Remembrance Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons 9 November 2014

I haven’t yet been to see the 888,246 ceramic red poppies filling the moat of the Tower of London, but I shall go! It is estimated that four million people will have queued to visit what is now a well loved and respected monument to the fallen of WWI by November 11th. Because of popular demand, part of the exhibition will remain until the end of November before parts of it will travel round the country. Those who have visited, found it a very moving experience.

The poppy is of course an ambivalent symbol, the flower itself is a weed and appears on dug up earth which is why it grew quickly around the graves of soldiers hurriedly buried in Flanders fields. In classical times it was both a symbol of death and resurrection, its red colour a reminder of blood.

John McCrae a Canadian soldier wrote the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ which mentioned these graveside poppies. This caught people’s imaginations so that over time this flower has become a symbol of remembrance for all those in the armed forces and associated civilian groups who give their lives in service of people and country.

The Centenary of First World War has certainly captured interest and no doubt as we reach the various milestones will awaken many different emotions in people’s hearts and minds. I have never failed to be moved by it, perhaps because as a little boy my maternal Grandfather, Dr Philip Brookes, explained to me how he was part of it. Both my grandfathers and lots of great uncles were in both Wars, but I only knew this grandfather and alone of my siblings I was old enough to remember him well. He was one of the survivors of the Somme though wounded, and returned to join the Royal Air Corps mapping positions above the trenches. I have his flying pennant, compass and binoculars as well as a German helmet to keep these memories alive in me and I have never forgotten him!

And that is what it is all about, to remember that the life and death of each one of us matters. In Christ we have the sure and certain hope of resurrection from the dead into the country of eternal life where there is no more pain or suffering. War is a terrible thing, ugly and brutal. We strive for peace but we also bind up the wounds of body and mind and try to heal the memories. In God, by true remembering, love begins its work of redemption!

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.