Broken bodies

καὶ εὐχαριστήσας ἔκλασεν
καὶ εἶπεν τοῦτό μού ἐστιν τὸ σῶμα
τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶντοῦτο
ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν

And when he had given thanks,
he broke it, and said,
"This is my body which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. ESV

And when he had given thanks,
he broke it, and said,
"This is my body which is broken for you.
Do this in my memorial. (ESV inserting footnotes)

And when he had given thanks,
he brake it, and said,
Take, eat: this is my body,
which is broken for you:
this do in remembrance of me. KJV

Some verses, those which have become part of the liturgy, are hard to change.

For even hereunto were ye called:
because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example,
that ye should follow his steps:

Some have indeed followed in his steps. Let us remember them.

Broken Ground by Jack Hodgkins is a good novel about WWI. And here is a poem by Wilfred Owen. Only 22 years old in 1915, he wrote,

"I came out in order to help these boys--directly by leading them as well as an officer can; indirectly, by watching their sufferings that I may speak of them as well as a pleader can. I have done the first."

He was killed three years later.

The Parable of the Young Man and the Old

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned, both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake, and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets the trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

Wilfred Owen

"My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."

More from Tyler at Codex. We had a very solemn Remembrance Day service at our school with a recitation of In Flanders Field, and then the choir sang Dona Nobis Pacem.

Update: Doug has a related post here.