Memorare

Memorial Day is a distinctly American holiday that we can and rightfully should observe as American Catholics to respect and remember our fallen soldiers and the sacrifices they made for our country. 

As Americans, we realize our freedoms depend on the defense of these national ideals by those willing to pay the price for us to enjoy them. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

As Christians, though, we can sometimes forget that our freedom was bought at a price as well--our freedom from sin, bought with the blood of the only one able to atone for them and mitigate the wrath of God by way of sacrifice. Like Americans born on native soil into a culture we so often take for granted, we as Christians can sometimes forget the high price of such a sacrifice--the suffering and death of God's only begotten Son. 

We can enjoy--yes enjoy--the freedom from the stranglehold of sin and death by way of this sacrifice. When we are living in a state of grace, we enjoy the fruits of the Spirit--peace, hope, assurance. We give honor to God when we use this gift in a fitting manner--to sacrifice our own self-will in order to love our neighbor and will the good of another, to be the hands and feet of Christ--we do not squander, but honor, the gift that has been given to us. 

When we remember Christ's supreme sacrifice on the Cross, we are imbibed with the gratefulness of a ransomed prisoner who owes his life to the one who bought it for him, who paid the price. Gratefulness and remembrance on our part is also a small price to pay tribute on this day as Americans enjoying the fruit of freedom, which, as we all know, isn't free.