May I speak in the name of the Blessed Trinity, One God in three persons.

A few months ago I visited the town of Guernica, in northern Spain. It is a name that will be familiar to many, sadly, due to the destruction that fell upon it on one sunny day in 1936.

It was market day, and the town was packed. German and Italian planes began to bomb the town in support of General Franco’s attempts to gain control over an area renowned for a spirit of independence and resistance. Guernica is the spiritual centre of the Basque region.

The first target for the bombing was the town’s water supply. This meant that efforts to extinguish the fires that came as the result of bombing were futile. Anticipating that people would flee the town into the countryside plans were made for fighters to circle the main bombing zone, strafing the fields with machine gun fire. Those who planned the bombing knew that the town had no resources to defend itself from aerial attack. There is no doubt that the plans for that day had been made with every anticipation of what would take place, with the intention of causing the maximum level of destruction. As one of Franco’s generals put it the day after the attack:

“It is necessary to spread terror. We have to create the impression of mastery, eliminating without scruples or hesitation all those who do not think as we do.”

This is a very candid explanation of what was intended. To get rid of everyone who didn’t toe the line or see the world as General Franco believed it should be understood. Today Guernica is a living memorial to the disaster of war and the evil that sought to extinguish every independent thought and aspiration for freedom and peace. Of course, all these terrible events were a shadow of the global catastrophe which would unfold a few years’ later in the second world war.

Today we commemorate one of the most significant episodes of that war, the Battle of Britain. Had Britain lost that conflict there is no knowing what the consequences would have been. Certainly, if Britain had been beaten and occupied, freedom of speech and independence of thought would have been supressed with both violence and determination. As Churchill famously said after the moment when the RAF prevailed over the attacking forces: “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Those few taking part were not only British pilots but air crews from many countries, in fact one fifth of Fighter Command’s aircrew came from overseas and 16 nations were represented in its squadrons. A total of 126 New Zealanders, 98 Canadians, 33 Australians and 25 South Africans participated. They were joined by three from what is now Zimbabwe, a Jamaican, a Barbadian and a Newfoundlander. Though their countries were neutral, 10 Irish and 11 United States citizens also fought in the Battle of Britain. Many of these personnel made the ultimate sacrifice in protecting the United Kingdom.

At the same time, it is important to remember that all the efforts of the months in which the Battle of Britain took place required wide support. Both in the production of materials for the war effort, and the logistics of moving supplies to where they were needed, a great many people were required to support what the few could achieve. The list of supporting roles for the Battle of Britain is very extensive. They range from the Balloon Command to the Anti-Aircraft Command; from the Observer Corps to the Operations Staff. Often those taking part included women serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Without doubt, many tens of thousands of people stood behind the 3,000 pilots who took part in the Battle and ensured its success.

In a much earlier conflict, the Duke of Wellington said famously: “Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won”. War comes with a huge cost for all involved, whether ultimately victorious or not. It isn’t difficult to understand why so many people strive to achieve peace rather than face the alternative. Whether in Guernica, or on this Battle of Britain commemoration, contemplating the sacrifices of war should fuel our desire for peace.

While thinking about memorials to war the WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon composed the poem entitled ‘At the Cenotaph’. Here he imagines the Prince of Darkness standing, respectfully, at a war memorial and praying:  “Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial Means”. Sassoon’s point is that we must not forget. We mustn’t forget the cost; the sacrifice; or the shadow of war that stretches so far into the future. Because when we forget we risk repeating the tragic conflicts of the past. Commemoration honours the dead, but it must also remind us that the risk of war continues ……something we are seeing today, tragically, in various parts of the world.

In our second reading today we heard the succinct and striking summary of conduct which Jesus taught: ‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets’.

It is our task – the task of the living – to honour those who have lost their lives in service to their country, and to do to others as we would have them do to us. To take this moment of memorial and commemoration and aspire for a better world. A world that befits the sacrifice that others have made, so that we might live.