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A safe and happy Fourth of July to all!

As our nation celebrates the 233nd anniversary of its independence, we are reminded of the place patriotism holds in the Christian life.  In his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas observes that patriotism is the just piety we owe to our country.  Piety here is taken in its widest sense, meaning the honor and gratitude we owe to those who provide for our well-being.  Hence, Aquinas sees patriotism as a third form of piety following that which we owe first to God and then to our parents.

St. Thomas writes in Question 101 of the secunda-secundae (the second part of the second section of the Summa):

Indebtedness to others arises in a variety of ways matching their own superiority and the diverse benefits received from them.  On both counts God holds the first place; he is both absolutely supreme and the first source of our existence and progress through life.  Next, on the basis of birth and upbringing, parents and country are the closest sources of our existence and development; as a consequence everyone is indebted first of all under God to his parents and his fatherland.

Therefore, as it is for the virtue of religion to pay homage to God, so on the next level, it is up to piety to render its own kind of homage to parents and country.

Note that in its meaning homage to parents extends to blood relatives as well, i.e. to those so called because, as Aristotle notes, they share our lineage; and homage towards country includes what we should show to all fellow citizens and well-wishers. This is the full range of piety.

The Fourth of July can also remind us of the necessary place freedom holds in the Christian life.  St. Paul writes to the Galatians (5:1): “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  This Gospel freedom described by Paul should not be confused with political freedom, which is what our nation rightly celebrates today.  The freedom enjoyed in Christ’s truth and love is a nobler freedom that necessarily guides political freedom to its good and perfective end.  For many Americans today, it can seem contradictory to say that political freedom must be guided by a higher law.  How can freedom be free if it is subject to a higher authority?  When in New York just over a year ago, Pope Benedict XVI addressed this very problem in the homily he delivered in Yankee Stadium.

“Authority” … “obedience”. To be frank, these are not easy words to speak nowadays. Words like these represent a “stumbling stone” for many of our contemporaries, especially in a society which rightly places a high value on personal freedom. Yet, in the light of our faith in Jesus Christ – “the way and the truth and the life” – we come to see the fullest meaning, value, and indeed beauty, of those words. The Gospel teaches us that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender which is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves (cf. Lk 17:33). True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve, and find the source of our ultimate happiness in him who is infinite love, infinite freedom, infinite life. “In his will is our peace”.

Real freedom, then, is God’s gracious gift, the fruit of conversion to his truth, the truth which makes us free (cf. Jn 8:32). And this freedom in truth brings in its wake a new and liberating way of seeing reality. When we put on “the mind of Christ” (cf. Phil 2:5), new horizons open before us! In the light of faith, within the communion of the Church, we also find the inspiration and strength to become a leaven of the Gospel in the world. We become the light of the world, the salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-14), entrusted with the “apostolate” of making our own lives, and the world in which we live, conform ever more fully to God’s saving plan.

As we celebrate with family and friends today, may we take to heart the Holy Father’s gentle reminder, that the freedom of political independence carries with it responsibilities to higher and nobler ends.

God our Father, Giver of life,
we entrust the United States of America to Your loving care.

You are the rock on which this nation was founded.
You alone are the true source of our cherished rights to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Reclaim this land for Your glory and dwell among Your people.

Send Your Spirit to touch the hearts of our nation´s leaders.
Open their minds to the great worth of human life
and the responsibilities that accompany human freedom.
Remind Your people that true happiness is rooted in seeking and doing Your will.

Through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, Patroness of our land,
grant us the courage to reject the “culture of death.”
Lead us into a new millennium of life.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord.   Amen.

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