“Give me liberty or give me death,” these words by Patrick Henry have echoed down the years of our Republic. What is liberty, what is freedom for? Liberty is for human flourishing. In scripture Christians are exhorted “Be free, yet without using freedom as a pretext for evil, but as slaves of God” (1 Peter 2:16).
Our readings for this Fourth of July run along these same lines. When Paul opposes spirit to flesh in our reading from his Letter to the Galatians, “flesh” does not mean “body.” The difference between the two is evident in the original Greek. In Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament, “flesh” is sarx while “body” is soma, as in our word "somatic," which means pertaining to the body.
Flesh refers to our natural human tendency to put myself, my needs, wants, and desires first, to look out for number one, even if that is to the detriment of others. It is by living according to the spirit that unifies the human person body, soul, and spirit.
As Christians in the United States, like Christians in every nation, our calling, our vocation, is to live by the Spirit, which means according to the Spirit’s gifts, which Paul enumerates. Hence, as Christians first and then as Americans, our concern is not so much making the United States into a "Christian nation" by legislative or judicial fiat as it is to live as Christians in this nation. Evangelization is not and cannot be a political or legislative program. This is why it is fitting that we gather for Eucharist, for thanksgiving, on the Fourth of July.
Living in a free country provides us with a lot of opportunities. This is a good thing. But the multiplication of choice is not what it means to be truly free. Neither is being truly free a function of having as few restraints as possible on human activity. For Christians, true freedom is freedom for loving God and neighbor.
Freedom allows us to discern and then do God’s will. The only free person is the one who, knowing God’s will, does it without counting the cost. As the witness of many saints, especially many martyrs, demonstrates, true freedom, which is interior, does not depend on any particular political arrangement or regime.
The Avenue in the Rain, by Childe Hassam, American impressionist painter, 1917
Over the course of human history nations and empires rise and fall. Over the more than 2,000 years of the Church’s history, countries have come and gone. It is no small thing that the Church is the longest continually functioning institution in the world. As Catholics, we don’t buy into the Puritan myth, either historically or theologically.
Of course, we have the Lord’s promise that the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church. Hence, the primary concern of Christians is maintaining the freedom of the Church to be the Church, the Assembly of God in Christ. This allows the Church to bear the prophetic mantle and to spread the Gospel.
There is nothing wrong with using the freedom we have to pursue our goals and dreams. There is nothing wrong, in principle, with pursuing the American Dream. But we must strenuously resist the “I’ve got mine attitude,” which makes us indifferent or possibly even hostile to those for whom things haven’t worked out so well. As Christians, as patriotic Americans, we take up the challenge of creating, referencing the preamble to our Constitution, seeking to create an ever more perfect union.
E pluribus unum, a Latin phrase found on our paper money, which means bringing the many together as one, is perfectly consonant with our Christian faith. But, as scripture states, “love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). We must receive all we have as a gift from God and, therefore, we must treat it as a trust and put it to use for the common good.
The beginning of Jesus’ teaching in our Gospel is the whole of his teaching in this passage from Luke. As such it is instructive for us: “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
So, today let us give thanks to God and celebrate the great blessing of living in the United States of America. Let us remember those who sacrificed to establish our country. Let us also commit to using the blessing of freedom to accomplish God’s purposes for our own lives, our country, and for the world.
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