Veterans Day… what went through your mind? Was it the images of those who have found themselves on battlefields across the world? Was it images of their families? Was it that wonderful image of coming home? An impressive image for me is that of a solitary person in military dress, kneeling, head bowed in prayer.
A day like Veterans Day cannot be reduced to pomp and circumstance or eloquent speeches of praise. The solitary person, in military dress, kneeling, head bowed in prayer, anchors such a commemoration as only someone who has been on a battlefield can do so.
We can only imagine such a prayer. A prayer of thanksgiving for the safety and protection granted. A prayer filled with grief, so much pain and suffering that was witnessed. A prayer imploring peace, not to let it not happen again. These are prayers that most probably filled the hearts of the early disciples of Christ as they suffered the death of the beloved Lord. The response of the Spirit to those prayers was to become more deliberate disciples, particularly in the forming of intentional communities of faith.
All of us should be able to join in prayers for peace, the Spirit does continue to call us to become deliberate disciples and form intentional communities of faith. As the times change, so can we. What has been, is no longer enough.
There was a time when a way to limit the destruction of war, was to frame a “just war theory”. Only under certain circumstances could a war be justified. This was an attempt to “humanize war”. This can be seen as constant, enlightened minds have raised the flag of rules of engagement and protection of human rights. A couple of centuries ago, Tolstoy was already saying that this sort of talk was akin to making slavery more acceptable by limiting how badly you could treat a slave. And he would also insist, “where violence is legalized, their slavery exists”. Maybe all attempts to humanize war are a strategy in denial and avoidance. Especially with the dawn of the atomic bomb and the capacity of total human annihilation, can there ever really be a just war?