Paul-Alexandre Protais (1826-1888), ‘The Morning before the Attack’,

The Condé Museum, Chateau de Chantilly*

Dear Friends

Although not set for today, the reading from the second book of Maccabees (2 Maccabees 12:32-45) has echoes of Remembrance, particularly in the second half.  The passage describes how Judas Maccabaeus and his army had just fought an engagement in one of the many battles for Jewish independence from Hellenistic forces and rule.  He and his men were wondering why, although they had won the battle, so many of their comrades had died.

We have to understand the mindset of those days in order to interpret the passage correctly.  There was a superstition that, if their cause was good and right, they should have been protected from such severe casualties.  However, the reason is revealed – under their tunics many of the soldiers had been carrying idols, looted during the aftermath of a previous battle.  Instead of bringing them luck, as they hoped, the reverse had happened.  The Jewish law forbade the carrying of such items and this, it was assumed, was the reason why the men had perished.  To make amends, Judas took up a collection and sent it to Jerusalem as an expiation for the ‘sins’ of the fallen, and the passage notes that this action, which is described as ‘altogether fine and noble’ was ‘prompted by his belief in the resurrection’.  Judas, in other words, expected the dead to rise again and therefore it was neither superfluous nor foolish to pray for them so that they might be ‘released from their sin’ and gain the ‘splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end’.

We see in this passage from the inter-testamental period one of the first explicit references to the resurrection occurring within the Judaeo-Christian Scriptures.  It was on the basis of this passage (and others, of course, from the New Testament) that the Catholic practice of praying for the dead, and of conducting requiem masses, developed.  By 1928 it was proposed that the Church of England, too, should conduct up to three services of Holy Communion for the war dead on each All Souls’ day, as a response to the terrible carnage of the Western Front, which had resulted in so many families being unable to bury their loved ones, who were ‘missing, presumed dead’.

The passage from the Gospel of John contains the famous statement which is usually read on Remembrance Sunday: ‘No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends’.  Within the context of the day, this is taken particularly to refer to the sacrifice of the fallen for their friends and fellows, but it should, of course, also be understood as referring to Jesus’ supreme and saving sacrifice for the whole of humankind, both living and departed.

Fr Stephen

Collect for the Third Sunday before Advent (Remembrance Sunday)

Almighty Father, whose will it is to restore 

   all things in your beloved Son, the King of all:

govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,

and bring the families of the nations, 

divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,

to be subject to his just and gentle rule,

who is alive and reigns with you in the unity

of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.  Amen.