Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 3, 2016

As we celebrate Independence Day, I would like to reflect on one of the most powerful pieces of oratory in our nation’s history, Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address. With the nation growing weary of the war, Lincoln had come close to losing the election of 1864. By the time his second term officially began, on March 4, 1865, the war was close to being over. The war would end about a month later (and Lincoln would die shortly thereafter), but his inaugural address was not triumphalistic or vengeful. Rather, it offered healing. He concluded his speech with one of the most beautiful passages of American history: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

“With malice toward none, with charity for all.” The tone of political discourse today has gotten so bitter and that political campaigns are so negative. I have studied history enough to know that this age is not unique. The bitter comments of today are hardly worse than those which surrounded, for instance, the rivalry between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. (Interestingly, those two ended up as the best of friends. In a piece of real irony, each one died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of The Declaration of Independence.) Yet Lincoln reminded all of us that we can rise above the bitter partisanship. Each of us can try to inject a tone of charity even into discussions with those with whom we disagree.

“As God gives us to see the right.” Our Founding Fathers learned from many different political philosophers in creating our nation. There have been many ideas and cultural trends that have shaped our land over the years. We pray that the people and the leaders of the United States may never forget to turn to God for guidance and build our nation on His will.

“To finish the work we are in.” Lincoln’s words, of course, referred to the Civil War and all that would follow from it. We can also understand “the work we are in” to mean the task of creating a land of liberty and justice for all, including the widow and the orphan of whom Lincoln spoke. That task is ongoing. As long as there is injustice in this land, and as long as the weakest among us (including the unborn) are in danger, we have “to strive on to finish the work we are in.” Only then can we truly “achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Happy Independence Day, and please note that the parish office will be closed on Monday, July, 4. The morning Mass that day will be at 9:00 instead of 7:15.

                                                                                                            Father H