Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Pray for Victory

The Catholic Caveman had a recent post about seeing a bumper sticker that said, "Peace Through Music". I left a comment that I've heard alot about praying for peace, peace is a good thing. The trick is how peace is achieved. As Eisenhower once said, "Americans, indeed all freemen, remember that in the final choice, a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains." And so I pray for victory and that we may be worthy of victory. Because victory also brings peace.

It's a common thought now that there is nothing good about war, that there is no glory in it. But there is. It is the glory of being honorable. The glory of taking up arms and sacrificing. The old saying "all gave some, some gave all" is true. Some give their lives, some live having seen their brothers mained and killed and some live with the damage done to their soul because they had to take a life. By not recognizing and paying respect we do not dishonor the warrior as much as ourselves. We've become shallow, "men without chests" as C.S. Lewis would say. As an example we all know who Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are, but how many of us know who Paul R. Smith and Jason Dunham are? As George Orwell said, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." May Our Lord have mercy on those rough men and give them peace in this world and the next.

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