Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Nation

  • The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary / Memorial Day

    The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary / Memorial Day

    Today’s readings

    Today we have the great honor of celebrating two very important things that happen on this day.  We all know it is Memorial Day, the day of honoring and remembering the sacrifice that many men and women made in order to safeguard our freedom.  We particularly remember those of them who paid the ultimate price during their service to our nation.  But today also happens to be the liturgical feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, having given her fiat – her “yes” – to God, now shows concern for her elder relative, Elizabeth, who is also with child.  She goes to visit her in a great act of hospitality, which is one of the virtues Paul admonished the Romans to follow in our first reading today.  Perhaps because of her faith and her great concern for Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s own child begins to rejoice in the womb, recognizing his Lord and the great woman who would bring him to human life.

    While we don’t have an exact account of what happened at that visit, we do have the Church’s recollection of its spirit, as told through Luke the Evangelist. The whole feeling of this Gospel story is one of great joy, which is perhaps why this is one of the joyful mysteries of the holy Rosary. Both Elizabeth and Mary represent the Church in the telling of the story. Because just as Elizabeth was moved by the faith and generosity of Mary, so the Church continues to be edified by her example of faith and charity. And just as Mary rejoiced in what God was doing in her life, so the Church continues to rejoice at the mighty acts of God in every person, time and place.

    Memorial Day originally began in our country as an occasion to remember and decorate the graves of the soldiers who died in the Civil War.  Later it became a holiday to commemorate all those who had died in war in the service of our country.  So today we remember those men and women who have given their lives for peace, justice, righteousness, and freedom.  These have been people who have given everything, have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.  It’s important that we take time to reflect on the freedom we have received from their sacrifice, because I think we often forget it or at least take it for granted.  They lived lives of real freedom, and so must we in our own way.  Real freedom is expressed in service, in our making the world, or at least our corner of it, a better place.  Real freedom is living in such a way that we become the person God created us to be.

    Today we pray for those courageous men and women who have made that ultimate sacrifice to keep the world safe, and free.  As we also remember Mary’s act of compassion in the Visitation today, we remember those whose compassion led them to serve our nation.  These are the ones who have been people of faith and integrity and are true heroes that God has given us. These are the ones who have laid down their lives for what is right.  If we would honor them on this Memorial Day, we should believe as they have believed, we should live as they have lived, and we should rejoice that their memory points us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our hope of eternal life.

    Today’s Gospel reading ends with the great song called the Magnificat which is Mary’s song of praise to God for the wonders he has done throughout all time, but also in her own life. We too should make that our own song as we continue to be overjoyed by the great acts of God, shepherding us all through our own lives, and intervening in our world and society to bring grace to a world darkened by sin. We, too, can pray with Mary, “From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.”

    Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,
    That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

  • Independence Day

    Independence Day

    Today’s readings: Ezekiel 3:17-21; Psalm 8; Colossians 3:9b-17; Matthew 25:31-46

    Today, as we gather on this Independence Day, we celebrate our birth as a nation, two hundred and forty-four years ago. This is a day that causes us to rejoice over the end of oppression, the freedom to be governed in a way that protects our interests. Indeed that very word “freedom” is the word that immediately comes to mind on this ubiquitous national holiday.

    But, as I have often preached, freedom is a concept that is very frequently misunderstood, and very often imagined according to one’s own selfishness.  That couldn’t be clearer than it is on this particular Independence Day, celebrated as it is during a pandemic and amid heightened racial tension and social unrest.  These crises have shown a rather harsh light on our understanding of freedom and what it actually means.

    Our nation’s founders knew the importance of the common good.  For them freedom meant the ability to pursue that common good so that the nation could grow and prosper.  Indeed these concepts were considered to be obvious ones, as is evidenced in the document that we celebrate today, the Declaration of Independence.  Listen to what it says:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  The exercise of these rights was considered an exercise for all, not just some, and the exercise of one’s own rights was considered to be in relation to the exercise of the rights of others.  That’s the concept of the common good.

    But somewhere along the line, I think we’ve allowed selfishness to replace the common good.  “Look out for number one” has been a concept that has come to the forefront over the last few decades, and, obviously, to our detriment.  Right now we see it clearly in terms of the pandemic: people don’t want to wear a face mask, they don’t want to social distance, they just want life according to their own terms, regardless of whether that occasions a surge in illness and death.  We see it clearly in terms of racial injustice: people continue to marginalize others so that they can get ahead, they profit off of white privilege and they ignore the marginalized.  We see it in city violence: people think nothing of taking the life of another human being. 

    In the year 1863, then-president Abraham Lincoln mused in his Gettysburg Address whether this nation could “long endure” given the civil war that was raging at the time.  One might wonder the same thing given the selfishness that has run rampant today.

    I think we can, but it’s going to take strong leaders with a sense of integrity, who know the concept of the common good.  It’s going to take great thinkers who can discern truth from logical fallacy.  It’s going to take a people that insist on the best from its leaders, and from themselves, so that we can build up this great nation with the ideals our ancestors enshrined at the nation’s founding.

    We need to start getting things right.  As Saint Theresa of Calcutta would say, we can’t expect people to pursue the common good when a mother can kill the baby in her womb.  We can’t insist that people “find their humanity,” as the Mayor of Chicago has urged, when people can have abortions at will, at any time, for any reason or no reason at all.  Death begets death, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that we find ourselves with rampant city violence, ignorance of safety protocols to control a pandemic, and renewed signs of racial injustice.

