“No more war. War never again” (Pope Paul VI – 1964)
Every year, November 11 comes along with its unexpected day off from work (for some of us) and a special holiday sale (for those who shop) – and sadly the memory of the meaning of the day has all but slipped into history’s dustbin. There are no more survivors of “the great war’ among us any longer. There are no voices to retell the stories of the horrors that the 20thcentury’s first use of weapons of mass destruction. Only the “who-cares” history textbooks try to capture the mood of a world that was so bored that it felt it needed a good war to stir things any excuse would do: if not for the murder of one of those European royalty types, there would have been some other excuse. And we got to try out all news methods of killing: mustard gas, trench warfare, aerial bombing and strafing, the “dogfights” between opposing airmen and the finest use of 19th century thinking and planning sending young men into the teeth of 20th century technology.
It was the war to end all wars – except it wasn’t. And the killing continues in wars official and unofficial, declared or not. And now we must add to the mix the actions of terrorists (foreign and domestic) who kill for ideology rather than territory or national identity.
The point is that on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, that portion of humanity had declared that it had had enough of a bloodlust. Voices cried and (and documents were signed) that had said “enough.”
And yet war continues. I was a high school sophomore sitting on one of those monuments that used to be in center field at Yankee Stadium where I and (it seemed like) a zillion other high school students listened to a Pope who traveled to the U.N. and then celebrated an open air mass for peace (unheard of in that day) call for peace. That was 1964. How many wars since?
As a Christian and a priest – I try to live the words of Francis of Assisi: “Lord make me an instrument of your peace.” When I was 15, I thought I would change the world. Today I know I did not and cannot. But I will be an instrument of peace on whatever tiny little portion of this planet I reside for as many days as my Creator has determined I am to remain here. Armistice Day (as Nov. 11 was originally called) taught me that nations and governments and systems and philosophies or even church structures do not create peace. Only God does. And only when I listen. And only when I choose to live as a man of peace.
Fr. Joe