1st Reading – Amos 8:4-6,
9-12 – they shall wander from sea to sea and rove from north to east in search
of the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.
Gospel – Matthew 9:9-13 – “Call of Matthew”
Today
in this 13th Week of Ordinary Time when we also celebrate the 238th
birthday of our country, I think we are being reminded more than ever that we
are called to be prophets & patriots.
On this Independence Day we are called to reflect on our roots; how we
got here, whose sacrifice brought us to this present time, and just how willing
are we to sacrifice to ensure that our children, our family, our friends,
our country knows and remembers by whose hand it is that we live and breathe
and by whose blood we do so in freedom.
A
prophet acts as the voice of God and calls people to accountability. A patriot loves his/her country and is
willing to fight to protect the liberty and laws on which it was founded. And the great thing about our country is
that the prophet and the patriot are joined at the hip because our founding
fathers recognized that the rights and freedoms they founded our country on
come from God. These were “unalienable
rights”; rights that could not be taken away, rights to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; rights that are ours to keep because they were endowed by
our Creator and no human or civil authority
is allowed to take them away.
But
let’s be clear, the rights we have been given by God are to be understood as
God understands them, that is as God intended them. First of all the right to life is an absolute
right for all people, because all people are created in God’s image. If a anyone threatens the safety of another
or has gone so far as to take away another’s God given right to life, that
person should be removed from society. We
can shield society from that person, we can act in defense of our country, but we as fellow human beings do not have the
authority to take away the God given right to life from any person. Second, our country was founded on a God
given right to liberty, but liberty must not be confused with license or
freedom to do what I want whenever I want.
Liberty as God intended is our right, our freedom to share space on this
earth, to work and produce something that contributes to our well-being, to the
well-being of our families, and our country.
Liberty as God intended is the freedom to serve but not be in forced
servitude. Liberty is the freedom to
worship God openly and freely without fear of persecution. Liberty is the freedom to coexist with our
neighbors, in obedience to laws that conform to God’s law and without out
excessive burden by Governments, at any level.
A third unalienable right granted us by God is the right to happiness;
but not happiness as the world might define it but rather as God defines
it. Our right to happiness extends only
as far as our recognition that we are children of God and the source of true
happiness comes from staying close to Him because the happiness He desires for
us is eternal and not fleeting.
Our Founding Fathers understood that true
Independence comes from being willing to depend on the Lord. But today many have forgotten this simple
fact about their heritage. It is why God
sends prophets and patriots. In the 1st
reading today, the prophet Amos was delivering a message to a people who had
forgotten their heritage. They had
forgotten that God had freed them from captivity and promised to take care of
them if they would let Him. Instead in
today’s readings we hear the people complaining with impatience as to when the
new moon would be over. They couldn’t
wait for the holy day which is supposed to be devoted to God to be over so they
could get back to their buying and selling.
Oh by the way, the buying selling included false measures, diluting
their products and cheating customers so as to increase their profits. Amos tells them that because of their
behavior, a time is coming of famine, and draught. But it will not be famine or draught due to
lack of food and water but rather for being able to hear the word of the
Lord. Because they had turned from God,
and lost their patriotic fervor as children of God, they would soon have to endure
captivity and hardship.
Then
in the Gospel Jesus calls Matthew a tax collector to follow him. Matthew had to choose. He had to decide, do I give up this lucrative
job of collecting taxes and being able to live in luxury, to follow this man or
not?
Matthew had a choice. We too have a choice? We have the choice to be prophets &
patriots or to let our heritage both spiritual and national, be erased. It is up to us. It is up to us to remember and to never
forget what the Lord has done for us; to remember the great men & women of
the Church who have lived and died for us. It’s up to us to remember the
courage of our founding fathers, and all of those who have lived before us and
have shed their blood so that we might enjoy freedom as children of God and
citizens of this great country.
Today
we are reminded that we are called to be both prophet and patriot. We
must continuously remind those in our families, our community, our country of
their heritage as children of God and citizens of this great land. We must make sure that our children, our neighbors,
our political leaders, our countrymen and women never forget that we have
unalienable rights given to us by God, which have been preserved, protected and
defended for 238 years by the prophets and patriots who have gone before us. May God bless us and may God bless the United
States of America.
