NOVEMBER 11, 2018
12:00 NOON EXTRAORDINARY FORM (LATIN) MASS
HOLY FAMILY CHAPEL, RUTHERFORD, CA
Howard William Osterkamp from Dent, Ohio served for nine months of his two-years of service on the 38th parallel in Korea with C Company, 5th Regimental Combat Team.
About half-way through those nine months, he was wounded in the leg with schrapnel, and suffered two breaks in his leg, but this was misdiagnosed by Army doctors, and he was returned to the front lines for four more months.
Osterkamp is credited with the phrase: “All gave some; some gave all.”
Today, is Veteran’s Day – which originated as Armistice Day 99 years ago at the end of the First World War. It took 19 years for Congress to declare it a national holiday.
It is also the memorial of St. Martin of Tours, who originally was a military man from a military family, and lived in the fourth century.
Pious legend tells us that Martin, seeing a poor beggar in the cold, took his sword and cut his own military cloak in half – sharing it with the shivering man. That night he had a dream where Christ appeared and repeated that well-known phrase “what you did for this the least of my brethren, you did for me.” And upon waking up, Martin saw that his cloak was no longer half, but 100%.
This led to his conversion, and eventually becoming a bishop in France.
Interestingly, the words “chapel” and “chaplain” supposedly arise from the French word for cloak or cape … and refer to the buildings where St. Martin’s cloak was displayed for prayer, and to the clergy who attended to the cloak as it moved from place to place.
In today’s Epistle from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we hear: “But above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfection.” Also of interest is that this is the Scripture that gives rise to the prayer all priests pray when they assume the chasuble – the outer cloak of the sacred vestments used for Mass.
In the Gospel, we hear one of the parables of weeds and the wheat. When the good seed came up as weeds, the servants are puzzled, while the master knows: “An enemy hath done this.”
In our own time, there is much bad fruit to be found in business, politics, and just about everywhere. There are weeds among the clergy – among those who have claimed to serve the Church. Yet, those men no longer seek to serve Holy Mother Church, but rather viciously now seek to be served by the Church. This has caused much damage to souls, and indeed “An enemy hath done this.”
Our solution is a call to arms – but not with swords or troops or calvary. Rather, our weapons against the Enemy of our souls are virtue, prayer, and charity … as St. Paul has told us in today’s Epistle.
In order to know this Enemy, we must examine the fruits. And where the fruit is rotten and weeds grow in place of wheat – we know what has happened, and we know what it is we must do.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ … let us never forget that He, and He alone has given everything. And indeed, while “all gave some, and some gave all” Yet we know that it is God alone Who has given us every good thing. Let us, in following Christ – Who gave His Life for our salvation – and those good examples of service – both to country and to Church – seek to return to God all the good He has given us … for the Greater Glory of the Almighty.
