On America and Independence

As I write this, different groups of people throughout our country are either celebrating or mourning: the Big Beautiful Bill has just passed, and people all over the country are reacting. The USCCB posted a response, giving the Catholic perspective on this bill, so that's not what I want to do here.

What I want to acknowledge on America's 249th birthday is the complicated relationship Catholics espouse with our beautiful country.

Growing up, I was always taught that America was the greatest country in the world. I still believe that. Not necessarily because we're doing everything right, or because we have the best of everything, because that certainly isn't true. But when I look at the world, I think the bar for greatness remains rather low. This isn't to say that other countries and lands don't have things to offer- I say this as someone who lived overseas as a kid, and has traveled extensively. But the most important thing in the world to humanity, the worship of the true living God, is either discouraged, suppressed, or illegal in more countries around the world than we like to admit. And even those countries that don't actively suppress worship, many are physically far from any faith-filled community.

In an attempt to be fair, I think we need to recognize that this American experiment could have gone so very wrong. And perhaps without the grace of God, it would have. No other country has been able to replicate what we have. At the same time, when I look around to see what has happened in our country, I grieve and think that maybe it has all gone wrong. At my lowest, most hopeless place, I think maybe the American experiment is a failed one.

July 4th is a great day to reflect and pray on this. Not just because it's Independence Day, but because it's Pier Giorgio Frassati's feast day. Frassati lived during the rise of fascism in Italy, when Benito Mussolini was coming into power. Frassati opposed fascism on a political level, but it was in his one on one relationships and sacrifices for his community where he was able to change the world.

How can I have an impact? How can I change the world? For me, as a mom of four, I don't have the ability to vote for or against far-reaching bills. I don't have the power to change national policy. But I can still serve. I can still have hope, and let that hope carry me to love.

What makes America great? The fact that I have the freedom to follow my conscience in serving and supporting the vulnerable, despite America herself. The fact that I can listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and have the freedom to follow it or not. The fact that we have the freedom to disagree with each other, and disagree fiercely, and not end up in jail.

But freedom for freedom's sake is a fast-track back into slavery. Our human nature tends toward worship, and if it's not God we worship, it will be something that enslaves us. We have received freedom in order to be free to choose the good. Yet so many Americans today are slaves of their own making. St. Thomas Aquinas identifies the four idols that we will worship if left to our own devices: Money, power, pleasure, and fame. And no group of people is more enthralled and ensnared with these idols more than Americans. As our current political climate proves, we are willing to sell out our fellow humans in order to get more of it. Whether it's single moms, small business owners, large families, ranchers and farmers, the babies in the womb, the disabled, people in urban food deserts, veterans, college graduates, people with medical debt, immigrants, homeless people, or any other group, people from both sides of the isle are willing to throw any combination of these people under the bus for the sake of money, power, pleasure, or fame.

So is this American experiment a failed one? Only if we let our idols enslave us. Only if we allow evil drain our hope and action. Only if we stop serving our neighbor out of love, not compulsion. One day, America may fall. America is not guaranteed. But the Church is guaranteed. The gates of hell will not prevail against it, as Jesus tells Peter.

It would seem to me that there is an invitation here. Living in this country means I am able to indulge in whichever idol I desire, becoming a voluntary slave to it's never-ending pursuit. But it also means that I have the freedom to worship the Lord, to seek truth and goodness and beauty. That's a freedom worth fighting for.