Remembering (05/27/2024)

Today across the United States, we are called to remember and to honor the men and women who have given their lives in service to our country in our struggles to vanquish the enemies of human freedom. Today we are asked to hold their sacrifice in our minds and hearts, recognizing their gift to us individually and as a nation founded on the principles of God given freedom. Today, as we remember the price they paid, we are encouraged to also honor them by insisting on using their gifts to us wisely and lovingly.

I have a host of family members who have served in the military: my father and husband were in the Army, my brother-in-law served in the Navy, my brother and my grandson served as Marines. My uncle Bernard was in the Army during World War II. He died in north Africa. His body was never returned to the family. Today, my family remembers Bernard and his sacrifice. We do so through prayer, through remembering, and through our insistence to use our freedom well.

This past weekend during Fr. Tim’s excellent homily, I was reminded of what freedom truly is. He cited Pope John Paul II’s words: “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” These words resonated with me. I’d heard them often before. It is one of my favorite “go to” quotes. It reminds me how easily we human beings can take something so good and make a mess of it. Freedom isn’t permission to do whatever I like. Freedom is the right, the ability, the responsibility to do what we ought to do in the moment, to act lovingly, to act kindly, to do for the other what we’d want others to do for us, to love the LORD we cannot see by loving our sisters and brothers whom we can.

The freedom of our nation as claimed and granted in our founding documents reminds us that we are created by our LORD and given certain rights, certain freedoms, among which are the freedoms of life, of liberty and of the pursuit of happiness. These are the freedoms we claim we will fight to maintain.

Are we willing to fight so that others may have life? Are we willing to give of ourselves so that others may live in the freedom the LORD has created us to live in responsibly with our free wills? Are we willing to do what it takes to ensure that others can pursue happiness by freely searching for and finding the LORD in whom we live and move and have our being?

As I sit at the beginning of this important day, I can’t help but remember another who paid the ultimate price so that I might be free – Jesus Christ. He selflessly sacrificed himself so that I might have life and have it in abundance. Through His death and resurrection, He conquered sin and death.  As I sit and contemplate that on this day of remembering, I am reminded of another of John Paul II’s quotes: “Only in Christ can men and women find answers to the ultimate questions that trouble them. Only in Christ can they fully understand their dignity as persons created and loved by God.” And I ask myself, am I honoring Christ’s sacrifice for me by allowing Him to inform me and my life?

Remembering the sacrifices of others for us is meaningful. This day will be punctuated by parades, speeches, heartfelt gestures of remembrance across our nation. As we participate in the day’s activities and remember our sisters and brothers who made their sacrifices so that we might have freedom still, let us not forget to turn to the one who created us to be free, who died so that we might be free of sin and death, the one who gifts us and graces us day in and day out so that we may respond to the needs of the moment as we ought.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.