Memorial Day

 

Today is Memorial Day, originally a post-Civil War holiday created to commemorate those who died in our country's wars. It was originally known as Decoration Day, a day when Americans decorated the graves of fallen soldiers. To some extent, it has evolved into a day when many recall all their beloved dead. Thus, for example, when I was a pastor, I started the practice of an annual Mass at the parish-owned cemetery, a custom commonly observed as well in other Catholic cemeteries of which I am aware 

Cemeteries are special places for us – special not just because they are blessed and consecrated by the Church and marked by beautiful and noble monuments. They are special places for us, first and foremost, because it is where we remember one another, where we remember those who have died, who have gone before us in life, our cherished past to whom we owe our present. Remembering is one of the things that makes us human. To remember those who have died, as our nation does today, is to acknowledge the importance of their lives - and the common humanity which we share with them in life and in death. Remembering is also one of the things that makes us Christian. To remember those who have gone before us in faith, as we do especially here today but every day at every Mass, is to celebrate the multitude of ways in which the grace of God touched and transformed each one of them in life - and the hope we still share with them in death. Memorial Day is one of the few occasions commonly remaining to remind us of our links with those who have gone before us and of our continuing connection with them.

By coincidence of calendar this year, today is also the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church. We are a global Church, united in faith with people living on every continent. As Saint Augustine famously said on one of his Pentecost sermons, the original Church of 120 has become a great Church that speaks the languages of all nations [Sermon 267 (c. 412)]. We are also united - as the liturgy regularly reminds us - with those who have gone before us. So it is, as the author of the book of Maccabees has reminded us, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins (2 Maccabees 12:46). and welcomed among the saints, as we too hope someday to be welcomed with them forever.

Homily, Memorial Day, Saint Paul the Apostle Church, NY, May 25, 2026.

Photo: Mourning Virgin, South German 1510-1520, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.