Preaching at Abergavenny Town War Memorial at 11am on November 11th, 100 years after the first Armistice, Canon Mark Soady reminded us that without forgiveness, there will never be peace.
Fr Mark when he was an Army Chaplain
He said:
Today we give thanks for the ending of conflict exactly 100 YEARS ago of the war that was to end all wars. Sadly after less than 20 years the world was at war again. That war like many of the other wars of the last century came about because of the Treaty of Versailles was seen by the allies as an opportunity to punish Germany and her allies. The German economy was decimated the Austro-Hungary & Ottoman Empires had their internal and external boundaries carved up.
That tone of punishment led to resentment and anger among the German people, among them Adolf Hitler and his fellow Nazis . If the victors had rather been able to show forgiveness, the 2nd World War and many subsequent conflicts, like the Balkans, may never have happened.
Such signs of forgiveness was very much in evidence in Pembrokeshire in the 1950’s, when less than a decade after the ending of the 1939-45 War, a German tank regiment started training on the Castlemartin Range. Years later I would serve as Chaplain to the range. The Remembrance Service was held in a former Anglican Church taken over and restored by the German Army; we would end the service with the Welsh, British, German National Anthems sung below the three respective flags, and the Military Attaché of the German Embassy would read one of the lessons often in German. It was moving because it was a portrayal of Forgiveness.
When Our Lord and Saviour was asked how many times we should forgive, he said not seven times, but seventy times seven. That is to say, he is calling on us to be constantly forgiving; if we don’t do that, we cannot begin to bury our differences and build peace.
As we gather to remember in thanksgiving the lives lost for our freedom, let our commitment in return to them be to try harder to forgive, and so work for peace.
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