The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

At our recent Celebration of Christian Poetry event held at St John's Seven Kings, Revd. Bridget de Mello, curate at St Luke’s Great Ilford, reminded those present of the sense of outrage that all should feel at the loss of life which occurs as a result of war.

Bridget did so by speaking about and reading a poem by the First World War poet, Wilfred Owen, called ‘The Parable of the Old Man and the Young.’ This poem is a parody of the Old Testament story of Abraham’s preparedness to sacrifice his son Isaac before God provides a ram as an alternative sacrifice. Owen’s poem is written as a parable in which Abram represents the European nations prepared to sacrifice their young men in the First World War. Owen condemns those in power who took their countries to war believing that sacrificing their nations' pride was too high a price for their nations to pay.

The cruel irony which Owen highlights through the poem is that the real cost of this pride was millions of dead - the seed of Europe. The dead included Owen himself who was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre a week before the war ended. In a moment of ghastly irony, the telegram from the War Office announcing his death was delivered to his mother's home as her town's church bells were ringing in celebration of the Armistice.

Owen had seen first hand the wave of patriotism at the beginning of the First World War which glorified England and the idea of dying for England. This had been captured in the poetry of Rupert Brooke whose sonnet sequence ‘1914’ began with the line, “Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour.”

The horror of the trenches compared with the wave of patriotism which had joyfully sent young men to those same trenches led to the writing of Owen’s poem and the realization that war should never be treated lightly or simply glorified. The enlisting of God as being on our side by the established Church also meant that Christians at that time colluded in this glorification of war enabling poets like Owen to use bible stories and imagery in ways that were deliberately intended to shock a complacent public at home.

As a result, while on Remembrance Sunday it is absolutely right to remember and honour all who have made the ultimate sacrifice, this should never be done in a way that simply condones the act of war itself. The prayers that we use on Remembrance Sunday are carefully prepared to ensure that this balance is kept, as in this prayer from the Civic Service of Remembrance:

O God of truth and justice, we hold before you those whose memory we cherish and those whose names we will never know. Help us to lift our eyes above the torment of this broken world and grant us the grace to pray for those who wish us harm. As we honour the past may we put our faith in your future, for you are the source of life and hope, now and forever. Amen.

On Remembrance Sunday we will remember those who gave their today for our tomorrow but we remember, at least in part, to try to ensure that young people are never again sent to war on the back of the glorification of war which Brooke celebrated and Owen condemned.

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Bill Mason Band - Lost Years.