Padre's Corner - Between Halloween costumes and Christmas celebrations
November 29, 2022 - Padre Justin McNeill
It always seems like a shame to me that Remembrance Day falls in the gap between the end of the Halloween season and the beginning of the Christmas season.
Everywhere you turn, stores seem to make a quick flip transition in early November from Halloween costumes to Christmas decorations. There is little, if any, attention paid to the sombre moments of reminder of those who have served, and continue to serve, in our Armed Forces. Those men and women who wore uniforms instead of costumes and ate M&M’s as part of their rations instead of handing them out or collecting them door‑to‑door. Did you know M&M’s were created as a way of delivering heat resistant chocolate to the front lines of the Second World War?
Maybe this year will be different, as so many other things have been different. Maybe this year we will have the time on our hands to really stop, think and give thanks. Maybe we’ll have the time to pause in our busy moments to remember the trials of war and the legacy of those left behind.
It is a legacy of courage and sacrifice, with stories of holding onto only a thread of hope in the midst of trials far beyond what we have experienced this past year. Because some days even that thinnest thread of hope is enough.
This is the thread we must be reminded of and hold onto. The glimmer of hope and the last light that refuses to go out even amidst of all kinds of darkness. This is the thread that has been woven together by those who came before us. A thread that has been hand‑stitched and held together even in the darkest moments of our history, and for that we can be grateful; even when things seem hardest or darkest.
So let us mark these brief moments between sugar‑filled seasons to remember those who made it possible, as well as all those still holding tight to the threads of uniformed service. For those who have come before us, endured, survived, sacrificed, and passed on their stories for us to learn from and be inspired by and for all that they can teach us about sacrifice and holding out hope.
For all they have done, and still do, let us pause, remember and give thanks.