"Honor is not that reward of virtue, for which the virtuous work: but they receive honor from men by way of reward , as those who have nothing greater to offer."
St. Thomas is right. How can we repay the sacrifices endured for our sake from those who have given of their very lives so that we might live?
There are two areas of life that spring naturally to my mind when I hear the word Honor. The two areas are parents and military personnel. Indeed, the word Honor has been raised to a lofty height in the third commandment. "Honor thy father and thy mother." If honor has been raised to such a height by being included in the Ten Commandments than certainly when we use it in our approbations to our service personnel we know we are doing something wonderful.
We can see there is no way we can repay our parents for all they have done for us. Night watches before the bed of a sick child. Round the clock feedings. Cooking , cleaning, instruction, and discipline.
And so we honor them.How can we repay the debt we owe to our service personnel? That debt to them began to be owed even before the fallen gave of their last. The home they left behind, the countless hours of training, and for many, grueling tours of duty already performed on the battlefield. With parades, flags, ceremonies, and the like we try to exalt their name, to never forget and fill up some of our debt by gratitude. But again, we do our best when we Honor them.
There is a wonderful teaching in the Catholic Faith that invites a way of honoring our beloved serviceman who have fallen in the line of duty even more than we can ever honor them here.
That is the teaching that there is a place where one can expiate his sins that have not been expiated here on earth and be purged of any imperfections that keep him from entering his Eternal Reward. That is the teaching of Purgatory.
For those who are sustained by this Faith, honoring our fallen can reach to even greater heights than here. Our Lord says: "Greater love than this no man has than to lay down his life for his friends", and we have confidence that under that auspice, the fallen take a speedy flight into the arms of the Eternal Father. But for those few, we hope, fallen, who may have to spend some time in purgatory to expiate some debts owed to our Heavenly Father, acquired by weakness and sin, we by our supplication and prayers to the same Loving Father pay some of their debt and aid them to a speedy flight to their Father.
That is some comfort to me, should be some comfort to you, that we might honor them mightily by our prayers and thereby bring some comfort to their families as we burn a torch in their honor here.
Every time my family and I pass a cemetery, we say the Lords Prayer or a Hail Mary for those souls who need to be released from purgatory and on memorial day a special remembrance to pray for the deceased soldiers. You too can implement this habit into your family. What a way to honor all those we owe so much to and can never repay.
Have a great day,
David Cools
