Today marks 78 years since Jersey and Guernsey were liberated from the Nazi occupation. Time to reflect on our true liberation!
Happy Liberation Day! I realise it is a special day here, 78 years since Jersey was liberated from occupation! It's a day I share in celebrating: as many of you know my family are from Guernsey, who are also celebrating Liberation Day today!
As a young woman with a young family, my great grandmother was supposed to have been evacuated. Unfortunately, one of her daughters was sick; great grandma got as far as the docks before turning back; my great aunt was too unwell, they couldn't take her on the boat and they couldn't bear to leave without her. So they stayed, and the Germans arrived a few days later. I remember the stories about the occupation, I'm working my way slowly through some occupation diaries, and remember being told what Liberation Day in 1945 was like. Joyful. To be free at last.
Yet, in spite of their freedom, the scars still remained. The Island was covered with ugly concrete bunkers (even at Castle Cornet) and the beaches were blocked off with barbed wire and landmines. After the war, Guernsey's unique language (almost unchanged since before the time of the Norman Conquest) was lost because the children had almost all been evacuated to England and stopped speaking it at home and at school. There was psychological damage also; I often think the problems that my grandfather would have for the rest of his life could be traced back to the trauma, the first few years of his childhood living under occupation, the stress, the anxiety, the earliest memories he had were of not having had enough to eat. The oppressor, the occupier, was gone and yet the scars remained. The war was won but they didn't have peace.
Sin is a lot like this; it is not supposed to be there, in our human nature it is like an oppressor or an occupier. Although we are freed in Baptism, the scars of Original Sin remain in what the Church calls "concupiscence" (which means the inclination or the tendency to sin). Sin lingers on like concrete bunkers, barbed wire, and land mines in our very souls. The war against Sin was won by Christ at Easter, the oppressor was defeated, yet we do not have peace. The tragic reality of our human existence is that, through concupiscence, we can still give power to our oppressor; we can invite them back in, to occupy those empty bunkers. We can still find ourselves fighting the war long after it was won.
In the Gospel this morning Jesus, preparing to go to the Cross, says to his disciples "my peace I give you" - the peace only He can give. His peace is dwelling in unity with the Father through His cross. We can receive foretastes of this peace in our lives; when we are freed from sin and live in unity with Him. Freedom from sin means actively seeking out Jesus' peace in prayer and through the Sacraments (especially the Sacrament of Confession).
As we give thanks today for the Liberation of these Islands, let us also give thanks for the liberation won for us at Easter and given to us in Baptism. Let us pray for the grace to persevere, so that we might come into that true, final, perfect liberation that comes from dwelling with the Father. Let us pray for the lasting peace which only Christ can bring.
Homily for Liberation Day 2023
Our Lady of the Annunciation, St Martin
on John 14:27-31
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