This is my homily for today, Independence Day 2025. I'm not able to post a link to the readings used today, because the choice of readings are a little (or a lot) complicated. I'll explain them in a comment (to the best of my understanding) if/when I get a chance. We ended up using these readings today:
1st reading: Isaiah 57:15-19
Responsorial Psalm: selected verses from Psalm 85
2nd reading: Philippians 4:6
Gospel Acclamation: John 14:27 ("Peace I leave with you, says the Lord, My peace I give you")
Gospel: John 14:23-29.
Coincidentally, this same Gospel passage was assigned for the 6th Sunday in Easter back on May 25th; I was assigned to preach that day, too, but it was for a children's mass so I geared my homily to the kids (it involved having the kids play a game and it was a little chaotic, so I didn't post anything here; you had to be there to get the full experience of it). So today I got a second shot at the same text, this time to a mostly-adult congregation.
At any rate, here is the homily:
Good morning. Happy independence Day.
I’m going to talk about Jesus, but I want to start with some American values. In fact, let's do a little civics quiz: does anyone here know which American rights that are protected by the First Amendment? If you know them, or even one of them, raise your hand and/or call them out:
• Freedom of religion
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of the press
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom of petition
These are sometimes referred to as the “Five Freedoms”. As we’re in church right now, the freedom I want to focus on this morning is freedom of religion. I want to invite us to try to appreciate our American freedom of religion, because here, when we celebrate the Eucharist, it’s an especially appropriate time for us to give thanks – and being free to practice our religion is something to offer thanks to God for.
Our founding ideas and ideals, encompassed in the Five Freedoms, probably owe more to Enlightenment philosophers than to God and the Bible; but most of the Founders were also Christian men of various stripes, and they lived in an era that was more religious than ours. We can be sure they wanted freedom of religion to be enshrined in the Constitution for the same reason we appreciate it today: because religious faith flourishes when government leaves churches alone. And that’s precisely what the First Amendment stipulates: the federal government can neither establish an “official” church, nor prohibit us from freely exercising our religion, including our Catholic faith.
If having freedom of religion doesn’t seem particularly remarkable to us, it’s probably because we have enjoyed it so long and so fully that it doesn’t usually occur to us that other people who have lived in other times and places – we might even say, *most* people who have lived in other times and other places – haven’t enjoyed it as we do.
Just speaking for myself: I’m descended from Irish who, for many years, had to celebrate mass in secret and receive religious instruction behind hedgerows, out of sight of their British overlords who forbade Catholicism. People of faith, including Catholics, have been persecuted in many times and many places.
Among those times and places are the those of the New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that the Church was born on Pentecost, and persecution of its members by religious and civil authorities started almost immediately thereafter. The story of St. Paul’s mission trips is the story of him and his followers being arrested, jailed, stoned and chased out of town. Eventually, Paul was beheaded for proclaiming his faith in Jesus. According to our tradition, all of the apostles suffered martyrdom for proclaiming the Gospel. This ill-treatment and persecution of Christians is hard to figure, because our faith is a faith of unity and peace, but since its inception, Christianity has been treated with opposition and violence – sometimes even murderous violence.
This is why Jesus makes a point in today’s Gospel of telling his disciples not to be anxious, not to be afraid, and to accept his gift of peace. And to assure them that, even though he was leaving them, he’d send us his Holy Spirit. His followers needed to hear these reassurances, because they were afraid – and they had reason to be. They didn’t live in a time and place that had our notion of freedom of religion.
I hope these few reflections about religious freedom help us to appreciate that we are so blessed, here in the United States, to live in a place that protects and enforces freedom of religion. We Catholics in the United States always have been a minority – and from time to time, a persecuted minority. There have been times when we’ve needed the protection the Constitution grants us.
Our country has been so good to us. Not because the country or the government has given us any special treatment, but simply because it’s left us alone. And being left on our own, we’ve flourished. This country has been a blessed place for us to worship and live out our lives as Castholic followers of Jesus. It’s good for us to thank God today for the blessing of being left alone to worship and live as we please.
What’s more, if the United States has been good to the Catholic Church, it’s also true that the Catholic Church has been very, very good for the United States. Our Catholic schools, which receive little or nothing by way of government support, have been factories for churning out civic leaders. Beyond our Catholic presidents, vice presidents, Supreme Court justices and members of Congress, Catholics have served our country by praying for it. I really believe that God listens to all the prayers and rosaries offered by Catholics for our country.
We Catholics are called to service, and part of service is serving our country. We do this by voting, by serving on juries, by serving in the armed forces, by serving in public office, by volunteering in civic organizations, by teaching in public and private schools, and in many other ways. All of these activities are honorable, and all of them are praised by the church. We even serve our country and its people when we assemble to protest injustice; protest movements have made our country a better place. You may recall that freedom of assembly is one of the Five Freedoms protected by our First Amendment. The great protest movement of my adult life has been the pro-life movement, in which Catholics have been in the front ranks.
