Go to readings for 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Hopefully everyone here knows where this poem is from. It’s called “The New Colossus,” written in 1883 by the Jewish-American poet Emma Lazarus, who was inspired by the suffering of the Jewish immigrants fleeing the antisemitism in Russia, and were flocking to New York for refuge, as well as the newly emancipated the slaves following the American Civil War. Emma Lazarus was commissioned to write a poem to be auctioned off as part of the fundraising to build the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, dedicated in 1886. This poem inspired a dear friend of Emma Lazarus, Rose Hawthorne (daughter of author Nathaniel Hawthorne), to later found the Hawthorne Dominican Sisters to care for the poor and afflicted.
Americans are rightly proud of the many accomplishments, inventions, victories, and successes of the countless great Americans throughout our history. But it is a very Catholic principle, which Pope Leo XIV touched on in his recent Catholic Social Teaching encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas”, that God gives abundant gifts not for the praise of the one receives them, but to be shared for the good of the whole community. And so while we proudly wave Old Glory, it’s not just to celebrate our country’s prosperity, but also what she has always stood for in the minds of the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free in every land. These aren’t necessarily going to be huddled masses of great doctors, great inventors, great businessmen, great statesmen (although these will rise up from among them). It’s going to be mostly good people, the simple, religiously faithful, unsophisticated lower classes, who suffer the most under unjust government and economic systems.
The “American Dream” has its roots in the beginning of the Declaration of Independence: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. It was clearly associated with the abundant advancement of the “blank slate” of the western frontier. Here we encounter that spirit of “Rugged American Individualism,” the conception that we have the right to be left alone, and the opportunity to accomplish what we will, and the obligation to figure it out and “get-r-done” for ourselves. From a Catholic perspective, there are two potential difficulties that may come from this. First, it fathers the “secular religion” of “Moralistic therapeutic deism” whose tenets include that we don’t need to call upon God or have a relationship with him except out of necessity as a last resort. And second, an almost karmic belief that demographic groups that are not successful do not need systemic help (correction of sysemic injustice), but rather just need to learn to be more proactive to “get-r-done” for themselves, as everyone who has worked their way out of difficulty has done before. The Church’s Social Teaching principles of “common good”, “solidarity” offer a tempering effect to be more personally and voluntarily (virtuously) generous to share one’s abundance with those in urgent need. Failing that, the political principle of communism legally forces the redistribution of wealth, and is always a temptation, especially to those who are suffering and frustrated.
There have always been problems with poverty, economic inequality, political corruption, and other hurdles to overcome. Perhaps one of the blessings of the World Cup tourists the last few months has been the revelation that within our own country, we see and experience our problems right in our face. But when visitors come from other places, they’re struck in wonder how blessed, how generous, how kind and welcoming, how patriotic, how “America the Beautiful” is real, which they thought was just in movies.
But as we know, our house does have some big problems to face. And if there were easy answers, we would have solved it by now. So, we continue to pray that God bless America; that he would continue to stand beside her, and guide, her through the night with a light from above.
There’s always been a kind of “promised land” “new world” sort of vibe to America, that sense of hope that we just talked about. And we as Catholics have a special role to play. We know by faith what God our creator has revealed about what is good for both human individuals and human communities, whether that community is a family, a parish, a town, a state, a nation, or the world. We have the light in the darkness of the fallen world, and as Jesus instructs us, we are not to hide light under a bushel basket, but set up on a pedestal for the whole household to see by. Some of them might recoil from the light, if all they have known is darkness, and call their darkness light. But a fire in a cave is not a beautiful sunny Saturday in the park (I think it was the Fourth of July). We have to assure them they were made to dance in the light, liberated and healed of the burdens of sin. Some of them might not only recoil but try to extinguish the light, if they prefer the darkness and its disordered pleasures. But it is God’s eternal light of divine wisdom and love. While they might take out a few candles, we know that the glorious light, God, wins in the end.
