Lest We Forget

Thanksgiving might have overshadowed another event which is etched in our national memory, the assisination of President John F. Kennedy 49 years ago on November 22.  Columnist Rick Holms and official town historian of Derry, NH, reminded us or yesterday's anniversary in an article which caused me to pause and reflect.  He quoted the editor of the Derry News who wrote after the funeral, "The passing of President Kennedy came to remind us of ourselves, of our national direction and of our institutions.  It brought this nation together for the past five days in thoughtful introspection as might only happen once in a lifetime.  And in so in passing, this tragic, untimely death still might serve some purpose--if we will but let it."
Much food for thought nearly 50 years later.
Today the Church,, as is its custom, remembers three saints, Pope St. Clement, St. Columban and Blessed Miguel Pro.  Father Pro, a young Jesuit, in his short life, inspired Catholics under persecution in Mexico and as his story was told, inspired us in the United States.  I remember our Sister in grammar school telling us the story of his martyrdom kneeling with arms outstretched in the shape of a cross, with a makeshift cross in his hands and with the words, Vivat Christo Rey...Long Live Christ the King reverberating in the courtyard where he was shot. As kids of the '40's we talked among ourselves of our own willingness (or not), to die such a martyr's death.
It's odd, isn't it, how we can find inspiration and the desire to imitate in the lives and deaths of those who have gone before us.   Hence the wisdom in presenting these models to us daily or on their anniversaries, lest we forget.
Bro. Rene