I cannot say that I am an anti-war fanatic by any means and while there are days when I would like to sit on the street corner with my own sign, it probably wouldn't say "END WAR NOW," or "WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER". Maybe I say that because throughout history, not every war has been void of reason. We fight for life, we fight to save, we fight to stem the tides of evil in this world.
A few weeks ago I watched a film titled "Joyeux Noel". Written and produced in France, it won an Oscar in 2005 for Best foreign Film. And aside from it's award, it has won a portion of my mind over the last 20 some odd days.
In a war that killed more than 40 million people (soldiers and civilians), whose outstretching effects presented such intricate and delicate issues few can articulate – the film remembers a day when those fighting and killing one another decided to see a human being, not just an enemy to be rid of.
I remember my world history teacher in High School explaining that WWI began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. European countries found themselves on the side of the Austria-Hungary Empire (The Central Powers) or the Entente Powers that included France, and the UK among many others. And so thousands of soldiers found themselves in the trenches stretching hundreds of miles waiting for their superior to order an attack. More than how the war started, I remember the discussion of trench warfare itself. I sat on the far right of the room, second chair from the front. I may have only been 15 years old at the time, but I couldn’t help but consider how on earth someone could justify this type of fighting. Most casualties wins. I remember feeling irritated with history sitting at my desk in class.
As sure as time passes we have and will continue to see a progression in the way we fight. We fight ‘smart’ today. Looking back now to 1914 we could argue that we fought devastatingly stupid during the First World War. My feelings at age 15 weren't terribly off, and sometimes considering my own naiveté seems a bit refreshing. I needed just a little perspective.
Long story short, we see these soldiers turn into men - men who have wives and children, mothers who miss them and newborn babies who had never seen their fathers. There is a sense of a disappearing of the lines that divided the nations on that Christmas Eve. Fighting ceased, carols were sung and Mass is performed in No Mans Land by a Catholic Priest who was serving as a medic.
While the characters and stories will move you, the music will keep you coming back and the profound and factual story will change, at least in a small way, how you look at war. Beyond war, it will change how we see those enemies in our own life. We are each impressed upon by different ideologies, each presented with different sides of a story that make up the grounds upon which we argue or fight. When conflicts arise between two or more persons, there seems to be a switch in how one views the other. Offenders are made into monsters or villains and in our own minuscule minds are deserving of hatred and retaliation. I wonder what would happen if we could see those who offend us as human beings, rather than a uniform, a monster etc. We are all men, created by Almighty God. And much like WWI, there were clear differences, and to most, good reason to fight, but for one night it changed when they were reminded of their shared humanity. Let’s let our No Man’s Land be a place to remember each others humanity, not a place to kill.
Oh, and do yourself a favor and watch the movie.
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