Thoughts on Veterans' Day 2014

          My dad was a veteran; he served in the Navy during the Second World War. I remember watching the 1950s TV series, “Victory at Sea” with him although he did not offer his own commentary. Those were simple times with clear messages about the values and mission of our country and our “allies”. In my teens I read Eisenhower’s “Crusade in Europe” and can still today recall the campaigns of Patton and Montgomery in North Africa and the sweep of the US and friends through Italy. I am proud of our success in liberating people from concentration camps and holding war criminal responsible for their actions. 

El Greco's  Martin of Tours

          When did the message about engaging in a “Good War” change? Perhaps it is pointless to trace the evolution of the change.  But it is imperative that we recognize the realities of today: that “sides” in battle is a concept that just does not exist anymore. The complexity conjures up a picture of a circular firing squad. Way too many innocents are killed, maimed or left without home and family to justify any wars. The responsibility of our Baptismal commitment requires each of us to live and work for peace and to call our political leaders to work effectively for world peace. This was surely the intention of the United States Congress which officially recognized the end of Word War I and established Armistice Day when it passed the 1926 resolution with began with these words:  “Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, .…”

           It is fitting that Veterans’ Day falls on the Feast of St. Martin of Tours, a fourth century Roman Soldier who gave up his career in the military when he was baptized because the killing it involved was inconsistent with being a Christian. St. Martin was revered by St. Benedict who dedicated a chapel to him near what was to become the Abbey of Monte Cassino. Link for St. Martin of Tours: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=81

           Sr. Dorothy Schuette, OSB