Honoring the Fallen
this Memorial Day
This Memorial Day was an occasion of good
reflection for me. I have always been
patriotic; after all, patriotism, the love of one’s country, is a virtue. Nationalism, of course, is a vice, but
healthy patriotism is a good thing.
Lately, though, I’ve struggled with that, at least at an emotional level,
which is a level, I suppose, of no real consequence, I’ll admit. But still, I have had trouble feeling
emotionally attached to my country. Why
the struggle? It is one I think many
Catholics face.
Americans today live in a country in
which our government, at the highest levels, has set itself in direct
opposition to our Faith in many ways. We
live in a culture in which thousands of babies are killed every day, legally;
marriage is being redefined; and the government goes to court to defend its
ability to take away Christians’ freedom of religion – most notably with the
HHS mandate.
America
the Beautiful gets harder and harder to sing. And then comes Memorial Day, an American
holiday that in many ways stands apart from all the others. On Memorial Day we remember the soldiers who
fought to defend our freedoms, our ideals, and never returned home to enjoy
those privileges that were won for the rest of us.
No, I have no problem getting
emotional about Memorial Day. I think of
the thousands of men, just like me, with homes, wives, children, communities,
who were called to defend an ally from a Communist threat, or repel Hitler’s
attempt to conquer the world and “purify” the human race. They spent days, months and years, in fox
holes or some jungle in Vietnam, or even a POW camp, and never came home to the
embrace of their families or even a Memorial Day barbecue.
So this tension wells up in many of us
this last Monday of May. We honor the
countless sacrifices of our fallen countrymen, while living in a country that
we often struggle to be proud of. What
is the solution?
For me it was self-reflection. I have never seen combat overseas. I have never been fired at in a war
zone. How can I honor the sacrifices of
those we celebrate on Memorial Day?
They fought for the rights and
freedoms that are under attack today. We
must do the same. How? We will certainly not take up arms. But we are called to be soldiers for
Christ. And as Americans, we have to
make this country Ground Zero of this spiritual war.
It is easy to throw up our hands when
we see elections whose outcome we wonder if we can trust; or we’re told that
the redefinition of marriage is inevitable; or businesses are warned that as of
August 1, they will be forced to provide immoral coverages in their health
insurance plans; or universities (some even blasphemously using the name ‘Catholic’)
insist on mocking Christian values.
But we can not. Many Christian businesses are fighting the
HHS mandate in court. The pro-life
movement is out there fighting for every unborn life and to heal women so
deeply wounded by abortion. Grassroots organizations
continue to fight the same-sex “marriage” lobby at every step. Average Americans are answering the call to
start small businesses, run for political office, be faithful to their
families, and influence their communities to hold fast to the values that made
our country great.
If we want to honor the sacrifices of
those we remember this Memorial Day, let us take stock of our own lives. Do we sacrifice to stand for the values they
died for? Find your local pro-life
group; volunteer for a politician who still embodies integrity, or become one;
learn about groups like Patriot Voices,
and others, that try to bring American ideals and honesty back to our civic and
electoral processes.
Most of all, as Catholics, we must be
men and women of Faith. We must evangelize,
be active in our parishes, and live lives that mark us as unashamedly
Christian. And we can all support the
effort of our bishops this summer by participating in the second Fortnight
for Freedom. In these ways, we will
truly be soldiers for Christ and the best of patriots.
