Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Thursday, September 11, 2008 3:30 PM
Today we observe the anniversary of September 11, 2001, the day of the biggest terrorist attack on US soil. It’s a good day to remember and to pray for all those who were killed or wounded because of those attacks, and for those who lost loved ones and whose lives were changed for the worse because of that day.
I think it’s also a good day to salute and pray for all those who are serving to protect our country now: in the military and in civilian work, overseas and at home, in visible and in invisible ways.
These people are participating in a proud tradition of American citizens who have given their time, their talents, and sometimes even their lives for the sake of our country. In patriotism we celebrate “the sake of our country” as a noble cause, but often we don’t pause to ponder the deeper meaning of that statement. Today, when we as a nation pause to remember an awful page in our history, I think it’s also worth pausing to think about what it is that is really worth sacrificing and fighting for.
The teaching of the Catholic Church is that war is fought justly only according to the principle of double effect. This means it must be a last resort, must cause no disproportionate evil, and must be sought for the sake of the good to be achieved. This means that wars that seek only revenge or power - as so many wars throughout human history have - are not justifiable. Only wars that seek to protect a good can be justified.
G.K. Chesterton, master of the succinct, said it perfectly:
“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
What is it that the true soldier loves behind him? My mind jumps immediately to L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside, to a letter that her older brother Walter writes to Rilla from the trenches of the Great War. In it, he tells her that he is fighting so that the poets, the workers, the dreamers of the world may live in peace… and so that she may marry and raise children and live a life of love and laughter. The good that Walter loves has nothing to do with empires or with great power. It is ordinary life that he loves, and for which he is willing to sacrifice everything.
I think that today, as we remember the past and face the possibilities of the future, we can do honor to those who have died by recognizing that loving our country means loving that which God intended everyone to have: the freedom in which to serve Him in the peace of ordinary life, day in and day out. Many in our nation’s past have had to sacrifice in order that we might have that, and more in the future will do so. We can celebrate their sacrifices, today and every day, by living our ordinary, peaceful lives as best we can… and by recognizing what a gift it is that we have that privilege.
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Thanks for this beautiful reminder to deeply appreciate our ordinary, peaceful lives. In recognition of this privilege, when my path crosses with that of a veteran in everyday life, I try to thank him or her personally for service to our country. It seems awkward at times, but leaves me (and I hope them) with a great feeling.
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