When we think of our Faith, nothing is more God-like than God's sacrifice for us so that we may regain eternal life.
It is sometimes difficult to understand just how much a person could love someone and impossible to understand how much God loves us.
Early Christians displayed this love constantly by giving up their lives to deliver the Good Word as martyrs. This still continues to this day, but it was widespread early on.
Later, we saw Christians give up their lives protecting Europe and saving captured Europeans held as slaves in Muslim lands.
And, while not all wars have a good side to them, in our history, we have often seen a good side and the sacrifices of this good side against the evils of that day.
All the way back in the Old Testament, we saw this with the Jews who fought for their homeland against the enslaving Egyptians.
These are the people we honor the most because they sacrificed for us.
Since 1868, and federally since 1971, we have remembered those who sacrificed for our rights as Americans.
And while it may not be for our Catholic Faith specifically, many of our Wars have been about expanding our brand of one nation under God at home and around the world.
In the North, we began by remembering those who died to free the slaves.
And we have continued to recognize the bravery of our soldiers in their fights against tyranny in World War One, against state atheism and totalitarianism in World War Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Balkan Wars, and the Cold War, against totalitarianism and Islamic extremism and nationalism in the Gulf War, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, and the overall War on Terror.
Our country has almost always been on the Christian side the last two centuries, and have displayed the utmost humanity and humility in War despite our powers.
There is hardly any more mercy and any less saving that our country could have done over all, by fighting the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, and others like bin Laden, Hussein, Kony, etcetera.
To this day, our forces engage in battles with the most gruesome of ideals such as those held by ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliated groups all over Africa from the East in Somalia to the West in Nigeria.
In these soldiers, we witness the ultimate sacrifice not just for our nation and the nations they serve in, but also for humanity as a whole. They make the world safer for everyone but themselves, showing the truest sign of selflessness, one that can only be found in saints and Jesus Himself.
Not only do we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, but also those family members who, with a sure utmost reserve, supported these soldiers in their mission abroad putting other families in front of their own.
While the USA may not be the ultimate Catholic country like the Vatican City and former Papal States, or even a Catholic country like Spain or Austria, it has truly become one with our Faith in a more united Christian world. We see this most in World War Two, when Pope Pius XII sought American and British help in his quests to dispose of the Nazis from German leadership, and we saw this best in the Cold War when Saint Pope John Paul II sought American leadership to bring about an end to communist rule across Central and Eastern Europe.
Today, we will have witnessed the true thanks to America from across the United States, but also across the world, chief among them the former bastions of the Bulwark of Christianity and Catholicism at that, such as Poland, Austria, Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and France.
In remembering and honoring the fight America showed in liberating the Pacific, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East amongst others, and the ideals America represented in contrast to the Soviet Union, Pope Pius XII
stated "The American people have a genius for splendid and unselfish action, and into the hands of America, God has placed the destinies of afflicted humanity."
Memorial Day is that day that we get to remember those American people that had the ultimate genius and unselfish action that gave us this great destiny from God.
The story of America and humanity is one in the same. Like Man, America too had its original sin which many sacrificed their lives for to end this sin and earn forgiveness for the wrong they knew given their common belief in God. It is only fitting that American Catholics celebrate the day started to commemorate our own Civil Redemption, of which we continually work towards.
So, say a prayer for America and its soldiers, thank them and those that have fallen, or rather most certainly have risen, and also, go see the new Top Gun! It is really good.
