Blessed are the Peacemakers: Homily for Veterans' Day

 

The names are familiar:

WW I:             Gallipoli, Verdun.

WW II:            Iwo Jima, Anzio, D-Day

Korea:            Inchon

Viet Nam:      Tet, the Fall of Saigon

Today:           The Gulf War and subsequent involvements.

 

The changes in the way wars are fought and the reasons underlying wars emerged from changes in society and changes in those who fight them.  Were any WW I veterans alive today they would not recognize anything about the way wars are fought or the way in which those who serve are trained and prepared for war.  The philosophical and theological understandings of conflict and war have also changed.  It is unlikely that either "Over There," George M. Cohan's patriotic WW I song, or Frank Loesser's WW II vintage "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" would be written today or become the hits they were at the time. Trenches, hand to hand combat, and bayonets were replaced by a powerful air force and bombs with extraordinary destructive potential.  Today missiles can be deployed by drone and computer. There is the risk of sophisticated chemical and biological warfare that is meant to kill non-combatants and children.  All of these developments have changed the experience of those called to fight wars and to defend against the threats of aggressors.

 

The response of American society to veterans has also changed. The ticker-tape parades and welcomes  given to veterans returning from battle after the World Wars contrast sharply with the vitriolic ugliness dished out to veterans of Vietnam a violence created and sustained by so-called 'peaceniks.' Many of those veterans’ are still suffering from the trauma experienced at the hands of peace lovers when they returned home.  I will only comment on athletes, professional and college, taking a knee during the National Anthem by ignoring further comment. They are beneath contempt and,  as this is sacred space, I am constrained from using certain words and phrases to describe them. 

 

War defines the generation that fought itand the generation that follows, the veterans' sons and daughters. 

 

My dad, born in 1905, was too young for WW I.  However, he served four years in Europe as a physician in the Army medical corps during WW II. 

Like many veterans, he rarely spoke about it.  Alas, by the time I spent four years at the VA Hospital in White River Junction, Vermont, working daily with PTSD patients, some of them veteran’s of WW II, he had been dead for twenty-five years and there was no opportunity to ask the questions that I realized I should have asked.  Questions I still wonder about it. 

 

The sacrifices veterans made--the sacrifices those serving today continue to make--are oftentimes discounted or ignored. Future plans, family life, education, jobs . . . all  of these are put on hold when one is called or volunteers to serve in the armed forces.  Injuries may short circuit some plans. The risk of death needs no elaboration. Sometimes military service opens up previously undreamed of opportunities and paths of life.  It has “straightened out” more than one juvenile-delinquent-in-training.

 

The plight of the one serving in the military is, as was true for the veteran when he or she served, is one of anonymity and hiddenness.  The fame of the veteran is in the hiddenness of his or her service, doing a job day by day with little recognition or appreciation. The task of those of us who are descendants of the veterans is to keep their memories and the stories they did share with us alive.  By keeping those memories alive, we learn from them.

 

We hear in the Beatitudes  "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."  Sometimes peace can only be accomplished through war.  Peace may only be possible  when enemy threats from the outside

are crushed in the fight.  Ideally swords will be pounded into plowshares

and spears will be turned into pruning hooks. But at times plowshares must be forged into swords and pruning hooks back into spears. 

 

The reality of the human condition is that we are sinners.  At times those sins manifest in actions that threaten the lives and safety of others.  At times those sins ignite the fuse that leads to war.  This has been true since the beginning of time and it will be true until the end of time despite bumper stickers that urge making peace.  Thus our gratitude to those who served.  Our thanks to the veteran who risked everything to ensure the safety and freedom we enjoy.

 

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."

 

We thank them.  And we pray for them. 

 

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A choice: homily for veteran's day or the widow's mite? Easy. The widow can wait until three years from now when the gospel appears again.

It is a solemn day demanding prayer and contemplation. I particularly pray for the Gold Star Mothers (an aunt was a double gold star mother). Can't wrap my mind around it. And while not official, there were a lot of gold star father's who saw their dreams die with their children

The photos are from my home town, Plymouth, PA in front of what used to be the high school (class of '67). Every year on this day the band and others would assemble at the base of the large statue for a memorial service. The other one was only added much later. I knew some of the guys on the plaque. Their names haunted me back in 2011 when I found myself wandering the streets of Saigon with the camera . The actually still haunt me at times.

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD