This weekend we are celebrating our countries 250th birthday, when our founders declared their independence from Great Britain.
Our country was the first country in the world to to declare that every citizen has unalienable rights, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We refuse to kneel before a king or a government, we kneel before Almighty God.
Our rights are not given to us by government, but are God given rights. And no government has the right to take them away.
In our country every citizen is treated equal. Though we continue to work on holding true to the fact that we are all created equal. We need to stand up for unborn children downs-syndrome. Help and provide for the needs of unexpected single mothers and end abortion in our country once and for all. We need protect the elderly from euthanasia.
We currently has enemies in our own country, who are Marxists, communists and socialists. Our enemies want to burn our flag. They want to take away our right to bare arms. They want to change our constitution. They want to burn our cities. They want to take away our freedom.
Our greatest enemy today is communism. It is the enemy of freedom. It is the enemy of religious freedom. Communism is opposes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They don't love God, they don't want religion, in fact, communists are atheists. They want to take away our land and property. They have no respect for laws. We must fight communism and stand up for democracy.
President Calvin Coolidge said that Thomas Jefferson acknowledged that his "best ideas of democracy" had been secured at church meetings. He said, "Democracy is Christ's government in church and state."
The
citizens in the US are the most generous in the world. We help those
in need, but we could always do better. Millions of Americans have
died protecting our freedoms. We need to stand up for them. And even
die for them if necessary, so that our future generations will have
what we have. We want to pass on the gifts that God has given to
us.
Explorers crossed oceans, they climbed mountains, went
through deserts. What was once the Gulf of Mexico is not the Gulf of
America. In the USA, we are the land of opportunity. We have freedom
of speech. We dream big and attempt to make our ideas and dreams come
true. If we are poor, we the opportunity to go to college, to become
an athlete, to start a business.
Americans invented the light bulb, the airplane and the Internet, the refrigerator, telephone, electricity, nuclear energy by the splitting of atoms, MRI, Cat Scans, PET scans, polio vaccines, penicillin, I-phones, microwaves, personal computers, traffic lights, lasers, & chemotherapy.
The modern organized Catholic school system was developed in the USA. We have the most Olympic medals.
How is that we can invent all these things, and do all these things? One word, GOD.
God is the one who gives every good gift. God is the one who uses us to help others, to create things to advance society. We must acknowledge all these accomplishments are from God and by God, otherwise, we can become proud and think we are responsible for these things.
In the Gospel today, Jesus said, “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.”
Jesus wants us to have a meek and humble heart, like His. We are to avoid pride, and live the virtue of humility.
Out of humility, we must declare that gifts God has given to our nations are gifts from God, our creator. We should thank God everyday for all He has given us. We should thank God for those who stood up to defend our country. Who died for our country.
Out of humility, we come to serve, rather than be served. We want to help our fellow Americans. We want to people other nations to have the freedom God gave to us.
Due to the World Cup soccer, thousands of Europeans have come to our country. They are shocked at how loving, kind and generous we are. They say, that their news media portray us to be wicked, evil, uncaring and selfish. They are surprised when complete strangers will tell them hello. One man said, "Everyone here smiles." He said, "I can only remember three times that my mother ever smiled at me."
The man said, "In my country the news media is fake. They lie to us. But, we have seen for ourselves what Americans are really like."
The truth is most Americans are hospitable. Most of us generally want what's best for others.
However, there are people in the US, who abuse their freedom to hurt others. However, Pope John Paul II said, "Freedom is not the right to do whatever we want. Rather, freedom is the ability to live responsibly the truth of our relationship with God and with one another.” (John Paul II)
We want to live out our nations ideals, and we want to understand, believe and proclaim to our fellow Americans and the world, that "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
My friends, as we celebrate our country's birthday let us thank God for every good gift He has given to our country and to the world and let us be reading to defend her freedoms, even to laying down our life if necessary.
As the song America the Beautiful states,
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country love And mercy more than life!"
