A MEMORIAL TO THE RESURRECTION
Six miles outside of Manilla lies the peaceful but vast Manila American Cemetery. It is 152 acres of gently rising ground set aside to memorialize the military dead who served America during World War II in the Southwest Pacific Theatre.
The cemetery is laid out like a never ending circle---17,206 Italian marble crosses inscribed with names of the brave dead—crosses that stretch out in perfect circular rows. They come from every State in the Union, Panama, Guam, Philippines, Puerto Rico Australia, Canada, China, England, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Finland, Jamaica, Burma and Peru. In 20 cases, two brothers lie side by side.
Passing each stone, saying each name, one wonders how many wives, mothers, daughters, and sons have been able to visit the grave of their loved one in a cemetery so far removed from the rest of the world?
But there is still hope of reunion. The cross that covers each grave is the cross that covers sin, the cross that gives hope of the Resurrection. “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam, all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:21-22).
And then the greatest reunion of all will take place, when those from
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