Remembering the Perished

Remembering the Perished

 

          I am never more conflicted than during the highest holidays of our national calendar. I do not take lightly the freedoms or the basic forms or order enjoyed by many within our Western nations. Western Civilization (with the United States) has carved a place for the dignity of the human being at the very foundation of our understanding of governmental order. This has often been done most imperfectly, but an ideal that government must serve the dignity of the human individual has been placed at the very foundation of Western Civilization’s understanding of a government required to seek the consent of the governed. Because I am aware of the weakness of our humanity even in seeking the best of ideals, I find myself conflicted as we remember and honor the perished on this Memorial Day.

            I am not a pacifist but I do believe in the ideal that war must be an affront to the sensibilities of a God who so loved the world that He gave us his only begotten Son. I find in Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an example for one deeply attracted to the ideals of pacifism and yet he came to a point where he felt he had to actively resist evil with the strongest of means. He said of resisting evil; “We are not simply to bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive spoke into the wheel itself.” We often remember the sacrifices of soldiers whose battles involved their being employed to drive a spoke into the wheels of injustice. In the 1920’s following the debacle of the First World War, Bonhoeffer had been attracted to and viewed himself a pacifist. I suspect that at some level every seeker of good must have an appreciation of pacifism even if he also wonders how it is he might put a spoke into the wheels of injustice. There is a conflict between the good we seek and the presence of evil surrounding us and even finding a place within our very souls. For me such a conflict enters how I think of a holiday like Memorial Day.

            The Christian is taught to pray for his family, neighbor, community, city, nation, and world. With each of these connections we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. We recognize how we are as much in this world as we are not of it. The tension of seeking good for our neighbor is joined to the necessity of putting a spoke into the wheels of injustice rolling over a neighbor.

            We would like to believe that every American war has been an action of our choosing to put a spoke into the wheels of injustice. I think we likely sense that this has been truer at times than at other times. We think of World War II as the good war, and those who fought it as the greatest generation. We often have our doubts about the wisdom of other war choices. I suspect that there ought to be tension whenever and wherever we see questions in the wisdom of a certain war. It is this tension that often characterizes my attitude towards a holiday like Memorial Day.

            One of the most striking movie scenes impressed upon my conscience appears near the end of the film “Saving Private Ryan.” An older Private Ryan, joined by his family pays respect to the soldier who helped insure the Private’s safe return home. He wonders if he has been worthy of the death of the officer who helped insure his return home. He feels the obligation he has to someone whose death was connected to the life he has enjoyed for the decades since that death. There is a reality that part of the freedoms and lifestyles we enjoy have depended on the sacrifices soldiers made in battle. We are therefore like an older Private Ryan, who kneel at a soldier’s grave and asks “Have I lived a life worthy of your sacrifice for me?”

            I think we often associate that question with our remembrance of the Memorial Day holiday. But an equally poignant question should also flow from remembering those who perished in our many wars. If we are to honor those who have perished, we must also honor those who might perish. For our remembrance of those who perished in our wars, should be aimed to a large degree to reflect upon how we are to live with our lives of freedom. We sense that we have an obligation to those who gave their all. But do we recognize with enough gravity that remembering a soldier’s death should also obligate us to asking the important questions when someone imagines we should commit our young men and women to be participants in a war. Do we take seriously enough that kneeling at a grave of a young soldier who perished long ago also obligates us to seek to make sure that the blood of our young is not wasted on a war with insufficient cause?

            Warfare has a double edged sword for us to contemplate. We might think of Memorial Day and think of how Jesus spoke to the religious of his day. They commemorated the graves of the prophets. Jesus warned them that when they placed wreathes on the prophets’ tombs that they testified against themselves that they were the sons and daughters of those who killed the prophets. He turned the table on the glibness of their memorial festivals. Did they honor the prophets with wreathes or with their lives? Did they do what was in their power to insure that another prophet did not suffer death from their wrongful activities?

            On Memorial Day we do well to remember those who died for our nation. On Memorial Day we do well to ask the questions to make sure that no soldier must die a death caused by a careless or reckless government or an apathetic people. The graves of young soldiers ought not be the wasted blood of covetous old men who seek profits using the blood of young soldiers to build their empires.

            On this Memorial Day, let us seek peace with all men. Let us seek to defend those seeking to live in peace. Let us wonder how we might put a spoke in the wheel of injustice. Let us remember those who died and ask if we are worthy of their sacrifice. Let us remember those who die and seek that no soldier is given over to die needlessly.