32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time : Remembrance Sunday

1. Today is Remembrance Sunday when our thoughts turn to all those who died in conflict in the service of their country. The nation remembers them with gratitude because they paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of others. At the same time, |Remembrance Sunday brings before us with great clarity the terrible price of war. We recognise that war is rarely containable and inevitably leads to the escalation of losses among combatants and the tragic deaths of many innocent people, including children, to say nothing of material and environmental destruction, political de-stabilisation, and a legacy of the most appalling human suffering lasting for decades. Remembrance Sunday celebrates the heroism of many. It brings before us the death and suffering of many more. Sad human experience councils us that even a just war is a human tragedy and all wars bring with them great evil and injustice.

2.On this Remembrance Day, the widow and her child of today’s first reading, whose lives are threatened by starvation, can be seen as the symbol of all those who suffer from the calamity of war, and an especially poignant sign of the suffering of innocent civilian victims, sometimes euphemistically called collateral damage, sometimes deliberately targeted. The widow and her child were saved from imminent death by the intervention of the great prophet Elijah who visited them and shared their meagre rations. It will take prophetic courage and decisive intervention on the part of the leaders of nations to save widows and their children all over the world today from the terror and suffering of war.

3. Another poor widow was praised by Jesus for her generosity in giving all she had to God’s purposes, while the rich and wealthy were less generous. The widow is a symbol for us of generosity of spirit towards God. It is commonly said that we live in a generation which is disinclined to acknowledge God and which refrains from discerning his loving purposes in the twists and turns of the human story. In this context, it may be more difficult even for us believers to respond to God’s love and to be generous in recognising his presence and in trusting in his love. In the figure of the poor widow of today’s gospel, the Lord invites us to trust in him with all our hearts, holding nothing back.

4. As your bishop, I make bold, therefore, to encourage you to hold fast to your faith in Christ. I urge you to live your Catholic life as fully as possible, to be faithful to Sunday Mass and to sacramental practice, to pray devoutly, to honour Mary and the saints, to hand on your faith to your children and young people, to continue to build up the life of your parish under the leadership of your priest, and to commit yourselves to all manner of works of service and charity for the sake of others. This is how we trust in God with all our hearts, even in the most challenging of circumstances. To trust in God, as did the widows of today’s liturgy of the word, is also the way of peace, the sure antidote to the hateful impulses which lead to war, and a fitting testimony to those who gave their lives in human conflict for the cause of peace.

Christ the King, Howwood

12^th November 2006