    Jesus makes the common good very easy for us in today’s Gospel.  Whatever we do, we do it to him.  Have we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick?  Have we taken care to prevent the spread of disease, to seek the inclusion of those marginalized because of their race?  Have we taken a stand against abortion and all the death it begets?  Then we have done those things for Christ and have contributed to the common good.  But when we have neglected those things, when we have chosen not to take a stand for them, when we have been comfortable with the way things have become, we have offended our God and detracted from the common good.

    Our ultimate freedom is the freedom we enjoy in Christ.  It is a freedom from sin and the ultimate effects of death, but also a freedom to become the beloved sons and daughters we were created to be, a freedom to pursue justice, peace, inclusion, love and wellness for the common good.

    These, friends, are the truths we hold to be self-evident. These are the truths that, when we pursue them, ensure that our nation can long endure. May this Independence Day find us insisting on the common good, and pursuing the well-being of all of us with all our hearts.

  • Memorial Day

    Memorial Day

    Today’s readings: Isaiah 32:15-18, Philippians 4:6-9, Matthew 5:1-12a

    Memorial Day originally began in our country as an occasion to remember and decorate the graves of the soldiers who died in the Civil War.  Later it became a holiday to commemorate all those who had died in war in the service of our country.  This continues to be the main focus of Memorial Day, but I think this day has also become a day of remembering what we are about as a nation, and what it is that we have thought appropriate to live and die for.  Today is above all a time to remember; that is what brings us to our parish’s cemetery today.

    One of the aspects of human nature is that we tend to look for heroes.  People we can look up to, who have buoyed our spirits in difficult times, who have turned our attention to the best parts of our humanity.  These are the people we wish to emulate, the people who bring us hope in a darkened world.  These heroes may be our loved ones or people in our communities who have done great things.  People who have sacrificed for the good of others.

    On this day we especially look to those who have been heroes in war.  People who have given their lives for peace, justice, and righteousness.  The beatitudes that we just heard in the Gospel proclaim them blessed: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are they that are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.  We have heard these before, but it’s so important that we hear that these people are blessed, these people are true heroes because of what they sacrifice and stand for and fight for.

    I want to be careful not to glorify warfare.  I think our Church’s teachings counsel that war is not the way to peace and that developed societies like ours can and must use our resources to seek other ways to solve problems.  And I think that very many war heroes would give us a similar caution.  But I certainly acknowledge that there are and have been times in our nation’s history that have called on good people to fight for our freedoms and to fight for justice.  As John F. Kennedy once said, “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it.  And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.”   Today we honor the memory of those who have paid the price with immense gratitude, because without their sacrifice we might not enjoy the blessings we have today.

    Those who have been part of our lives, and the life of our country, who have been people of faith and integrity are the heroes that God has given us.  These are the ones who have been poor in spirit, who have mourned, who have been meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, peacemaking, and all the rest.  If we would honor them on this Memorial Day, we should believe as they have believed, we should live as they have lived, and we should rejoice that their memory points us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our hope of eternal life.

  • Independence Day

    Independence Day

    Today’s readings: Isaiah 57:15-19 | Philippians 4:6-9 | John 14:23-29

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 

    That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

    So begins our nation’s Declaration of Independence, a document of inestimable worth, authored by passionate men.  The independence that document brought came at the price of many lives, and so that independence and the rights it brought forth, must always be vigorously defended and steadfastly maintained.  Almost 200 years later, the bishops of the Church, gathered in synod for the second Vatican Council, spoke boldly of the specific liberty of religious freedom.  They wrote:

    This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits. 

    The council further declares that the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself. This right of the human person to religious freedom is to be recognized in the constitutional law whereby society is governed and thus it is to become a civil right.  (Dignitatis Humanae, 2.)

    So the Church teaches that the right to free practice of religion belongs to each person as part of their fundamental human dignity.  A person’s right to form a relationship with, worship, and live in accord with the God who created them is foundational to all civil liberties.  And while having this right in a nation’s constitution is important, actually putting it into practice is another matter entirely.

    In our nation, the free practice of religion was so important that those passionate men took the radical step of breaking ties with the country of their patrimony, and forging a new nation.  Because of that, we have inherited the freedom they fought hard to arrange.  But again, we have to be vigilant to protect that freedom, or it can become just words on paper.

    Freedom of religion was never intended to be freedom from religion, a notion that well-meaning agnostics, atheists and secularists have sought diligently to popularize.  The Church teaches that true freedom isn’t some misguided notion of being able to do whatever on earth we want, regardless of the needs and rights of others: our own freedoms are never meant to impinge on the freedom of another.  As Saint John Paul said, “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”

    So it is important on this Independence Day, to take a stand for freedom that is truly free, to defend the freedom to which our Founding Fathers dedicated their lives, and to insist that our freedoms are not just freedoms on paper, but instead, true freedoms, extended to every person.  Because it is that freedom that leads us to our God.

    In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives to his Apostles, and to us, the peace that comes from the  abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  That Spirit leads us to truth and peace and ultimately into the presence of God himself.  Blessed are we, free are we, when we put aside everything that gets in the way of the Spirit’s action in our lives and impinges on our true freedom to walk with our God.

    In the last line of the Declaration of Independence, our forefathers pledged themselves to the great task of building a nation based on freedom: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”  They gave everything so that we might all be free.  May we always make the same pledge that our nation may always be great.