Life Lines
tableaux of remembrance
The Memorial Day Address by the Rev. Thomas Rose on page 233 is one of
thousands of such tributes to fallen soldiers that echo throughout the United
States on Memorial Day – the last Monday in May. His is unique, of course, for
its New Church perspective. Similar observances around the world honor the
men and women who have died in service to their country and our freedom.
They deserve our deepest gratitude and respect – every day.
In the tiny park below the Bryn Athyn Cathedral where this observance
is held every year is a plaque listing those who served in foreign wars. The
names ring with the generations of the community and the Church: Alden
and Cooper, Pendleton and Pitcairn, Bostock and Gyllenhaal, Odhner and
Rose, Smith and Synnestvedt. It is such names on plaques and monuments
that bring it all home for us. These are the men and women driven to protect
our freedom and to accept responsibility – values nurtured in churches and
schools and living rooms. They accepted the calling that it is nobler to risk
death for the sake of honor than to risk dishonor for the sake of life. We honor
them for their character.
Beyond the tranquil setting of a quiet little park in Bryn Athyn are searing
symbols of what “laying down your life for your friends” is all about. Two of
the most stirring to me are the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in France
and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.
The American Cemetery sits above the beaches where the cataclysmic
horror of D-Day gives way now to sacredness and serenity. Ten thousand stark
white crosses and Stars of David stand eloquent and mute – and shout the
price of freedom. There is an eerie stillness among those endless, perfect rows,
mocking the wantonness of war. The impact of so many silenced brave young
men dulls voices to whispers. This is hallowed ground.
When you read the names on each alabaster tombstone – some inscribed
“Known only to God” – you begin to understand that each of these men had a
story, a dream, and each was a hero to his loved ones and his country.
The connection to names is all the more compelling at the Vietnam
Memorial, a stark and piercing slash in the ground in the shadow of the
Lincoln Memorial, with 58,000 names etched into its somber black marble. Its
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