This weekend the talk is of fallen brothers and sisters. In our cemetery we will gather on Monday for a moment of silence and meditation. And as citizens who benefit daily from their sacrifice of the fallen brave, it is right that we would.
When you go to a service like this, it is always obviously most moving for those for whom the fallen are not just some idea in the mind but are names written on their hearts forever, names of brothers they fought with who were lost in battle. In the heat of battle, they became a band of brothers closely bound by shared conflict and loss.
In times of peace, while the message of unity is still preached, it is not quite the same. Shared experiences of death always form the tightest binds.
Sometime I wonder if this is why unity in the Church is so hard in America. Certainly there are many other factors that contribute to the mess that is the Christian Church in our country, but it seems to me that the lack of shared experience of death is a big problem for unity. We have for so long been so untouchable in regards to martyrdom than unity is rarely viewed as truly necessary. We do not have shared experiences that make the binds tight. Safety gives us us too much time to thinks up new things that can divide us rather than clinging together to the true things that makes us one: One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.
So do I pray for persecution? Not anymore than a soldier prays for war. But I do know that when it comes, God has promised that there will be good worked out of that evil. And perhaps true unity based on shared confession will be one good that He will work through his Spirit.
O God, your infinite love restores to the right way those who err, seeks the scattered, and preserves those whom you have gathered. Of your tender mercy pour out on your faithful people the grace of unity that, all schisms being ended, your flock may be gathered to the true shepherd of your Church and may serve you in all faithfulness, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
