ROCKFORD—Right after thanking those gathered for the annual Memorial Day Mass at Calvary Cemetery, Bishop David Malloy gave thanks also for the sunshine, even as it mixed with clouds and wind.

Effects of the storms that hounded the Mass the past two years could be seen by where people sat this year. The north side of the aisle under the open-sided tent was filled. But a smaller group on the other side sat as close to the aisle as possible, away from where any predicted rain might blow in.

That so many came under potentially-stormy circumstances showed what Bishop Malloy called “the importance of the meaning of what we do here.”

He described the Mass as a time for “a deeper remembering” — a moment to prayerfully recall “all of those (service men and women) who have died in our country’s history so we can live as we do.”

The bishop asked his listeners to consider the grace of the Holy Spirit that brought to those soldiers “a conviction that was greater than their own natural strength.”

Their courage led to the “sacrifices we remember today (that) reminds us of what is best” in “a world redeemed by Christ but still scarred by sin,” he said.

“In faith, we recognize our own obligations in the face of (such) sacrifices,” Bishop Malloy said, including to “stir up our gratitude to those who served” and to pray for them.

Recalling a trip to Gettysburg where a tour guide told him that someone’s remains from that long-ago battle had only just been discovered in 1970, the bishop speculated that some soldiers must have felt alone and forgotten as they died in various wars. “How many of those who sacrificed for us are in purgatory?” he asked, stating that prayers for those souls “are the best way we can repay” them.

He reflected also on the state of freedom in today’s society, calling true freedom a matter of channeling society to what is good and godly. “I wonder,” he said, if those who died “to protect (our) freedom … what must they think of us now? … Was it worth their sacrifice?”

Bishop Malloy concluded his homily with a call for prayer for “those currently in uniform” and for citizens “to find the freedom that honors God — and we must live those sacrifices worthily.”