Fr. Jeremy's Topic - September 2018
On a sunny evening this summer I found myself enjoying the Royal British Legion BBQ at Bray cricket club. I was told that the following evening I could watch a blood red moon. Easily confused I was informed that this is when the earth falls directly between the sun and the moon. I waited up that evening with my wife Monika and dashed from one side of the house to the other to view the wonderous sight only to find cloud cover for the first time in months! I know we needed the rain, but I felt cheated!
Also, this summer I read a novel about a 2nd WW fighter pilot who went through the whole war and survived. One of only 10% to do so. I enjoyed the novel as I learned about his life and his family in the aftermath of war only to get towards the end of the book to find the author had changed the ending, so that the pilot had instead died bravely during the war. He never married the girl he loved and never had the family that I had read about. I felt cheated!
On reflection I thought that maybe the author had been clever and had wanted the reader to feel cheated. I recalled a lady in Bracknell who told me she had never married as her loved one died in battle. She never wanted to find anyone else. That is really feeling cheated.
On 21st October at All Saints Church we will welcome the Royal British Legion and members of the wider community to a service to commemorate the end of the 1st WW. The theme will be ‘Aftermath’, looking at the impact of War on peoples lives and asking did people feel cheated?
My belief is that each week in churches across the world we believe that Christ offers the gift of New Life through his death on the cross so that those lives lost in war are not lost in vain but in the hope of Resurrection life.
Jeremy Harris, Vicar of All Saints, Boyne Hill