When I was a child, we used to play ball on the streets of Chicago. Every so often LeRoy would come by and tell us that we would be in the major leagues some day. He was ever so uplifting and supportive.
During World War II he joined the Merchant Marines. While at sea, his ship was torpedoed, and he never returned to cheer us on again.
My cousin Nino came home after the war. But every time there was a thunderstorm in our neighborhood he became hysterical. These episodes of hysteria were the result of living in foxholes and enduring constant shelling.
During the recent Memorial Day celebration, widows of men fallen in Iraq could be seen holding newborns who never would see their fathers. Next to them sat those wounded in Iraq and World War II veterans.
The more I entered into the celebration, the more I realized that war never ends. Those who fought in war or were affected by it are scarred for life by their memories.
Why do young men and women need to go off to war? Can we ever make sense of it?
Early on in history, the Greeks held duty in high esteem because it is the heart of civilization. They believed that as distasteful and injurious as a task may be, there is an imperative within us, a sense of duty, that compels us to uphold our honor and to sacrifice for others. When we no longer respond to this imperative, there is nothing left to hold a civilization together.
In commemorating our war dead and wounded, we commemorate duty. It resembles what Christ did in dying for us. It is duty that his followers exercised in establishing the church. It is this that keeps family life together. It keeps life honorable too. It is why men and women go off to war. The spirit of duty left to us by those who are killed lives on, beckoning us to follow their example.
There is no human sense to war! The only sense it makes is found in the Bible, which teaches us that sin entered the world. With sin comes anger, pride, resentment, jealousy, lust, avarice and a host of other evils. Whenever we have evil, we have a war between the powers of good and evil.
It is only through our eyes of faith that we can make any sense of war. Its senselessness is a reminder --- and teacher --- of the senselessness of sin.
It makes no sense to relinquish peace and turn to the turmoil of sin, yet we do. Nor does it make sense to prefer darkness over light, yet we do.
As long as we do, we will have war.
War will only end when Christ, who is peace, comes for the second time to end war and sin forever. Father Eugene Hemrick is a syndicated columnist with Catholic News Service.
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