From Archbishop Donoghue

Mass for Memorial Day 1999
May 31
National Cemetery, Marietta
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Dear Friends in Christ,

The Mass that we celebrate every year here at the National Cemetery is very special for a number of reasons - the most important, perhaps, being the individual thoughts, memories, and prayers that each of us brings to this occasion. And these thoughts and prayers of ours are reflective of many things - the memories we have of our friends, our parents - the individual ways that war and service to one’s country have touched us, and left us changed forever - what we have learned from our mothers and fathers and grand-parents about the virtues of patriotic soldiers, or what we remember ourselves about living during war, about facing the possibility of death for ourselves or for those we love, and in many cases, about having had that possibility come true.

Another reason this Mass is so special, is the fact that in being here, we have taken a step outside the normal position of our everyday life - we have poised ourselves upon a point in time from where we look back, and where we turn to look forward. Back, upon the 200 years of our country’s life, back upon the all wars we have fought, seven major conflicts in 200 years, and many smaller actions - back upon the thousands and thousands of lives that were given in those conflicts, given for the sake of peace, and security, and the possibility of having a happy, undisturbed life. And even as we look back, the prayers that rise from our hearts turn forward, to our future care, as we pray to the Father in Heaven, and beg him to keep from us any more war - “No more war…no more war,” as Pope Paul VI so movingly implored the gathered nations. We stand with the graves of all these fine men and women around us, with the memory of their sacrifices to inspire us, and we prepare to walk forward, with hope, into a world that we truly want to be better, and above all, a world without war.

But we cannot predict the future, dear friends, and those who try, either make colossal mistakes, or what is worse, they see their future fears, their worst fears, actually come true, and all their plans undermined. Not that we should not plan for the future - but the plan must begin by casting ourselves upon the mercy and the love and the providence of God, our Father in Heaven. That is why we are here, poised in our thoughts between what has been and what is to come, to ask God, through this mystery of His love Incarnate, His love in the Body of Jesus Christ, to grant us two things: first, that we might have peace in the future - as persons, and as a nation - and that until the end of time, things might just get better and better. But, failing this utopian hope, and indeed, what is more likely, that in the event war and trouble and needy times come again, we pray that God will send again plenty of patriots to our defense, plenty of loving and devoted men and women, to leave their homes, and to march forth in defense of what they believe, what they know to be right, even as these men and women who rest here in this hallowed ground, took up their duty, and paid the price required, that others might survive, and live, and prosper, and know peace and happiness.

The Lord has taught us: “ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.” We are in the presence today of those who have joined our Lord in the greatest sacrifice that can be given - the sacrifice of their own lives - and now, they wait to meet Him on the Last Day, the Day of Judgment, the Day of their vindication. May our respect for and veneration of their memories and deeds, stand us in good stead, when we join them on that day, before the Lord’s throne. And may God be merciful and kind, and grant us, by the merit of Jesus Christ, peace in our day, and peace for our children.

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