Wednesday 25 April 2018
Anzac Day.
Isaiah 9:1-6 / Wisdom 3:1-9. Psalm 71(72):2-4, 7-8, 12-13, 17. Ephesians 2:13-18 / 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. John 12:23-28 / John 14:23-29.
Justice shall flourish in his time and fullness of peace for ever—Psalm 71(72):2-4, 7-8, 12-13, 17.
Restoration and redemption.
A retired Turkish naval captain turned tour guide gives small pieces of shrapnel he collected from the Gallipoli trenches, where he played as a kid, to his clients. These shards of destruction symbolise not only the devastation caused by war, but the peace and honour eventually restored and ardently remembered. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells of the greater good that comes from sacrifice. Like the single grain, which dies and bears fruit, the soldiers’ lives lost bear the Anzac legacy of courage and mateship; the service they offered forever honoured, as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1934) wrote:
‘You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace, after having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.’
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