I would prefer that Pr. Benke, on this day of all days, not feel the need to speak to this topic.
I would prefer not to speak to it myself - I have parishioners who lost loved ones on that day.
I think instead we would all do well to ponder these words from Bo Giertz, no slacker or loosey-goosey on the confessional front...
[The servant of the Word] shall of course bring [the lost] back. He shall always seek again to get within earshot of those who have fallen away from the Word. Many times it is like Israel’s banished men, men who were driven away from the Word… should these banished be led back, then they must be sought. The pastor must be their friend and their confidant, their servant and their helper, who, with all his being, shows that he loves them and that their well-being lays heavy on his heart.
He shall bind the wounded. He who binds up must often go to the wounded, bend down over him, take him just as he is. It is not enough to sit in his comfortable place and declare himself prepared to bind up he who presents himself to be bound up. The servant of the Word must go out on the roads and paths, search and seek to be a Christ to his neighbor.
He shall strengthen the weak. He shall not place demands of genuineness, nor demand that everything should be just as he wishes it would be. He may count on just that weakness that must be found in the scattered and wounded. He shall not demand strength where there isn’t any. He may count on it that there is no knowledge here, no confessionalism, no perseverance, no good church customs. He may speak as to children, have patience as with those who are sick, for all he shall be all, so that in all circumstances he shall save some. …
The Word demands all of the man. It shall have control over all of you, over your proclamation, and over your life. May it live in your preaching so that it becomes a gathering, healing, and strengthening Word. May it live in all of your being so that you yourself become a gatherer who seeks the lost, brings back the scattered, binds up the wounded, and strengthens the weak. Amen.
(from Then Fell the Lord’s Fire, Magdeburg, 2012, emphasis mine)