As Memorial Day approaches, remembering the price of freedom and democracy is important—especially the price paid with the loss of life and the hurt and sorrow which family and friends who are left behind encounter.  Although the day is solemnly pronounced by our media as the “first day of summer,” little do I ever see any substantial program that genuinely remembers.  Sure, we see the obligatory television and newspaper coverage of a parade or wreath laying—and this is good—but maybe remembering is not an easy task or maybe it should be more private.  In any case, the day should never pass without the Christian person taking pause to pray for the dead and remember their sacrifice.

Because we are Christian, we don’t remember in vain but with hope.  The day is not one of morbid details but of freedom secured at a cost.  So, we remember in a particular way, with God as the crucible for such memories.  Mass is offered for these brave and courageous people, prayers are said for family and friends since gone, and faith is applied to sustain those who remain.  We remember because we love freedom, but never absent responsibility. We give thanks for their sacrifice, but never without following through on our own duty. 

We celebrate their courage, but never forgetting the reason why.  And, we appreciate their bravery, but never without understanding the value of such witness.

God must be a part of what we do this day.  This Memorial Day we celebrate is a small echo of what we do at every Mass.  Just as we experience Christ and the memory of His life on this earth, so do we for the fallen who gave their lives that we might live.  And as the Mass is said for those who died as a means of expressing our belief in “greater things,” so this day is memorialized because there are “better things” worth thinking of and dying for.

Let us not forget!  We must live our cherished freedom in the light of God’s Eternal Law.  His life motivates us to defend life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  As people of hope, the lesson is learned:  By remembering, life carries on!