Weekly Reflection – Remember, Remember.

I served my first curacy in a church dedicated to St Martin. This might have posed a modest challenge when celebrating our patronal festival, in that St Martin’s Day falls on 11 November – Armistice Day. I say ‘might have’, because as luck would have it St Martin has a second Feast Day. Martin was a fourth century Bishop of Tours, but died elsewhere in France. After a few months his body was moved to the city where he had been a bishop and according to tradition he was reburied on 04 July. This was a good alternative on which to celebrate our patron saint.

As it happens, St Martin has a military connection which offers food for thought as we prepare to commemorate this weekend those who have lost their lives in conflicts past and present. Martin was serving in the Roman Army when he became a Christian. As a result of his conversion, he is supposed to have said, ‘I am the soldier of Christ: it is not lawful for me to fight’. He left the army to pursue his new vocation.

Martin’s life exemplifies the challenges Christians face when thinking about the morality of war. Martin clearly thought that being a Christian was incompatible with serving in the army. On the other hand, millions of Christians down the centuries have fought bravely and sacrificially in wars which they believed to be just. Whatever our own moral position, this Remembrance weekend offers all of us an opportunity to reflect with sorrow on the pity of war, to remember with due dignity those who have died in conflict, and to renew our resolve to work for all that makes for peace and builds up the common life of humankind.

With love and prayers,
Dean Simon