Freedom, including freedom of religion, is a precious thing. God made us to be free, and in the United States, we are free – free to love and worship God. Not everyone is able to do what we’re doing right now: gathering without fear or anxiety to offer thanks and praise to God. Let us do so now with all our hearts and voices.
Exact same sentiments I often heard in Amish sermons: America offers the freedom to be left alone, to remain separate, to exercise our conscience. In exchange we must be good neighbors to our English brethren, help them in distress, tell them the Good News, set an example for them, and not cheat them when they buy our goods.
ReplyDelete“ We can be sure they wanted freedom of religion to be enshrined in the Constitution for the same reason we appreciate it today: because religious faith flourishes when government leaves churches alone. “
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Not so sure that the Founders wanted religious freedom so that faith would flourish. My recall from history classes is that they wanted to enshrine religious freedom because most of the original colonists of varied Christian traditions were fleeing state imposed religion in Europe. So they made sure that America had no state religion - officially.
Yet Protestant religion was taught in public schools. This resulted in the Catholics starting their own school system. They didn’t want Protestant beliefs imposed on their kids in the public schools. So it’s more than a bit ironic that the Catholic Church is now hellbent on grabbing tax money away from the public schools to support Catholic schools and be able to impose Catholic teaching on the non- Catholic kids who would be tax subsidized to go to them - and help keep their doors open, since Catholics are no longer willing to cough up the cash needed to support their own schools.
The Catholic Church is also trying to impose some of its own religious beliefs on ALL Americans by law, especially with the anti- abortion movement. Recent legislation in some states represents the worst violation of freedom of religion in the US today. Unfortunately the anti- abortion movement hasn’t convinced most Americans that termination of an early pregnancy from the moment of conception is the murder of a person , so they have moved from trying to educate and persuade to criminalizing it.
The heavy hand of the state is now being used to reduce religious freedom. As a country, we are moving away from religious freedom, especially because of the Catholic Church’s anti- abortion crusade and Catholics are also joining the evangelical community to try to impose religious beliefs about LGBTQ issues in the schools, and support the idea that civil rights for the members of the LaGBTQ community can be ignored by individual private businesses. The church has also supported allowing public school coaches to say Christian prayers before and after games on school property. Another step backwards from the religious freedom of those who are not christian. Now the anti- freedom of religion crowd is imposing the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. .i don’t know if the Catholics are also going along with this too.
All of the Five Freedoms are at risk right now. Sadly the once reviled in America Catholic Church has helped the country to reach this level of risk for our freedoms by tacitly supporting trump.
Thankfully, my husband did not have to preach today. The pastor did the homily. It was fairly brief, some things about freedom of religion and mentioning Charles Carroll as one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. No music. Short and sweet. I was grateful for that. Because in previous years we had attended Mass at another parish and got the full "patriotism on steroids" treatment. America the Beautiful, and My Country Tis of Thee. The boy Scouts carrying in the flag. And a longish homily about the greatest country on earth, and things were better in the old days. I just couldn't sit through that again. So brief and basic was good.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat related, our new associate priest is from Nigeria. I think he might know some things about not being as free as we are. His English is pretty good, considering that he has only been in the US for a year. K asked him what language is spoken in Nigeria. He replied that there are over 400 dialects there, but that everyone in his area knew a language in common for business and education, even though they might not speak it at home. He said where he came from it is majority Muslim, but it sounded like they got along with the Christians.
DeleteOur eldest son worked for a Nigerian TV company for several years and spent a lot of time there. As the emp,our/guest of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the country (Catholic ) he was pretty safe, but he had interesting and somewhat frightening stories about the poverty and violence also present. Most of the Muslim terrorists are in the northern part of the country and are ruthless. So the priest would certainly know a lot about risks to freedom.
DeleteI noticed the flag was in the sanctuary today. That's not usual at our parish. We sang America The Beautiful, My Country 'Tis Of Thee, and God Bless America
DeleteThis isn't a holy day of obligation, is it? We ate tortellini, played Ray Charles' America the Beautiful, and watched the fireflies. Now listening to the downtown people setting off bottle rockets. Cops will break that up in about half an hour. Raber will play Anchors Aweigh and I will sail off to bed.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't do anything too special. I made a peach pie.
DeleteFireworks were pretty loud. People were supposed to quit by 11:00 pm, which they pretty much did. We were joking that maybe we needed thunder vests, like people put on their dogs.
Back home the outdoor dog would have been indoors, under the piano, with big eyes saying, "sorry, not sorry!" Dad didn't like fireworks because they upset the horses and cattle, as well as the dogs. We were just 2 miles from town, and the sound carried.
I got one cat who want to be held. The other one seems to enjoy the noise gets in the window to watch the show. Muggy, still night, so a lot of smoke and smog hung in the air when we opened the windows. Preferable to the skunks Thursday. Phew!
