Glory

I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve already gone to the beach since moving back to Florida…

Glory

Back to back birthdays are a hoot.

Today we celebrated my youngest daughter’s second birthday, and tomorrow we will celebrate my eldest’s fourth. We spent the day among countless other Americans enjoying the sunshine, sand and waves. We went for a drive, picked up some coffee and doughnuts, received calls from family members, and generally just enjoyed ourselves. Even more so these days, living in Florida is a significant blessing.

I was fortunate to make it to daily mass this morning before picking up some balloons for the girls. During the homily, our sagely celebrant mentioned his uncle, whom he never knew, who was killed in the Pacific in World War II. From his family’s lore, the man was a tremendous human being who would have gone on to do incredible things in this life, but he never got that chance.

I say that in jest, of course - as Father Joe Pinchot eloquently put it, he is confident his namesake is spending eternity in glory. 

I really thought about the phrasing of “glory” in regards to this man. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he accomplished something in this life that most of us should ever hope to experience. He literally died fighting the good fight. He died in service of the greater good. He died so others didn’t have to. I’m grateful for that. We all ought to be, and we ought to take that as a reminder to die unto ourselves each day as we fight our own fights and continue our own struggles.

Our Salvation also involved the spilling of Innocent blood. The greatest human being to ever walk the earth was slain, yet in His Glory He conquered sin and death for all eternity. 

I found it fitting that on Memorial Day we also celebrated the Visitation, where Our Lady, carrying our Savior in her womb, visited her cousin Elizabeth, who was also with child. There is such joy in this event, despite the weight of the challenges ahead. John the Baptist would be martyred in service of God, and as for Jesus, the greatest story of history would unfold.

Every day we fight battles. For many, it is a matter of mortal life and death. For all, the struggle we face is for eternity. We must choose the side of what is righteous and good. There is no victory in the culture of death - there is only victory in the death and Resurrection of our Savior. There is only one side that wins.

Our existence as Americans is due to the sacrifices of so many who have come before us, and we will never know most of their stories. In President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address, he quoted the diary found in the pocket of an a young American, Martin Treptow, killed in World War I:

“America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.”

We’ve got something incredible — something too precious to lose. I’ve said it a million times, and I believe it to my core. We must struggle to preserve America. And we must keep our priorities straight and our trust in God to make it so.

During last Sunday’s closing hymn, and frankly every time I sing this familiar tune, I had to fight back the tears welling up from deep inside me:

“Oh beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife

Who more than self, their country loved

And mercy more than life

America, America may God thy gold refine

'Til all success be nobleness 

And every gain divine!”

Happy Memorial Day, America.

-MJVW