Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XIV per Annum A
Sermon on the 250th Birthday of the USA
5 July 2026

 This year’s significant Independence Day milestone provides an opportunity to connect our faith to the civic observance of the birthday of these United States of America. In the second year of the American Revolutionary War, on July 2, 1776, representatives of the thirteen American colonies of the kingdom of Great Britain voted to declare themselves independent from the British Crown, thus forming the United States of America. Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. For the 250th time since the signing, we have the joy of celebrating the birthday of the United States of America!

As believers in Jesus Christ in his holy Catholic Church, we have a vital contribution to make toward the strengthening of the fabric of our nation. A great way to celebrate our 250th is by recapturing an appreciation for the Christian faith and religious values that are very much at the foundation of the United States. We should not be timid about promoting religious and civic values. In fact, our faith holds patriotism to be a virtue, such that by giving to God His due we are also promoting the common good at one and the same time.

So many years after the founding, our national memory is at risk of failing. Together with that, technological advances and modern comfort have provided us the poisonous luxury of boutique ideologies that erode our nation’s founding principles. At the deeper root of the national crisis of identity, played out in unamerican political movements and social unrest, is the rejection of the role that religion and Christian faith have occupied in the life of this nation from its very founding. The rejection of God and religious values in the public square is our deepest crisis. However, that gives rise to the opportunity for our greatest contribution to the nation: namely, living the Catholic faith in full public witness. Do not believe those who champion the claim that the United States was not founded on Christian values. When you read about the dreams of those who voyaged across the ocean to establish the colonies, they (especially the Pilgrims and Puritans) express in biblical images that their journey was like a new exodus to come here to establish a city set upon a hill. Much post-modern scholarship seeks to cast doubt on the Christian status of the Founding Fathers as a means to erase our nation’s Christian principles. Yes, many of the Founding Fathers were flawed, yet sincere Christians. While some of the founders were deists, there is no evidence that the majority rejected Christianity. Frankly, what matters more for the question of our Christian founding is that whatever their own faults and sins, and whatever the degree of their individual faith, the Founding Fathers acted as Christians. Even those who were not professed Christians, knew that their public life should be sympathetic to Christian values because they understood the cultural atmosphere in which they lived. They supported what much religion contributed to the very project of establishing a new nation whose authority arises from the consent of the people. In their letters, private papers and pamphlets, the Founders quoted from the Bible more than from any other literary source. The Book of Deuteronomy is the most cited book by far. From that book’s account of the legal and political framework of ancient Israel, the Fathers took principles of representative democracy like the consent of the governed, the separation of powers and even the judiciary. Most especially, the Fathers appreciated that self-governance as a nation would not work if individual citizens were not virtuous and disciplined in personal self-control. That’s what religion can provide. Discipline for self-control. The Founders knew that the Christian religion is uniquely positioned to promote the proper ordering of society and the difficult balance of rights and obligations. How is that? Because belief in God cannot help but admit that we are subject to a higher authority who has a claim on how we conduct ourselves privately and communally. The Founders were aware that an ordered and cohesive society needs to account for the fallen nature of man and the tendency to vices like greed, ambition and revenge. Belief in God and the practice of religion uniquely accomplishes this. And thus, John Adams wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” (Letter to the Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798). The Founders held a common Christian belief in the limitations of human nature that led them to be suspicious of any form of government that did not make an adequate account of human vice. In brief, they understood that if you don’t believe in the supreme authority of the Judeo-Christian God who holds you to account for your own morality, the result is that each man becomes a sovereign authority, a god unto himself. The fabric of a nation whose authority comes from the people cannot withstand the strain that would come if the self-determination of each individual were considered the sovereign authority.

I think the rejection of religion and the extreme autonomy of the self is the deeper root of the strife in our nation today. And thus, we have an important service to offer our nation as both disciples and patriots. Christianity understands itself to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden (cf. Mt. 5:13-16). These would be absurd images for the Lord to use to describe disciples if he intended disciples to keep a private faith hidden from view. Rather, he said disciples must let their light shine before others so that they may see and glorify the Father. Thus, the Founders knew that the nation and its society is aided by religion and its practice and belongs in the public square; whereas they wanted to restrict government from making one religion official or punishing those religions not favored by the government.

In gratitude to God for His blessings, in gratitude to all who have served this nation before us, to all who have contributed to our representative democracy, to all who have sacrificed to preserve this great American project of self-governance, some even to the shedding of their blood, we recognize that we are called to be salt and light in this nation. We can contribute to the nation’s healing and proper identity by bringing faith into the public square. This begins with our own personal self-governance, marked by confession of sin and growth in virtue. Our service continues by being informed about issues, by registering to vote and by bringing our faith into the voting booth. And don’t focus only on the national level. So much good (and bad) starts at home on the local level. Vote in the smaller elections. Be a candidate yourself in local races. Most of all, be a vibrant disciple who lives the faith in such a way that others are attracted and come to glorify the Father.

We pray for our leaders and for the unity of our nation. May God bless the United States of America! May Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the United States, intercede for us, that we may always seek to live as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!