Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness

This week we Americans celebrate the Fourth of July! This is a day to show our national awareness and gratitude for freedom and independence in America.

We should also thank God, as in some way we dare to do in our Responsorial Psalm, “I will praise you Lord for you have rescued me.” Indeed, the Lord has done that for all of us both individually and as a nation.

Our first reading from the Book of Wisdom reminds us that God is first and always a God of life. Our second reading from 2 Corinthians speaks of the self-emptying love of Jesus as a model and motive for generosity. As a Christian nation, that is the daily challenge for all of us, to give and share and not just be takers or expect to receive.

The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be selfevident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights which among there are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These are all points stressed above as we begin this new month and pray in preparation for Independence Day.

We sing or listen to the singing of “God Bless America” as we ask God to help us live and work for these freedoms for all people. We might reflect on the farewell address of George Washington, Father of Our Country as he states, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports…… reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

For those of us who both believe in God and try like the two miracles in the Gospel to put that belief into action we need to never be afraid, just have faith. He tells the woman her faith has saved her and the father of the 12 year old girl she is alive and tells the girl; arise and she sat up full of life. Ours is a God of life, a God of surprises who is light and life for the darkness of our world!

This is a good week to realize the words of Pope St. John Paul II that are real now and forever on independence as we wrote, “Freedom is not the ability to do anything we want, whenever we want. Rather, freedom is the ability to live responsibly the truth of our relationship with God and one another.”

Time, responsibility and relationships change but not life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Think about the new professional baseball player just before a game was in the corner of the dugout and seemed depressed. Two teammates were talking about him and another teammate walked up and they asked that teammate why this new player was so depressed.

He said, “You haven’t heard? It’s because his father is always writing him for money.”