My son is an altar boy and serves daily Mass and Sundays. Since he is homeschooled, he is also available to serve extra Masses like funerals. Today, he was asked to serve a funeral for a fallen soldier who died in Afghanistan. Yes, it did interfere with our Saturday plans but there is always more than one way to serve our country. It is fitting that my son and his friend perform this service for another man who also put duty before pleasure. When I dropped my son off at church, thirty minutes early, the parking lot was filling up fast and many branches of our armed services were there. I don't know the person being buried today but he got my prayers at the Mass I attended earlier.
It brought home the fact that time passes by quickly. When the war in Iraq, etc. began, my son was only eight years old. Ten years later, he is a young man of eighteen and we are still facing some of the tragic aspects of war.
I think my son is beginning to realize the outcome of war. When we were overseas, we visited several of the American cemeteries and he was shocked at the rows upon rows of white crosses each representing a soldier from America who had died in the War. We had an hour during our tour to wander around there and he took off and just walked and walked and walked. I don't know his thoughts but it was a somber return to the bus.
Today, he gets to participate, in a very small way, in serving his country through his serving of the Mass for this soldier. The young soldier being buried was 19 when he died. The two altar boys are eighteen years old.
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