08/22/2026
On July 26/26 I officiated at the dedication of Veterans Way in Veterans Memorial Park (the Bridgewater Cenotaph) as Padre to Royal Canadian Legion Branch 24.
Here is the reflection I offered that day:
Sunday, 26 July, 2026
Veterans Way Dedication
Luke 19.40: “I tell you, if my disciples are silent the stones will shout aloud.”
When we think of examples of great faithfulness, who comes to mind? We have biblical examples of Ruth, who would not abandon her mother-in-law Naiomi; of Daniel, who prayed when it was illegal; of Mary Magdalene, the first to encounter the risen Christ. We have 20th century examples of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta or Pastor Dietrich Bonoeffer, a pacifist by nature who was drawn – by conscience – into Operation Valkyrie, the plot to murder Hi**er. We could think of Sgt Tommy Prince, quietly waiting three days in an observation post in an abandoned farmhouse 200 metres from a German artillery position. And what of Padre John Foote, who would not abandon his men at Dieppe, carrying more than 30 of them to the aid station, and later voluntarily staying with those who would not be evacuated as a Prisoner of War? These are all examples – heroic examples – of faithfulness to God and to family and to duty and to comrades and to Crown and country.
That “heroic” level of faithfulness is something that most of us here will never have to experience, but there is a sort of faithfulness – perhaps we could call it “everyday faithfulness” – that we can and do and should experience. The usual name for this is “witness.” Now, “witnessing” is a concept that makes most people cringe a bit, conjuring up images of uninvited people knocking on your door at inconvenient hours, or teary-eyed testimonies given at revival-type meetings. But we’re talking about something much simpler, and far less emotional, than that.
On Palm Sunday, some 2,000 years ago, as Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds were half-crazed with enthusiasm. “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they cried. “Blessed is the coming king!” There was peace in those days, the Pax Romana, but in ancient Judea it was a fragile peace, and both sides knew it. You can hear the tenson in the voice of the religious leaders of the day, “Jesus, Restrain your disciples. Bad things are going to happen. Tell them to be quiet.”
And then Jesus says an astounding thing, “If they were silent then the stones would shout.”
Perhaps stones aren’t quite as “inanimate” as we thing – or would like them – to be … and maybe we aren’t as “animate” as we give ourselves credit for.
This walkway, these stones, these footprints, this little monument, all bear silent witness to duty, honour, and sacrifice, conflict and victory, lives lost and civilisations saved. We pray every Remembrance Day, “Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget,” and we promise again that “at the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.” Those are not just pious or patriotic phrases. Those are not empty words, but a commitment to remember, to be faithful, to bear witness – not just to historical data – but to events that have shaped us as a people. They bear silent witness – even though all of us here were to be silent – that there are things worth living for, and things worth dying for; that honour and valour and duty are not lost and forgotten concepts; that “service above self” isn’t just a motivational meme; and that the profession of arms is both honourable and just when exercised with loyalty and integrity. We pledge ourselves to remember, and to teach each succeeding generation to remember, and to teach by word and by example those who come to us from other lands whose story is not our story, whose history is not our history, that this is how Canada was made; that this is why we wear a poppy; that this is why the maple leaf is no longer green, but blood-red, that the freedom we now know and enjoy was secured at a terrible price, over and over and over again.
When we walk this path, we walk symbolically walk in the footsteps – the boot prints – of the men and women whose service we have pledged ourselves to remember, the living and the dead. May Almighty God grant that we may be at least as faithful in our witness to them, to their lives lived and their lives laid down, as are these stones. Amen.
