Remembrance Day 2009
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, And there shall no torment touch them, For they are at peace. Wisdom 3:1 ore the Lamb.
Revelation 7:9
The Roman poet declared, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. But what does it mean to die for (pro) one’s country? Our annual observa*nce of remembrance is at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, because that was when the guns fells silent in 1918.
But what was accomplished by the allied victory and the loss of a generation of young men? The European economy was in tatters, and the harsh terms imposed on the defeated German nation at Versailles sowed the seeds of a new conflict, which would break out 21 years later.
The victors in this conflict have been called “the greatest generation, and rightly so, for those who died in World War II, fighting against Hitler, Mussolini, and Japan, died not only for their country (pro patria) but for Western civilization. Unlike World War I, when the German soldiers wore belt buckles with the inscription “God with us,” World War II truly was a struggle between good and evil.
Today we distinguish between wars of choice and wars of necessity. We honor the valor of those who died in unnecessary wars, but I cannot bring myself to say, “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.” I thank God that Jean Chretien declined to participate in the American invasion of Iraq.
But even in a war of necessity there are limits. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made it clear that British patriotism does not extend to dying to defend a corrupt Afghan regime.
This year Remembrance Sunday falls within the Octave of All Saints, which includes “the commemoration of the faithful departed.” So we may include all those who have died in uniform among the souls of the righteous who are at peace, even as we pray that these honored dead may not have died in vain.
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November 8, 2009
