I didn’t have too eventful of a Memorial Day. I attended a wedding. I also went to the graduation of a cousin who will be headed to Missouri for AIT before starting college. Vox Nova was a little more eventful.
The reason I label the post such is because Nationalism and the rights of States are quite often understood erroneously outside patria. The Compendium of Social Doctrine is instructive here, “417. The political community is established to be of service to civil society, from which it originates.” The civil society, or patria as I’ll refer to it, comes down to respect for subsidiarity.
Many pious folks say that we should not mourn those from our patria that have fallen in war more than the dead our wars in turn brought. Often those hearing such sentiment assume that to mean we should mourn our own dead less and mourn the loss of others more. Rather I believe such advocates believe we need to be more conscious of the death of others not in detriment to our own losses but in respect for the humanity of those outside our patria. Even if we are to assert that this is an ideal – I don’t find such an ideal all that objectionable – I don’t believe it is natural.
One can see the suffering of another parent when a child is hurt, but it is not possible to understand the suffering at the level you would when your child is hurt. Similarly, it takes great personal effort to see the suffering of those we effect in war whereas we can see the suffering of our own soldiers. If such a thing were natural, the Our Father would not have us make the petition to “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” One needn’t philosophize to arrive here though. I’m sure each of has his own personal anecdote.
For me it was shortly after the first Gulf War, and my mother, brother, and I were in Washington, D.C. We were visiting the Vietnam Memorial. As one descends into the earth, one begins a spiritual experience. You are surrounded by thousands of names. Vietnam, having preceded me by many years, did not have significant meaning for me, but being surrounded by those who mourn for a specific loved one or just for those passed in general impresses upon oneself the solemness of the occasion. My mother for her part spent a time searching for the name of one of her cousins. Having found it, she etched the name upon a sheet of paper.
There are those who will argue whether Vietnam was a just war. Many have difficulty finding a just war the US fought. I can understand these concerns. The past however is the past. Whether or not a war was righteous, the dead died upon our request believing their offering would protect us. No, men don’t die for democracy or freedom or other such silly things. Men die for their patria; the rest is secondary to love of one’s patria. Our prayer is that they died in Christ. We pray that our patria lives in Christ. In the front part of your Missal you will see prayers to be offered when a new President is elected. Such is not a product of messianism, but is a product of the belief in the necessity of just leaders to lead men in righteousness.
In conclusion I hope those who partook in the Memorial Day festivities were edified. I look forward to shooting fireworks into the air come the 4th of July like most others. To do so is to recognize the blood shed by our patria in pursuit of the common good. If we can not do that, we can not seriously contemplate the blood shed of those from far away lands. Messianism is a real error and something to be fought against. There is no question that messianism has a long history in this country, and it is something we need to exercise caution against.
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