On Devotion
Publius Decius Mus was by this time a veteran in the eyes of his Roman legions.
Commanding the right wing, Decius began to feel his ranks give slowly at first. As the Latins on the slopes of a then-dormant Mount Vesuvius pressed their attack, the first line of the Roman army began to ebb, then press into the second. Decius rallied his veteran triarii and turned towards an old priest named Valerius.
Decius never had to ask. The priest produced his toga proetexta, a fine cloth reserved for the worship of the pagan gods of Rome. Placing it over his head, Decius stepped lightly over his javelin, pressing it into the dark soil.
Slowly at first, then proclaiming it loudly so his veterans could hear, Decius invoked the names of the nine gods to accept his devotion: Save the legions, place fear in the heart of Rome's enemies.
Decius sent word to the Roman left, climbed his white horse, and with his toga fluttering Decius threw himself into the Latin lines, and sacrificed himself.
The Roman armies saw this, and knowing what Decius had just performed, they now knew their Roman gods had been delivered the Latin host by virtue of the blood of their leader. The Latins, not comprehending what was quite occurring, began to lose their discipline...
The Latins wavered. The other Roman consul, one Titus Manlius Torquatus, received word of Decius' devotion and whipped his legions into the Latin lines. It worked.
Believing their victory was now secured by this supreme act of devotion by Decius, the Roman legions utterly destroyed the Latin armies, ending their independence and subjugating them to the Roman Republic.
The year was 339 B.C.
***
President Abraham Lincoln stood at the edge of a green field. Four months earlier, 15,000 Virginians had charged the fields at Gettysburg only to be repulsed by Federal armies. Personally, Lincoln was still too disgusted to remark fondly on the battle -- General Meade, after smashing the Army of Northern Virginia deep in Pennsylvania (or deep enough for Lincoln), was aghast as Lee and his tattered Confederates were allowed to escape back across Harper's Ferry and trickled back into the Shenandoah to fight another day.
Gettysburg marked a dual high-water mark for the Union. Vicksburg's fall was something more than coincidental, as the Confederacy was now reeling from the effects of the Union blockade.
The crowd gathered to hear Lincoln speak that afternoon could see the freshly dug trenches -- and graves -- that lined the battlefield, the seminary, the orchard, and the town.
Lincoln fumbled for a moment with his spectacles.... his long nose and lanky features made him instantly recognizable, as if the man held the weight of the world on his shoulders. Lincoln took a breath... and spoke, about liberty and continents, about "civil war" and "hallowed ground."
Lincoln's eyes rose. "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." His eyes fluttered over the crowd before he went back to his hastily written notes.
Did Lincoln think of Decius? Perhaps a professor in the crowd, or a minister trained in the classics could strain to hear it above the wind.
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us," Lincoln stopped for dramatic pause, "that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion," Lincoln's voice stopped, his eyes rose again, "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
The Gettysburg Address lived on, almost as a second Declaration of Independence.
The year was 1863 A.D.
***
2,202 years passed from Decius' own act of devotion to Lincoln's brief acknowledgement of the devotion of his soldiers at Gettysburg. Both of these images are blood-drenched, and they would not be isolated.
Indeed, Decius would find imitators. Forty-five years after the battle against the Latins, the Roman legions would find themselves outnumbered and outmatched against the Gauls. It would be Decius' son who would find yet another javelin, pronounce the name of his sacred Gauls, and sacrifice himself to his nation. With victory assured (Decius had performed the devotion, yes?) the Romans threw back the Cisalpine Gauls in yet another tremendous victory. In the American tradition, the devotion of our patriots has watered the tree of liberty from time to time, in every generation from the Revolution to the present day -- and always in the name of freedom.
Devotion is easy to mock. True believers do what timid souls will not, or cannot. Naturally, not every form of devotion is the same, but the impulse to sacrifice one's self speaks highly of the human race, and to the ends for which we were designed. But it is because of that higher purpose that we find those willing to give all -- even unto themselves.
***
"He will glorify me, since all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine," the Galilean leaned forward as he spoke. "Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine." (John 16:14-15)
The men around the table were confused. Certainly they were not Romans -- what could this possibly mean that by dying one could gain eternal life?
They would learn -- and in time imitate such an example -- one devotion at a time.
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Doogman 
2 Comments:
To all those who have laid down their lives for peace - especially Dr. Martin Luther King - I pray that one day we will have the sense to lay down our weapons and realize that Christ's greatest example was allowing himself to be crucified.
He had the ability to fight, to brush his captors aside with a gesture - but He did not.
Instead, he forgave them.
The lesson has lived on for centuries - far longer than even mighty Rome itself.
Love is far, far stronger than any weapon and Divinity the true goal.
Thanks Shaun!
Thanks for reminding us this day.
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