The Ultimate Sacrifice...

Continuing the theme of Easter of suffering and death -- and Christ's final victory over suffering and death, I would like to comment on what the ultimate sacrifice means to me, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and what it means to those families that suffer the loss of a loved one in a war, or even in peacetime.

I say peacetime, because those who serve in the military can suffer the loss of their lives or limbs in accidents as well as in combat.

When I was in Vietnam from late December 1967, to late December 1968, I was an easy target of the enemy, not only when I was protecting the perimeter of the base, but also when I was on special convoys, or escorting the Vietnamese nationals that worked on the base during the day, back to their homes in the nearby city of Tuy Hoa, or providing perimeter security for engineers drilling water wells out in the "boondocks".

If I had been wounded in action or killed in action (WIA or KIA), it would be said that "He was wounded for his country."  Or, "He died for his country."

Maybe...

But when in Vietnam, I wasn't fighting for "my country," as such, but rather fighting for the freedom of the South Vietnamese people so they could determine for themselves if they wanted to live in freedom or suffer under Communist domination.  Only indirectly was I "fighting for my country," because both countries shared those values that make a people free...

I was willing to make the "ultimate sacrifice," though I didn't want to be wounded or die, but if that had to be when fighting for my brothers, I would have done so.  You see, in war, it is not necessarily the cause one fights for, but for each other!

Fast forward to the present...

The other day, we were informed that one of the members of the community, while serving in the military, was killed.  He was 23 years old, and recently married.  We are not sure in what country he was in when he suffered fatal wounds, or even in what branch of the service.  I have heard conflicting reports of same.  But he is gone; his family had to "celebrate" this Easter without their son, and brothers and sisters of this man mourn with their parents.

He made the ultimate sacrifice; we pray that our risen Lord will have mercy on his immortal soul, and, at the same time, comfort -- in some way -- his parents and siblings.

Today's Mass was offered up for him: there is no greater or more powerful prayer than the Mass, where Our Lord's ultimate sacrifice is repeated as on Calvary.

(To those who think that we Catholics "crucify" Christ again and again in a different way, they are mistaken.  The Mass is the same sacrifice as occurred on that Good Friday, not a new one.)

I ask all of good will to pray for the soul of this young man who made the ultimate sacrifice -- on Good Friday!

RIP, my brother...

Gene DeLalla