by Joan Mitchell, CSJ
July 4th is a day for singing “America the Beautiful.” Farmers are harvesting amber waves of grain beneath spacious skies in many parts of the country. Fittingly, in Sunday’s gospel Jesus is sending workers out for the harvest of seeds he has planted in his preaching and healing.
It’s summer. It’s the Fourth. Families set out to camp and fish, eat hot dogs, and watch red, white, and blue fireworks cascade, explode, and spill down the dark night skies. Congregations plan services outdoors. Relatives gather for potluck picnics as they have for decades. Hometowns plan parades.
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote and 56 members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. “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.”
Our traditions of places and picnics revive the value Americans place on freedom in much the same way Pope Francis talks about place in his encyclical Laudato Si’. In describing creation as God’s first book of revelation, Pope Francis insists, “The history of our friendship with God is always linked to particular places which take on intensely personal meaning; we all remember places, and revisiting those does us much good. Anyone who has grown up in the hills or used to sit by the spring to drink, or played outdoors in the neighbourhood square; going back to these places is a chance to recover something of our true selves” (84).
We visit the liberty bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We walk the Freedom Trail past Paul Revere’s house in Boston. We listen to the music from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
On the Fourth Americans rise together to honor the flags that lead hometown parades. On most other days, we struggle to forge the nation and the vision the day celebrates.
We disagree about welcoming immigrants and about whose lives matter. Perhaps we don’t talk politics or religion in order to keep our friends and keep peace in our families. Pope Francis urges us to include more than our own individual selves in the happiness we pursue.
- For what about our nation are you grateful this 4th of July?