Becoming infatuated with generations, I began to research the baby boomers, generation X, millennials, and boomlets as the current one is called. It's interesting and crazy how the culture has drastically changed over the last century. For example, in the GI generation, those born from 1901-1926, workers would get one job and keep it as their one job in life. Divorce was not a word in their vocabulary and they had strong values of right and wrong. In generation X, those born from 1965-1980, workers changed career paths at least 7 times during their lifetime and couples were quick to divorce. Yet, what caught my attention the most is the GI Generation or, as they are sometimes called, the Greatest Generation. These are the men and women who lived and fought during World War II. I was listening to a talk by a Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionary and he was explaining how 10 million American men enlisted to fight in the war. They left their families, friends, schools, homes, everything they knew and loved to fight in a war that could very well claim their lives. One of the reasons why they are called the Greatest generation is because in the face of such evil, they rose above and combated it with great bravery, heroism, and goodness.
One man that stands out from the crowd is St. Maximillian Kolbe who was a priest who lived in a monastery during WWII. He is known for hiding 2,000 Jews from German persecution while at the same time publishing religious writing including anti-Nazi publications. He was eventually captured and ended up at Auschwitz. There they tortured him, harassed him, and as the soldiers began choosing men to die of starvation and dehydration, though St. Maximillian Kolbe was not chosen, he took the place of man who had a wife and children. After some time of starvation and dehydration, they injected acid to kill him and the other men chosen. It was said that St. Maximillian led the group in prayer as they were being starved and was very calm through death. He is now the patron saint of drug addicts, prisoners, families, and the pro-life movement.
The amount of bravery that both the GI Generation and St. Maximillian Kolbe had in the face of such evil gives me great hope for the future. How is it that these people saw sin and death and yet had the courage to rise above. I'm sure like the rest of us, they had fears and apprehension, yet they knew what was right. As Matthew Kelly, a famous Catholic speaker once said, "doing the right thing always leads to happiness." Doing the right thing isn't always easy but it's what enables our culture the retain a little bit of its dignity. In our culture today, there are many evils before us. They may not be so vivid or clearly seen as those in the past but they are just as present. Those evils include abortion and the thought that women have a right to it. It includes the idea that people have a "right" to do evil because at the end of the day "it's their life". It's relativism and not being able to determine between right and wrong for a society because "your right might not be right for me". It's lethargy and indifference to the point where we see evil but we are too uninterested or not passionate enough to correct it and even care about it. These are the evils that freeze our culture and our generation just sits back and watches it happen. My brothers and sisters in Christ, may be rise up to be the generation that says abortion is wrong and no one has a "right" to choose it. Let us be the generation that boldly states that there is a right and wrong that is universal and applies to everyone. Let us be the generation that has to be forcefully silenced because we have so much passion that we just can't hold it back anymore. Let us be like the GI Generation and St. Maximillian Kolbe and understand the being a generation of bravery is not easy but it is worth it.
To learn more:
Generations:
http://www.marketingteacher.com/the-six-living-generations-in-america/
St. Maximillian Kolbe
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=370