Before this reflection, let us remember the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
(Matthew 5:9, NIV)
Today, we honour the lives lost in conflict. We wear the poppy, some white, some red, but we all pray for peace. Our faith calls us to seek the Kingdom of God, a place where war cannot exist.
We must listen to those who saw the horrors. Wilfred Owen spoke against the great lie of war, condemning:
"The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori."
Harry Patch confirmed the grim truth:
"War is organized murder, and nothing else."
Even those who commanded felt despair; General William Tecumseh Sherman said:
"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine... War is hell."
Our Christian faith demands that we stop excusing war. As C.H. Spurgeon taught:
"I wish that Christian men would insist more and more on the unrighteousness of war, believing that Christianity means no sword, no cannon, no bloodshed..."
Our hope is found in God’s promise to guide us away from destruction:
"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)
Building this peace takes courage—a deeper courage than fighting. Albert Einstein challenged us:
"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war."
We must work for it every day. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that:
"It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it."
Let our act of remembrance be a promise: to follow Christ's love, turn away from hatred, and finally learn war no more.
Amen.
*Image sourced from Gemini*
