La Pietà is unique among the great masterpieces of history. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed. This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. The face of Christ is serene, as the Master sought to show His presence with God. But the broken body of Christ simply amplifies the love and devotion of his mother, the One who bore Christ to the world, as she now bears his body to the tomb.
This is the source of our Memorial Day. Tomorrow speeches will be made, sales will be sold, burgers will be burned, and hot dogs will be turned. None of them have anything to do with this sacred day. This is a day of mothers' tears consecrating the graves of their sons.
Memorial day began in the ashes of a vanquished south--Decoration Day--in the foothills of Appalachia. Mothers of sons who gave their lives for a lost cause would come to lovingly care for the graves. Young men have always been quick to spill blood. Mothers and widows have always long remembered them.
History must judge whether their cause was just. Mothers and wives cannot speak of such things. They can only place flowers, lay down shells. and pull up weeds. Their tears are the only verbs that matter.
The just and the unjust both have mothers. Their widows feel the same loss. Their fatherless children know the same want.
In a time, two times, and half a time, there came the War to End All Wars. By then, America could scarcely remember that some of her fallen were once vanquished foes. By the end of Second World War, the memories of beloved sons were all blurred together.
Today flags are planted at Arlington... and countless other cemeteries. We honor the many and the few. We bless the valiant and the fearful. We cannot remember which was right or wrong, but we honor all who stood in the gap for the freedom we have not earned.
Today, not all casualties of war will feel hot tears upon their graves. War takes a mystifying turn. We have seen more of our heroes fall at their own hands than by the designs of enemies. We do not even speak of those who commit suicide slowly, by the bottle or by pill. Their fall to earth is slow, but no less painful.
When they fall, no jets scream overhead. No politicians sing their praise. We as a people do not honor the victims of mental illness, addiction, or trauma.
But mothers never forget. Widows always remember. Children never let go.
This Memorial Day, honor those who have fallen. Love those who are falling. And thank the mothers and widows who made this day possible, one soldier at a time.