When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, stating that the Creator had endowed us with the fundamental human right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he was articulating his summary understanding of political philosophy, but trying it out on the broad and open stage of the New World.
Immigrants from Europe had come to America, seeking religious freedom, economic opportunity, or simply an escape from debts, prison records, and broken relationships.
Violent clashes with the Native peoples, especially as immigration expanded steadily West and the beginnings of the horrible slave trade, would also mark the evolution of the United States and painfully contradict the high ideals of liberty, human dignity, and justice, articulated by the Founding Fathers, with contradiction, struggle, violence, and racial discrimination.
A country founded on fundamental principles
In the midst of these complexities and injustices, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States still stand as watershed documents in global history.
For the very first time, a new country was founded on the fundamental principles of human dignity, rights and responsibilities, and liberty. The state existed to serve the people, not the other way around.
While our history is marked with failures in this great American enterprise of freedom and dignity, nevertheless, millions of people have flocked to our shores, seeking a better life, greater freedom, the ability to exercise rights, and to build a better future.
Our immigrant forbears arrived here with their Catholic Faith and a deep desire for the gifts of opportunity this country offered.
Fundamentals of Catholic social teaching
As we celebrate the Fourth of July this week, I invite you to ponder the fundamentals of Catholic social teaching, which are broad principles to guide the building of a civilization of life and love, with a government and people who sincerely and effectively seek the common good.
1. Human Dignity; Rights and Responsibilities. Every person has been created in the image and likeness of God and therefore has the right to be born, to nourishing food and shelter, an education, health care, work, religious liberty, freedom of speech and assembly, access to culture and to live in safety.
The right to life is fundamental here, the necessary beginning of other needed guarantees for human flourishing.
Conversely, every person has responsibilities connected to our rights, including the obligation to protect the lives of others, to serve the common good, to be productive and sacrificial, to be a virtuous citizen, to name a few.
2. Marriage and Family. Stable marriages and flourishing family life are the building blocks of a good society, for it is in a loving, healthy home, where children will be formed to be good, productive, and holy people.
What happens in those formative years of infancy and early childhood greatly shapes our personalities and life trajectories.
The Catholic Church lifts up permanent, exclusive, and fruitful marriage between a man and a woman as the basic cell of society and takes a great interest in the health of marriages and families.
Many of our societal troubles today flow from the fundamental breakdown of the domestic Church.
Whatever we can do to strengthen marriage and family life redounds to our collective benefit.
3. Solidarity; Preferential Option for the Poor. The measure of a just and merciful society is its treatment of the most vulnerable and poor.
As Christians, we understand our profound connection to every other human being, as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Therefore, we seek out the marginalized and suffering, offering them extra protection, support, and love.
The unborn, the poor, the elderly, the homeless, the abused and unwanted, the sick, and the suffering merit our special attention and concern, for we see Christ in them and seek to imitate His compassion.
4. The Dignity of Work. Work is a blessing, an opportunity to share in God’s creativity and to make our contribution to authentic human flourishing.
It gives us sustenance to live, but it is so much more than that. Any labor, no matter how seemingly unimportant, is good and holy if it contributes to a better society.
We have both the right and the responsibility to work; workers have a right to a just wage, safe conditions, and the ability to organize.
5. Care for the Environment. In Genesis, the Lord entrusts the earth to Adam and Eve, to serve as caring stewards of creation.
Regardless of where people stand on environmental issues and global warming, we should all agree as Catholics to consume less, care for our resources, and respect the world around us as a sacred trust from God Himself.
How telling that the Lord put Adam and Eve in a garden and stopped the work on the Tower of Babel.
If we never see the world that God made, we may think we are the point of reference, not the Lord.
As we celebrate our independence this weekend, we thank the Lord for the many gifts entrusted to us as Americans. God calls us to put into practice the teachings of the Church and the ideals of the United States to build a culture of life, a civilization of love.