No more

We held our Remembrance Day service at school yesterday.  It's always well prepared and carried out by our students, staff, and dignitaries, under strong and good leadership (thanks Andrea).  This year though, it seemed a little different to me.  I think it's because each year Remembrance Day gets a little more politicized.  This year we had a politician speak about how everything had changed on Oct. 22, and that now they were remembering our soldiers currently in conflict and those, like Cpl. Nathan Cirillo who have been killed recently in the line of duty.  I'm not so sure everything has changed, but it certainly did get me thinking about Canada's role in the world right now.

It was thinking about this role that struck me.  Every year the cadets at our school serve in uniform at the Remembrance Day service, something I think is pretty common.  I love seeing them because the sorts of kids who are cadets aren't always the ones who do the best in school, or have the strongest social skills, or best academic skills.  I love to see the kids who struggle the most in this role because the instant they put on their uniforms they universally act sharp, disciplined, solemn, and with incredible dignity.  The rest of the school looks to them as both leaders and honored servants in those moments.  When you talk to them about their cadet service, they will again, almost universally, talk about about the service of freedom and protecting those in Canada and the vulnerable abroad.  So what really struck me, and has stuck with me this year, is that some of those cadets will most likely go on to full time service when they graduate.  They will join the Canadian Armed Forces, and quite possibly go abroad to places like the Middle East and fight.  They may die in that service, and there is a very good chance that if they go, and come home, they will come home broken down by PTSD and physical injury.  These children before me, full of dignity and promise, proud and sharp in their uniforms.  That future.

If we follow Christian history back far enough, there was a time when the Roman Empire actually faced a bit of an existential threat, because because soldiers were converting to Christianity, and for the first few hundred years of the existence of the Church, the zeal of many followers was so strong that they wouldn't harm another.  They wouldn't work to separate the weeds (parable of the weeds, Mt. 13) lest they uproot the wheat.  Now we live in a world where 'collateral damage' (largely a legacy of civilian bombing in WWII) means a Christian serving may use a drone or manned airstrike to attack a village, kill a couple of bad guys, and hopefully not too many women and children.

So as I think about the future of the proud students in uniform, I can't help but wonder, how do you love your enemy when you are looking at them through the scope of a rifle, or on an IR camera from the sky.  Can we pray for our enemies faster than the bullets and bombs fly towards them?  Can the little children come to Christ when they are starved, crippled, and displaced by wars, or when guns are put in their hands?

In the end I don't know enough of the truth to know if Canada should be at war now, but I do know enough to know what Remembrance Day is for.  We remember the sacrifice of our soldiers in the past, with the hope and goal that we don't have to sacrifice any more in the future.  We remember the horrific price paid:  Over 100,000 Canadians dead in conflicts around the world, 30,000,000 soldiers and 55,000,000 civilians in WWII (that's right, even without the Holocaust, almost twice as many civilians were killed as soldiers), uncountable people displaced, injured, and traumatized by both past and modern wars.  We remember because we don't want to re-make past mistakes.  We remember because the generals of WWII were so traumatized by WWI that they were willing to make decisions to burn down entire cities in the hopes it might shorten the war by a few days or weeks.

We Remember because it would be better if the Highway of Heroes didn't have to be lined by heartbroken citizens mourning the loss of another young life ever again.

I guess full on Pacifism is a bit simplistic and naive for the complex world we live in, where there are people who would do us and the innocent harm, but I also know that in Christ there is peace, and I pray that we don't have to add any more names to the roll call on remembrance day.

I pray I never have to remember one of the children I served as a teacher, because they died in the hope that they were serving all of us as a soldier.



1 hand made, ceramic poppy for every British soldier who died in WWI, 880,000 of them.


1 white poppy as a prayer that we don't have to add more red ones to the field.

Why?

So of course there's been tonnes of media buzz on Pope Francis' latest public comments and of course there was a frenzy after the documents came out from the Synod on the family.  I've chosen to stay out of it a little bit, because there are so many opinions and interpretations flying around.  I've read everything from accusations that the Pope is watering down our faith and celebrations that the conservatives won the day in the end, all the way over to pieces pining hopefully that this is a first step in completely redefining everything the church teaches about marriage and family.  It seems like in the end a lot of people are willing to make Pope Francis into whomever they want him to be.  If someone has an ax to grind and longs for the good old days then the Pope is their target.  If someone wants change then the Pope is their poster child.  It actually really amazes me how much people can read in to and interpret some relatively simple teachings like be loving and merciful.

Of course through all of this I thought a lot about my own opinion on all of it, and decided not to share it here, for the simple reason that I am not an expert of theology on the level of the folks who are debating this issue, and anything I give will be a) simply my opinion and b) at risk of me theologizing it.  I'm not staying out of that side of things out of fear that someone won't like it/me because of it, because truthfully, the nature of opinion is that there is always someone who disagrees, and in our polarized world, there will be people who judge/hate you because of it.

To be honest, I'm really tired of all the commentary.  I spend a little too much time in forums discussing news, and it amazes me how much how many people have to say, with so little knowledge of the church.  Not that these don't present worthy debates, but after a while the truth seems to get shrouded in complicated philosophies, theology, and arguments.  We justify why we believe what we do through academic apologetics and theology.  There's nothing wrong with this, it's an important part of our faith, but it can also act as a bit of a mental road block to the simpler truth that exists.

That simple truth is why I'm Catholic (and proud of it Fr. Christino!)  Recently Pope Francis has cautioned against 'lukewarm' faith, and being a wishy washy, worldly Christian.  I totally get that because in the worldly realm of defending opinions and debating history and philosophy, we can get ourselves into a place where our faith comes solely from our intellect.  Again, I'm not saying the intellect isn't a huge and important part of it, it's a gift we have for a reason and the moment we stop thinking critically about what we believe we start down a road of self-assured complacency.  When we go too far down that road we get to a point where we try to mold the church to fit our worldview, rather than letting it form us (much like the rampant media speculation and opinion sharing around Pope Francis and the Synod).  What I am saying is that it isn't the centre of the picture.  It's not the core of our faith.  It's not the why of believing what we do.

So it all comes down to one thing for me.  Why am I Catholic?  Why do I trust the Synod?  Why is my worldview and opinion not what I want to share today?  Why can I go toe to toe with a Catholic I totally disagree with, and still offer peace?  Because when Christ handed the keys to Heaven to Peter, and founded the Church, he promised to be with us always.  In Matthew 16 Christ tells Peter that he is the rock on which the Church is built, and that evil will not prevail against it, and after the resurrection in Matthew 28 he tells the apostles to go out and spread the Good News, and promises to be with them (the Church) always.  I'm Catholic because I believe that promise.  I trust the Synod because I believe that promise.  I'm not overly concerned with media interpretations of Pope Francis because I believe that promise.

It's that simple to me.  I still value debate and the academic side of the faith, and I still think we need to watch and guard the church, to be honest when we sin, and to openly correct when we make mistakes.  But above all that, I trust that the Church is guided by God, and no matter if or how we stray, there is always guidance back.  I believe that in a day in age when there are no right answers to some of the questions we face, and when our law and our call to share God's infinite mercy seem at odds with each other, that the Church will be guided, however long the process, to answers and actions that are right, and blessed with saints who have to the courage to challenge the humanity of it to turn back when we are astray.