Bishop Wester: To honor veterans, promote peace

Friday, May. 30, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — Gathering on sacred ground to honor those who died fighting for the United States of America, hundreds of people attended the traditional Memorial Day Mass at Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

“We’re celebrating those who gave their lives so that we might live, and that we might live in freedom,” said the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, during his homily.

Bishop Wester was the principal celebrant of the Mass, which was concelebrated by Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, vicar general; Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general emeritus; Monsignor Joseph M. Mayo, pastor of Saint John the Baptist Parish; Father Martin Diaz, pastor of the Cathedral of the Madeleine; Father John Evans, administrator of Saint Andrew Parish; Father Eleazar Silva, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish; Father Dominic Thuy Dang Ha, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish; and Fr. Thuy’s nephew, Franciscan Father Hoi, who was visiting from Vietnam. 

The cemetery was a fitting site for such a celebration, the bishop said, because it is a sacred space. “We know that it is sacred because of the Lord Jesus, who is the Lord of Life, and we believe that he will come again on the last day and that he will gather all to God the Father. So, in many respects, this is a place of waiting; it symbolizes how all our beloved dead, and ourselves, are waiting for the coming of the Lord.” 

Jesus said there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend, and “fittingly, we honor those who have fallen in battle,” the bishop said, adding that many of those who died “did not know us, and they still gave their lives for us. That makes their sacrifice even greater. It makes it even more selfless, that they died for us, not even knowing us. You and I sit here today, enjoying our freedoms, because of these great sacrifices by those whom we don’t know, and who didn’t know us. Today, on Memorial Day, it’s important to remember these wonderful men and women who have given their lives for us.”

The Eucharist is more than a remembrance, it also recognizes “that we are one with our beloved dead,” Bishop Wester said. “We see this beautiful oneness through Christ with all those who have died, because they are still alive in the Lord. We are celebrating the Eucharist in which sin and death have been conquered. In Christ we are all one – death and sin no longer prevail. So we are called, in a special way, to be one with our beloved dead. They are celebrating with us; all the prayers of the Mass are geared toward that knowledge, that they are one with us right now; that in every Mass we celebrate together our dead are celebrating with us, although they do it from the fullness of the Kingdom. Then they intercede for us, as we go forth from this Mass to live what we have celebrated. … We take with us their example, their love, their support, their prayers, and we go forth from this Eucharist to live them, to live their sacrifices, to add to what they have already done for us.”

In honoring the dead, Catholics don’t glorify war, the bishop emphasized. “War is evil. What we are memorializing here today are those who have died for us, our beloved dead, and the sacrifices they have made. The way that we honor them is not by glorifying war and making that the be all and the end all, but rather by promoting peace, by being instruments of peace, because that is what our beloved dead died for, that we might live in peace. We may not change the world all at once, but in our little acts of kindness toward one another, we are bringing about a world of peace. It has to happen one kind act at a time, one smile at a time, one good deed at a time.”

The bishop also prayed for an end to war and violence, and that the Nigerian schoolgirls who have been kidnapped will be returned home safely, so that they might live full, productive and happy lives.

“We pray here in our own homes for an end to domestic violence, that women and children will not be subject to violence,” he continued. “We pray that in our Church and our communities and in our places of work and in our schools that we can live in peace and relax and not have to worry about violent acts being committed that we read about every day. This will come about if we keep praying for peace, if we keep coming to this Eucharist, if we keep trying to live what we have celebrated.”

The last stanza of the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae refers to taking up a quarrel with the foe; that enemy is bigotry, violence, intolerance and ignorance, Bishop Wester said. 

“May this Eucharist, here on this sacred ground, give us the strength to fight this foe and to live in peace. If we do that, then we will be truly honoring our beloved dead,” he said.