DeleteOne of our sons was visiting with his family. They didn’t want to go downtown or even to the local fireworks. So we turned on the TV a little before nine to watch the fireworks on the Potomac and the last of the entertainment. Fireworks on TV aren’t very exciting and the kids were quickly bored. The bonus for my husband and I was The Beach Boys.
DeleteWe didn’t feel especially like celebrating this year, but more like mourning. We didn’t put out our flag.
This is how we feel this year as we witness the slow death of what our country once stood for. The most painful thing of all is than tens of millions of Americans are cheering it on.
https://x.com/CBSNews/status/1941125677324841185?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
We usually hang our flag out between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. My husband is a Navy vet. Half of my family have been here since 1630, in Michigan for five generations. Revolutionary, Civil, and World War vets. One got hanged in that Salem witchcraft deal. Mixed in with a bunch of dirt poor Dutch, Irish, Welsh, and Prussians trying to get away from starvation and conscription. I'm not ready to cede the country to the MAGA scum just yet.
DeleteNo veterans in my family, except for my brother who was drafted during the Viet Nam era but never left the country. My husband’s brother was career Navy - 20 years - but never in a combat zone. My husband’s ancestors include veterans but not in the 20th or 21st century - the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War, on both sides. My German grandfather and his two brothers came to the US in the 1880 s to escape Bismarck’s constant wars. By the time of WWI they were too old to serve. I don’t think any of my father’s older brothers did either, but I know very little about that family.
DeleteMy Danish grandfather got here just in time to enlist for WWI. You could fast track citizenship that way. Only he never saw action, his whole unit caught the influenza in 1918 and had to stay in the states. That ironically might have saved his life, even though he suffered lung damage. My husband served in the National Guard for 10 years. He was away at summer camp when our oldest boy was born. My father in law was a WWII vet, and an uncle served in the army in Germany in the late 1950s.
DeleteI forgot - my husband was in the Marine reserves - long before I met him. They were put on alert to be ready to go during the Cuban Missle Crisis. Fortunately they didn’t have to. He was done by the time Viet Nam was really heating up.
DeleteThe only vet in my family is my dad, who was in the army as a gunnery corporal as a young married guy. My mom spent the first months of their marriage living in married housing at Ft. Sill, OK. My older sister was conceived there, although I think my dad was a civilian again and they were back in Michigan by the time she was born. I think he may have had some Reserve duties for a few years thereafter but I have no memory of it. My earliest memories of him, in the early-mid 1960s, he wasn't in basic-training shape - he was overweight and a smoker. They were having one baby a year, and he was going to night school at Michigan State. In retrospect, he was stressed. My mother, who has never been patience on a monument, hated his unhealthy lifestyle and let him know, frequently. . Within a few years he got his degree, quit smoking and lost weight. Basically he grew up in his 20s. Whether the army contributed to that, I'm not sure.
DeleteWe didn't go out last night, either. Our town doesn't do fireworks. It does have a community festival, sorta like a county fair without the livestock, for a week or so wrapped arounf the 4th each year. Last night, the band they brought in was The BoDeans, an 80's- vintage pop rock outfit who we saw at the same festival a few years back. We stayed in and watched Hamilton on Disney+. Tonight the festival has a Bruce Springsteen tribute band. We'll see. It's really hot today, and I'm not much for tribute bands, and I've never been a huge fan of The Boss, although I think he's an interesting cat.
DeleteOh, and Katherine, meant to say: I made a peach pie, too! As usual, it came out a little liquid-y, but I don't care - it was good!
DeletePerhaps foolishly, I bought a watermelon, too. With our small household these days, we'll never get through it all
I'm not sure that replacing the final year of high school with compulsory national service isn't a good idea. Could be military, fire fighting, search and rescue, EMT, ESOL, etc etc. But lotta rich people don't want their kids mixing with the hoi polloi.
DeleteWent to a picnic on Friday but the only pretense was the belated celebration of a girl’s 16th birthday. No patriotic sentiments were mentioned. No patriotic paraphernalia were displayed. No flags, no red, white and blue. That’s the attitude of many of my friends given the present circumstances. Ten years from now, maybe it’ll be called “Scare the crap out of the pets with loud explosives day”. Pretty much all it is now. It’s nice for people to get together anyway.
DeleteThe 4th is the drinking-est holiday in America. Booze and blowing stuff up--nothing more American. My grandparents lived on Houghton Lake, and we used to go up for the July 4 pontoon boat parade. My Grampa played cornet in one of the bands. They had barbershop quartet singers, bands, a float with beauty queens in bathing suits, tiaras, and white gloves. My auntie's Sweet Adeline group dressed in grass skirts over their shorts. It was kinda half-assed because the breeze would carry the music away, and the boats could not get too close to shore without running aground. Best way to watch was to take the rowboat out halfway between the dock to the parade route. Always some killjoy adult yelling from the dock, "You're too close, come back this way!" and "Get back in the goddam boat," cuz we would jump out to cool off and hang on the side. That boat was wood and weighed a ton. We had to help scrape, paint, and clean it every summer.
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