and in spirit, to honour those who have lost their lives, or who have been physically and emotionally wounded by the conflict of war.
Fear, the daily reality of ongoing war and strife, dis-members us, keeps us from wholeness. If by remembrance we re-member, what are we healing, how and from what?
May Remembrance Day continue to be about honouring those who have fallen, while working and serving love and peace. (HFF)
3
) If we think of the First World War, the cause was Nationalism. Nationalism is on the rise in Europe and south of the St. Lawrence. This nationalism led to the loss of a generation of men in both continents. The bravery of those who followed the call of Nationalism was never in question. But the thought that God was on each side is relevant for today’s strife within Islam as well as with Christendom. Who welcomes the refugees, and whose humanity is limited by nationalism and personal interest? (LRD)
Remembrance has a bittersweet flavour when we truly sit and contemplate it. Sweet memories lift up in our hearts as we think of things that have been lost from our thoughts in the previous moment. However, other emotions so often come with these rising memories - grief, anger, laughter, nostalgia. What emotions might you add to this list? These seemingly opposing emotions can be held in our hearts and our minds simultaneously. And it is powerfully important that we take moments to remember. This week we honour Remembrance Day, and these opposing emotions are a part of moments of remembrance as well. (RBC)
Remembrance is not sentimentality or living in the past. Remembrance is about the future. The future is always a product of the past. What we choose to remember, celebrate, and hold up will shape our future. So we must be intentional and wise about the things we choose to remember. (NH)
4
) I can't remember a gloriously sunny Remembrance Day; memory always paints it grey. Gathering subdued in the autumn chill at the cenotaph, we greet each other and wait for the procession to begin. Neighbours, friends, veterans, relatives and the descendants of those who died serving in wars that go back a century, we shiver and stand together. The colour guard arrives in formation, a bagpiper plays, the ceremony begins and a hush falls over the crowd. There's the precision march and bugle call, the welcome and prayers, then silence, followed by the laying of wreaths. This is the moment the losses become real when the names are called. We remember them.
Our annual ritual bids us remember and ponder, we who are left, the enormity of human losses over time. Feeling outrage that the cost of peace should ever be death. Sorrow that somehow our human "kind" not only continue the old patterns of conflict but in every age invent new ones. Grief is normal, but dying for peace! May it never be normal, even as it is repeated again and again in so many parts of the world to this very day. For me, remembrance requires searching my own heart. Wondering at the losses we can never know or name, descendants unborn, suffering that can neither be quantified nor erased. Hopes, dreams, gifts and potential lost with each lost life.
If they could return a moment and speak, those dead in the pursuit of safety and peace - what would they would ask of us, the still living. "Never, never again" rings in my heart. Can we truly reverence their lives if we refuse to make good on the dream?
One word, several voices this time, some guest ministers at a retreat this past week. Now it's your turn to reflect: What does remembrance - the day or the act - mean to you?
Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Waterville & North Hatley pastoral charge; Rev. Lynn Dillabough is now Rector of St. Paul's in Brockville ON. She continues to write for this column as a dedicated colleague with the Eastern Townships clergy writing team; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco is Consulting Minister to UU Estrie-unitarian Universalists in North Hatley.