This afternoon we gather in Clogher and in St Macartan’s Cathedral in remembrance of those who in two World Wars and by extension in the troubled warfare which has seared our own country over more than thirty years have given their lives in the service of others for the cause of freedom and that elusive word peace. We do so in a spirit of remembrance and thanksgiving. We are upheld in hope by the promise of God the Father that hurt and destruction do not last for ever; we are supported here in life by the compassion of God the Son who wept both for his friend Lazarus and for the city of Jerusalem; we are strengthened in our own service of the community by God the Spirit who gives us a vision of God dwelling with us as his people in a new creation. This vision draws into the embrace of God the hurt and the destruction, the compassion and the forgiveness, the old and the new in a free flow of love between God Father, Son and Holy Spirit and his people, his children, the people of the new earth who are God’s own children. And, I say, we do so in a spirit of remembrance.

The word remembrance has a deliberate, a careful and a purposeful side to it. It carries a lot of meaning and it has a different feel from a word which might sound very similar: recollection. But we often speak of recollection in a way which is qualified by the word: vague…Yes, indeed, I have a vague recollection of something like that… But deep inside both of these words there is something to ponder when at this time of year, in this November month of memory, we recall the service and the suffering of those who died for freedom in two World Wars and by extension also draw into that circle of memory all who have suffered and died in The Troubles, our own tragic and soul-diminishing internal War in Northern Ireland. It is with deep sorrow and intense pain that we keep alive the memory, that we remember precisely because of that haunting pledge which has annually gone out on Remembrance Sunday to every generation: …we will remember them. It is in a spirit of loss and thanksgiving, grief and solidarity, yesterday and tomorrow that today we remember them.

One of the significant developments in today’s world is the telling of your own story. It can be difficult to listen to, it can be very repetitive, it can even be disjointed to the point of frustration. But it is heart-felt, it is deeply personal and it is intensely painful for the person who tells it and the very telling of it, we hope, brings out - through the putting into words of the hidden and the buried - what has been suppressed and what has been lost. The more things which come to the surface, the more careful handling of them, the more skilful dealing with them is required. In creating a whole new type of experience telling the story and listening to it creates a whole new job of work. Words like listening and support take on fresh urgency as the realization dawns on us that we haven’t really made these things priorities simply because we ourselves have been too busy, too distracted, too caught up in our own world.

I know as well as you do that the word: dismembering is not the opposite of remembering nor does it come from the same source. But at the same time there is something about remembering which can enable us, under proper guidance, with proper listening, and through proper healing to re-member a past which has become dis-membered. This surely is what as disciples of Jesus Christ we are invited, called to do with those whom we know, those whom we don’t really know and those whom we don’t want to know. The same holds for that other word of which I spoke: re-collect, the gathering up and the gathering together, the collecting afresh of people, ideas, actions, loose ends which we have long forgotten and neglected. This re-collection is what Remembrance Sunday gives us the opportunity to do in relation to those who left this place, this locality to serve in a way which truly deserves to be remembered. This re-collection is required of us throughout Ireland today and will continue to be expected of us as our society asks again and again what of particular significance and strength the Christian church can share with others with whom we disagree and from whom we differ. Our contribution has to be positive, it cannot remain passive.

In this spirit of remembrance let us mark today’s specific Remembrance Day which falls within this month and let us also take into this remembrancing the other great remembrance which the church asks of us later this month – Advent Sunday. On that day we remember and prepare for the both the First and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the world in humility and in judgement, in infancy and in righteousness, in service and in glory.

I offer you this short prayer of remembrance of our inheritance and our calling as children of God and people of the world, a calling to serve in faithfulness as we have ourselves been served in righteousness:

Father, you gave us life – give us love;
Son, you gave us teaching – give us compassion;
Spirit, you gave us holiness – give us healing.
These things we ask of you the God of Three and the God of One as we express our remembrance of those who through their life and death have given us life and peace.