For us as Americans, Independence Day — the Fourth of July — represents more than fireworks, parades, and barbecues.
To study our history is to discover the uniqueness of the United States, as the first and longest enduring experiment in democracy and representative government.
The Europeans who immigrated to America were seeking a better life — greater economic opportunity, ample religious freedom, fundamental human rights, and escape from aristocracy and monarchy.
The shining ideals of liberty and justice for all which embody the American vision and promise certainly have guided our country to build stable structures of government, help the disadvantaged, keep the peace, and contribute to global solidarity, but these ideals also have a checkered history for us, as we ponder the destructive fate of the Native peoples of North America and the oppressive evil of slavery.
Our collective understanding of human dignity and equality has continued to evolve, but when we consider the tragedy of abortion and the persistence of poverty in our country, we know that we have not yet fully realized the promise of America, beginning with the inalienable right to life.
A belief in God
While most of the Founding Fathers were not practicing Christians — Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were deists; John Adams was Unitarian — nevertheless, they embraced a Judeo-Christian worldview.
They believed that God was the Author of life, the Guarantor of human rights, the Source of natural law, and so they constructed a government that sought to serve the common good and to uphold the freedom and rights of the people.
With the foundational documents of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as guides, with the three separate branches of government, with the distinction of federal, state, and local levels of authority, our founders sought to build a country where people had the ability to realize their innate dignity through worship, education, work, and community participation, guided by the principle of subsidiarity.
State-mandated churches, aristocratic privilege, and monarchical absolutism would find no place in this grand political experiment.
Crisis today
We Americans find ourselves today in a profound crisis in this country.
The two predominant political parties are in vitriolic and destructive conflict, a division so profound that it has created a debilitating gridlock in government function.
The national debt continues to spiral out of control.
Many citizens do not trust our leaders, the government, the media, or anyone who has opposing political views.
The lingering acrimony of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election, and the BLM riots still molds and shapes our national discourse.
We seldom hear public commentary about the need for patriotism, hard work, sacrifice, self-sufficiency, and the flourishing of the common good.
Reclaiming the vision
I would suggest on this Fourth of July, we seek to reclaim some of the fundamental vision of our Founders.
Three guiding principles come to mind: Human dignity, religious freedom, and the common good.
Even though the only politically enfranchised Americans at the founding of our country were white males who owned land, the Founders grounded our governmental structures in the essential conviction that all people were created equal, in the image and likeness of God.
This vision of human dignity, so prevalent in Catholic theology, guided the foundation of our country.\
The Founders sought to create a country where everyone could flourish, had a chance to improve their lot, and enjoyed the protection of their human rights.
Without a foundational belief in human dignity flowing from God as our common identity, politics becomes tribal, the imposition of power.
Identity becomes divisive instead of unitive, for it is no longer rooted in what unites us in God, but rather, a label of difference and victimization.
Our Constitution guarantees religious freedom.
This protection bars the government from establishing or favoring a particular religion and also frees religious bodies from governmental interference.
The Church needs religious freedom in order to operate by Her own doctrine and principles; to serve in the public square in the areas of education, health care, and social assistance; and to prevent the violation of conscience.
Examples abound today of how the government is seeking to restrict religious freedom and the rights of conscience, particularly in the areas of health care, sexuality, and life.
Such restrictions violate the Constitution and must be met with firm resistance, not only from believers but also from citizens who are concerned about the integrity of our government and the right to religious freedom.
Concern for the common good is a paramount element of any just and effective government.
How can all of us realize our human dignity, enjoy our fundamental rights, sacrifice and love others, and make our contribution to the benefit of all?
The moral litmus test of any society is the treatment of the most vulnerable — the unborn, the disabled, the elderly, and the poor.
Generations of hard-working Americans built this country through unrelenting efforts to actualize this ideal.
The Catholic Church has always been profoundly engaged in service to the common good of this country. We see such work as integral to the Gospel.
In our current fractured environment, that vision of the common good seems diminished.
Too many people seem self-absorbed and self-concerned. “What is in it for me?”
Identity politics has shattered our common identity as children of God, obligated to care for one another.
In this precarious moment, we must lift up and work for the common good, side by side with all citizens of goodwill, seeking genuine human flourishing for every person.
As we enjoy this Independence Day, in addition to the picnics and parades, please pray for our country, read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, remember the military heroes who gave their lives for our freedom, and dedicate your efforts to lifting up human dignity, religious freedom, and the common good.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” — John Adams