Our patriotic task is to 'baptize' our nation (Sunday homily)

 As we all know, Tuesday is our nation’s Independence Day, 

and I’m guessing the celebration has already begun for many of us.

This time of year, I think a little more about our nation’s history; 

about the great gift we were given by those who won our Revolution.

So, for example, the Knights of Columbus were helping parishioners

to register to vote recently. 

It’s shocking to think that anyone wouldn’t be registered to vote. 

Both in the Revolution, and again in the Civil Rights movement, 

people died to gain for us this and other precious rights.

As I thought about this homily, St. Paul’s words caught my eye.

He’s speaking about baptism and the Cross, not patriotism.

So, if you ask me what this homily is about:

It’s about what happens when we “baptize” Independence Day.

Because what our nation needs is a collective baptism. 

Taking up the cross, as Jesus said, dying to self.

I offer that because the great idol 

to which our nation tends to bow down, more than any other, 

is the seductive concept of “Choice.”

Our nation was conceived in liberty.

You and I are rightly protective of our rights in the Constitution.

Yet must we not concede there is a blind-spot?

Namely, that the right to choose 

is made more important than choosing what is right.

And this can show up in the everyday operations of our parishes, 

where instead of focusing on what’s good for all of us, 

people can end up simply pushing for what is good for themselves.

I’m talking about a part of Catholic teaching we call “the common good.” 

This applies to the family, workplace, neighborhood, and nation.

Imagine how our society would be transformed, 

if more of us were willing not to get something for ourselves, 

if that meant better for the whole of our state or our nation?

Imagine if, when the next politician stands up and says,

“Here’s a benefit or program I’m going to give to you,”

we voters said, “No! Don’t pander to us, think about the whole!”

That’s the common good.

To circle back to Saint Paul, this is all about dying to self.

The reason not to exalt “choice” above all else, 

is because good and evil aren’t a matter of majority vote.

Just because I want something, doesn’t make it right.

That’s a part of me that has to die.

That mindset has to be baptized and converted into what Jesus said: 

I did not come to be served, but to serve.

As you and I and all of us celebrate our nation’s independence, 

we might try to remember – 

and if we can do it gracefully, help others to remember – 

that the liberty you and I cherish wasn’t given to us for its own sake.

It is worth asking whether our constitutional republic can really work, 

if our people lose faith in God, or lose our moral core.

When Dr. Martin Luther King made the great difference he did, 

to help vindicate the rights of all Americans, regardless of skin color, 

he not only pointed to our Constitution,  

he also appealed to the moral compass of the majority 

whose rights did not need vindicating. He appealed to our consciences.

If that conscience had been dead, he would have failed.

It is frightening to think where that road would have led.

Thank God, Dr. King stirred us, and stirs us still, to a better vision

Of all the places and times God could have chosen for us,

He chose this country, this state, in this year.

Our nation’s conscience continues to need stirring, and converting.

Who will do it? God put you and me here for that.