This weekend is the kickoff for the summer season and therefore is one that many people anticipate with joy. No school for three months. Summer vacations. Fishing, golf, road trips, and outdoor barbecues. This unofficial beginning of the season, characterized by fun in the sun, is a happy time for most of the nation.
But this weekend is also Memorial Day weekend, which is a time for somber remembrance. Memorial Day began shortly after the Civil War, which still stands as the most deadly and painful time in American history. Unlike today, most of those who fell in battle were buried near to where they fell, and this led to a concern that their graves not be neglected even though they were far from family and friends. So “decoration day” began to be observed on May 30. Later, decoration day was changed to Memorial Day and expanded to include the placing of flags and flowers on the graves of all those who served in the American Armed Forces and then as a day to visit and decorate the graves of any family members whether military or not.
So Memorial Day is a day for somber remembrance of those who gave “the last full measure of devotion,” to use President Abraham Lincoln’s phrase, in service of the nation. Lincoln himself was one of the last casualties of the American Civil War when he was assassinated in April of 1865. Memorial Day is a good day for rededication to the ideals of America which he so eloquently defended in his speeches: freedom, liberty, equality, and justice.
Memorial Day is also a good occasion to contemplate the horrors of war and the benefits of peace. There are those among us who have seen a friend killed before their eyes because of one momentary lapse, who have watched innocent civilians die as “collateral damage,” and who have witnessed the tragedy of death by “friendly fire.” They know that “war is hell” as General William Tecumseh Sherman said after his ferocious march to the sea and burning of Atlanta, Georgia in 1864. It is to be engaged in only as a last resort when all other attempts to avoid conflict have been exhausted.
Jesus Christ came into this world as the “the Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) and said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9) In Psalm 34:14 the Bible teaches that the man of God will “seek peace and pursue it,” a verse that the prince of the apostles repeated in 1st Peter 3:11. On a day dedicated to remembering those who died in war, it would good for all those still living to dedicate themselves to peace so that the prophecy of Isaiah may come closer to fulfillment: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
May the memory of the dead be blessed. May the purpose of the living be peace.
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