Remembrance Sunday is time of reconciliation

HOW to achieve lasting peace between the nations has often eluded humanity.

Conferences can evoke a war of words and human history is littered with broken treaties.

Yet from time to time sworn enemies have become friends. Peace is possible whenever there is goodwill and a determination not to repeat past mistakes and a cooperation to end injustice and oppression.

All of us are heirs to peace, but we can still be contributors to conflict.

As we approach Remembrance Sunday once again, we must never forget the individual names on the war memorials and commemorations found in every town and village and place of worship.

Each name is a loved one who never came home.

War is the failure of human beings to live together. It is personal and communal.

We elect our politicians to find better ways to resolve conflicts than the shedding of blood.

Yet we all live in a world where evil intent, self-interest and intransigence can dominate the human mind, our communities and nations.

We cannot ignore such wickedness, but we should oppose it by every means at our disposal.

Remembrance Sunday also reminds us of the valour that can be found in the human spirit but also of the frailty in human nature.

It is not an occasion to fuel enmity and discord, but to encourage us to see that an opponent is yet to become one’s friend.

We know this experience in our own times when sworn enemies can become firm allies in the battles against disease, poverty, and injustice.

Remembrance Sunday can enable us to recover a true global dimension in the way we can live in harmony with one another.

We need one another wherever we come from to enjoy life to the full and help one another to reach our full potentials and gain strength of purpose from our differences.

Togetherness across the nations and with people of goodwill won the wars and conflicts that we recall on Remembrance Sunday.

Flag-waving may cheer the spirits for some, but it does not always inspire the many who are looking for a more just and equal society and world.

We should be careful not to let those who want to divide us hijack this important date in our calendar with their mean-spirited and selfcentred attitudes.

Remembrance Sunday should instil in all of us a more caring and open outlook towards others as well as a more honest approach to our responsibilities towards fellow members of humanity.

One of the great promises Jesus gives to us lies in the words “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Our true destiny and future lies in living as members of God’s family.

Remembrance Sunday is His vision of how we are to be if we would enjoy the gift of life.

Canon George Burgon