In Memorial of the Fallen

As Jesus prepared the disciples for His journey to the cross, He explained the purpose for His death in very simple terms—I’m making this sacrifice for those I love, My friends, past, present and future. Love and friendship are the ideals that best explain the rationale for Jesus’ sacrifice.

That same spirit of love, friendship and sacrifice is at the heart of Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor those who died while serving in the armed forces of the nation. These men and women gave their all for the cause of freedom and liberty. Sometimes, those who died didn’t agree with the cause for which they were sent to war. But they went anyhow. They made no excuses, claimed no exemptions, nor accepted any favor to avoid service. Their nation called and they answered.

Ultimately, men and women die on battlefields for two reasons, to do their duty and for each other. Regardless of socioeconomics, gender, religion, race, ethnicity, political ideology, service affiliation or any other differentiator we can conceive, they died for one another. When it mattered most, when lives hung in the balance, their differences were irrelevant. All that mattered was they were collectively in harm’s way. They died to save, defend and cover for one another.

Theirs weren’t individual sacrifices. Families and communities lost the sound of their voices forever. Their future contributions to the world have gone unfulfilled. The world will never know what would have become of their lives. But each gave us the gift of their sacrifice and their acts of sacrifice left a lesson we should heed carefully. If they could die for one another without regard for their differences, why can’t we live together with our differences? Why can’t we devote ourselves to seeing we have more in common than we have different?

Today, we stand in harm’s way ourselves. Not simply from those outside our borders. The most dangerous foes we face today are those who sow seeds of division and stoke the fires of discord within our own borders. These fear and hatemongers embrace a rhetoric of dissension that defies the very freedoms we celebrate on Memorial Day. Maybe we need to invoke the spirit of love, friendship and sacrifice found in our fallen warriors to encourage us to look past our differences and see our similarities.

We honor the men and women who died for this nation on Memorial Day with a moment of silence, and a lowered flag. I believe they would be honored best if we lived like a nation who truly appreciates their sacrifice by living as they died, looking out for each other.