Sermon in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Sunday 17th September 2017, at a service of Commemoration of the Battle of Britain, 1940 - Canon Ian Ellis
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Wisdom of Solomon 3: 1: “The souls of the faithful are in the hand of God; and there shall no torment touch them.”
The Battle of Britain was a crucial event in the Second World War, stopping a potential Nazi invasion of Britain. It is of heroic proportions, as Sir Winston Churchill's famous words confirm, that never in the filed of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. Those words were preceded by Churchill's tribute to those involved: “The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion.”
At this service in the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland, we commemorate the Battle of Britain in 1940. As anyone who has ever fought in a war will no doubt attest, it is best avoided. A retired colonel, a good friend who has since departed this life, once spoke to me of his action during World War II and particularly at the Battle of Cassino during the Italian Campaign; he told very solemnly that a soldier returns from war in one of three ways: dead, physically wounded or psychologically scarred. Fighting in the air also must have its traumas and, sadly, many losses and injuries. Cassino itself was a series of Allied assaults in a successful but very costly attempt to break through to Rome. By contrast, the town's geographic location, at the foot of the hill of the 6th century abbey of Monte Cassino, is very beautiful.
We live in a beautiful world – indeed a world of spectacular beauty. But it is scarred by many things, not least of which is war. And the beauty of the world is also scarred by natural disasters, disease, poverty and sin.
Why does it have to be so? Why do there have to be battles? Why do there have to be tsunamis and violent hurricanes such as we have seen only recently on our television screens? Why do there have to be earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that take lives with such brutal force? Why does there have to be illness, the suffering of so many in hospitals and in their own homes, everywhere? Why does there have to be homelessness? Why do so many people have to live without enough money to survive properly in a world of so much plenty? Why does there have to be sin, the ignoring of God's laws and of the light that he has given to enlighten every person? Why does our world have to be like this?
For sure, theologians have offered many answers. There is the doctrine of the Fall, although it is far from straightforward. And perhaps part of the reason why things are as they are is that if we do not know darkness we will not fully appreciate light, if we do not know sorrow we will not fully appreciate joy, if we do not know need we will never fully appreciate what compassion is. But of course there is no simple, neat solution to the question posed. There is a mystery in life that we cannot ever fathom, but we do well to remember that as well as all the ugliness there is also so much beauty, as well as so much hatred there is also so much love. And the Church proclaims the great good news that Christ, the Son of God who came to dwell among us and share all our joys and sorrows, himself suffered unspeakably and yet, in a deeply sacred way, through his glorious resurrection, we learn that goodness is stronger than evil, that holiness is stronger, so much stronger, than ungodliness.
A commemoration of a battle in a service such as this is not a time for the historical analysis of events, or for any kind of political or national point scoring, but it is a time for us to stop and reflect on these deeper things of life.
War is with us; as soon as one ends, it seems, another either starts or is in the making. Theologians also have debated the conditions for entering into battle in a morally justified way: the just war theory is a historic approach to the question but as warfare becomes more and more sophisticated and potential human loss rises in scale, even that theory is seen to have its weaknesses.
Today we are facing a very critical situation with North Korea and its nuclear ambitions. While mutual assured destruction is claimed by many paradoxically to have preserved peace between the superpowers since World War II, we really do need to move to a better place, a world in which there is no need for mutual assured destruction but rather a world in which there is mutual assured friendship. A pipedream, a cynic might say. But no, such universal friendship is a Christian vision well worth striving for.
As we commemorate the Battle of Britain, we remember those who fought. We remember those who suffered psychologically, those who where physically wounded, and those who died in the service of their country and in the defence of freedom and civilisation. As the Wisdom of Solomon so comfortingly reminds us: “The souls of the faithful are in the hand of God; and there shall no torment touch them.”