My grandma told me she’d sing Christmas songs during the Japanese occupation. She didn’t say much more about those dark years, but I know she was a teenager, who prayed.
Like many more who endured that struggle and others who were murdered or died of sickness and starvation, she asked Our Lady to deliver them from slavery and war.
The Blessed Mother has been a beacon of hope, a flame that kept burning even on the day the invasion began – which was her feast day – and especially through the brutal occupation that followed.
So much time has passed, and so many changes have happened here and throughout the world that we collectively struggle to appreciate the sacrifices of those years and the faith of our ancestors that kept our people alive. Even amid our ingratitude for the privileges we enjoy today, Our Lady looks over us, protects us, prays for us.
We endure new challenges and hardships. We suffer a poverty of spirit that has led to addiction, broken families, financial distress, violence, exploitation, trafficking, prejudice, and an indifference to people who want to share in this paradise with us.
And there she stands, arms outstretched to us, ever willing to shelter us from the storm and ever wanting to free us from whatever bondage ensnares our souls.
Eighty years later, and she still calls on her Son to bring the warmth of a new morning to our horizon, and the hope of a better tomorrow for us all.
Happy Liberation Day, Guam.