Our first reading, from a time of suffering and corruption in Israel, tells the people of God to rejoice, to shout for joy, for the Prince of Peace comes to us. Not an earthly ruler, as Israel was expecting, but God himself, from whom all authority is given.
A king preparing for war processes in on a horse; a king ushering in a time of peace rides a donkey. And it says he shall banish the chariot, a vehicle of war, from the division in our people, and the horse, a spirit of war, from the heart of our people. He shall proclaim peace to the nations, and his dominion is all nations. All world leaders are called to be peaceful, to dialogue, to avoid in every way possible how war ravages nations, lands, and especially the poor. Again, let us ask God to bless our country, our leaders, our people, not only for the suffering, but those who have the power and potential to alleviate suffering.
Saint Paul reminds us in our second reading, from his letter to the Romans, that we are not to look just at what we see with our worldly eyes, to think with our worldly brains, and accept the terms and conditions. We are called to be heavenly while in this world. We are reminded that we are not to live the life of the flesh. On the contrary, we are in the spirit. And so it is from the Spirit, who inspires the teachings of the Sacred Tradition of the Church, that we receive and are formed by what is true and good, not from the world, not from a political party, not from podcasts, not from movies and series and magazines and famous people. We do not judge the Church from what oozes into our brains from society. We judge everything in society by the light that comes to us from the Scriptures, from the Catechism, from the bishops, pastors, and documents of the Church.
And our gospel reading, one of the most inspiring and loved words of Jesus. “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones.” Jesus had just preached throughout Galilee, and instead of a national miracle of renewal, he was, even with his wondrous signs, ignored and rejected. And yet he stays faithful and confident in his mission. He was sent not just to the leaders, full of themselves and comfortable with the status quo. But he was sent also to the people of the land, the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And Jesus rejoices in them, as they rejoice to receive him.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” Humanity was not created to carry the burdens of sin, injustice, hatred, resentment, or even the burdens of wrestling to figure out what is right and what is wrong, good and evil. We were created to receive all that we need from God, to rest in him, to trust in him, to follow him, to love him, and to know in our hearts that we don’t need to avoid or go around God to get what we really need, but to trust ourselves to God, that he knows us better than we know ourselves, and truly wants us to have joy, peace, and happiness. The burden we were made for is love, to honor and protect love, and do works of self-giving love.
Jesus showed us humanity perfected from sin, humanity without sin, in perfect relationship with the Father, and invited us (called us) to follow him, to take up our cross of purifying ourselves from the errors and injuries this worldly life inflicts on us, and to embrace his life, his love, his communion with the father, as the new spiritual life within us. The burden is to live in this world by this light of divine life within us. And the yoke is easy. A yoke unites two animals to share the workload, and an easy yoke is one that is custom fit and well made. Our way of being united to Christ is unique to each of us, our own special way of making the work of Christ visible in our lives by the gift of his grace.
And so trusting in our Lord, not only for our own sake, but for our families, our community and especially, this weekend, for our nation, we respond with the call to prayer: to entrust to God the needs of our nation. And what better way to do that than the official prayer of the first bishop of our nation, Archbishop John Carroll, whose cousin, Charles Carroll was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. It is an excellent prayer, especially for the times we live in now, over 200 years later, to remind us of the crucial role faith and prayer has always played in our nation since its beginning. Also each year on July 4th, Independence Day, we can especially pray for our government as we are commanded to do in Sacred Scripture: “I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men: For kings, and for all that are in high station: that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all piety and chastity. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2 1-4).
And so let us pray:
We pray, O almighty and eternal God, who through Jesus Christ has revealed thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of your name.
We pray Thee, who alone are good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, the pope, the vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, all other bishops, prelates and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise among us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct your people into the ways of salvation.
We pray O God of might, wisdom and justice, through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with your Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the president of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness and be eminently useful to your people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.
Let the light of your divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.
We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by your powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.
We recommend likewise, to your unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of your most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.
Finally, we pray to you, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of your servants departed, who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech you, a place of refreshment, light and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.
The Snarky Vicar 