Eddie Stroh. That is from my family memory. He was the oldest son of my maternal grandmother’s sister. He was a teenager. He died on his way back from doing recognizance at the Remagen Bridge (actually the Ludendorff Bridge). He drown in the Rhine. The capture of this bridge ended the war in Europe weeks early.
As a little boy I remember hearing his name and about the bridge and about how he had died…laying down his life, like so many other military members, to free the world. When we say HAPPY Memorial Day…we remember Eddie…and the members of your family who gave the full measure of themselves for us.
At Sunday Mass, the Opening prayers are some of the most beautifully written and moving prayers. In Latin, it is called the Collect, for its purpose is to “collect us as one”. Let’s be honest, we are never really collected enough to listen that closely? Unfortunately, the Opening Prayer for the Sixth Sunday of Easter is one of those prayers. If you missed it, here it is…
“That we may celebrate with heartfelt devotion these days of joy, which we keep in honor of the Risen Lord, and that what we relive in remembrance we may always hold to in what we do…
Both the Biblical and Jewish understanding and reality of Jesus’ passion and death is written in light of His resurrection. Just as of Old, when Israel would “recall” or “remember” how God had made a covenant and had saved His people from slavery, that memorial was not a distant memory. It was a present reality. God was here now. God was saving now. That Opening Prayer calls us to the core of our Hebrew lineage – we remember—and God acts here and now. “…(T)hat what we relive in remembrance we may always hold to in what we do.” We are present in the upper room, on Calvary and at the empty tomb! That is why Holy Thursday is HOLY; Good Friday is called GOOD and Easter is of course HAPPY.
As citizens of this great nation, fractured as it is presently, we are united today and we say to each other HAPPY Memorial Day. To remember the sacrifice of Eddie and all his fallen comrades who have given us so much. This day begs us to do something in return doesn’t it? We are duty bound to seek unity over division.
More than that, as citizens of Heaven, living here on earth, we are collected by this prayer to relive in remembrace –AND to do something. Our faith is being tested by betrayal, crisis, and sin. But our “reliving in remembrance” is deeper than any Judas’ kiss or Peter’s thrice denial, an apostle’s doubt or a crowd no longer willing to follow the One who feed them and offered more.(John 6:66).* As citizens of the Kingdom of God we are called, duty bound, “to hold to” what we believe “in what we do.”
*interesting numbering eh?
