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Homilies | Monday, May 29, 2023

Let us commit ourselves to the cause for which they died

Archbishop Wenski's homily at Memorial Day Mass 2023

Archbishop Thomas Wenski joins Mary Jo Frick, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Miami, in placing a wreath in honor of fallen service members after celebrating a Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Archbishop Thomas Wenski joins Mary Jo Frick, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Miami, in placing a wreath in honor of fallen service members after celebrating a Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski preached this homily while celebrating the Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

Today, the Monday after Pentecost Sunday, the Church universal celebrates the feast of Mary, the Mother of the Church. This is a new feast day instituted by Pope Francis. Mary was with the disciples when they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, the day in which the Church was born through the gift of the Holy Spirit. As she was the mother of the Savior, Jesus Christ, the head of the Church which is his Body, it is fitting that we also honor her for she also is our Mother, the Mother of the Body of Christ, the Mother of the Church.

Today also is Memorial Day and today we gather in this beautiful cemetery among the faithful departed whose earthly remains rest here. We gather to honor and to pray for all the dead but especially for those who have made the supreme sacrifice, those who have died in the service of this great nation.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates the Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates the Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

This day was originally known as Decoration Day – and I remember that my mother always called it that. It was established to honor those fallen in battle during our nation’s Civil War. However, today Memorial Day honors those who have died not only in the far distant past; today, we honor not only our grandfathers and fathers who died in wars fought yesterday; today we also honor our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters who have died in the wars that still are being fought today. We cannot forget those American soldiers that still stand in harm’s way.

President Lincoln’s words at Gettysburg still challenge us today:

“... (the) great task remaining before us ... hat from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” 

Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates the Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates the Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

Flags adorn the military veterans section of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale on Memorial Day, May 29, 2023.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Flags adorn the military veterans section of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale on Memorial Day, May 29, 2023.

We owe these fallen heroes – and the families who mourn them – our gratitude for their sacrifice and our prayers for their eternal repose. The numbers of veterans still alive today from WWII are diminishing every day as are the veterans of the Korean conflict and Vietnam. And so many of them are buried or interned here at Our Lady Queen of Heaven.

Yes, to recall to our memory those who have died in war means also to commit ourselves to the cause for which they died. To honor their memory, we too must also be resolved to serve our country, to safeguard its promise, to accept responsibility for its destiny – “that these dead shall not have died in vain.” This we do through assuming the responsibilities of good citizenship, by voting responsibly and paying our taxes; we do it through putting the common good ahead of private self-interest and in “giving back” through volunteer service.

Saint John XXIII in Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), wrote that peace is an edifice resting on four pillars: Truth, Justice, Love and Freedom.

Truth must be the basis of our lives: the truth of God, the truth of the moral law written on the human heart. Without commitment to those self-evident truths placed in our nature by God, we will be enslaved by what Pope Benedict called the dictatorship of relativism and Pope Francis has called the globalization of indifference. We have to embrace the truth of who we are as creatures made in the image and likeness of God.

Justice commits us to respect the dignity and rights of every human person — from conception till natural death. Justice commits us to the rule of law — but a law that is just and in conformity with the truth about the human person and not merely the imposition of the will of the powerful on those who are weak and vulnerable. Justice tells us that “might” does not make “right.”

Love is the capacity to transcend oneself, to make a gift of oneself to another. We must make our families once again the schools where such love is taught and experienced and the gift of self is made possible, where children learn such love from parents – from mothers and fathers who are committed to each other in that stable and permanent relationship called marriage.

Freedom is not the ability to do as we please but to do as we ought. It means that we can and do assume responsibility for our actions, to do good and not to do evil.

As Americans, we honor the sacrifice of those who died in the service of our nation by building on these pillars of truth, justice, love, and freedom the peace which their sacrifice has won for us.

As Jesus tells us, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

May the souls of all the faithful departed, especially those fallen in the service of this great nation, and may the souls of all your loved ones who are buried or interned here, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates the Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.

Photographer: COURTESY | Sr. Elizabeth Worley

Archbishop Thomas Wenski celebrates the Memorial Day Mass at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in North Lauderdale, May 29, 2023.


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