Fr. Roger J. Landry

Visitation Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II

Mass for Independence Day

Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal and Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati

July 4, 2020

Amos 9:11-15, Ps 85, Mt 9:14-17

 

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

 

To following points were made in today’s homily: 

* Today as the United States marks its 244th birthday as a nation and we focus, on independence day, on freedom, not only on the historical liberation from King George III and the United Kingdom but on what our freedom is for, what Madison described as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” We Christians can deepen these aims of freedom expressed in the Declaration by the Biblical ideas of zoe (not just biological life but the higher life of the soul that Christ came to give us to the full), freedom (Christ has set us free precisely so that we might love God and others by his standard), and the pursuit of happiness (which is far more than pleasure, and meant to last far more than even 244 years, through the pursuit of holiness). The United States of America was formed with this deeper context in mind, to allow for the possibility of fulfilling it. But for that to be achieved, we need a revolutionary spirit in every generation, the courage of many of our founding fathers to be willing to risk their lives for this ideal, and to remember what so many of them remarked, that if we’re going to have a republic conceived in liberty remain, the citizens must use their liberty in a particular way, tied to responsibility. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people, as John Adams once wrote, and it is fit for no other. So today is a good today, helped by today’s readings, to ponder that reality.

* In today’s first reading, we finish a week-long prayerful examination of the Prophet Amos. He was sent by God from Tekoa south of Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judah to prophesy in the Kingdom of Israel to the north about the rampant injustice taking place there, the infidelity of the professional priests and prophets, of businessmen, of average Joshuas and Miriams. Throughout the book Amos constantly points out the failure of the people to live justly. They were prosperous and had begun to live for money, marginalizing God, selling off needy people for goods, oppressing the poor, taking advantage of the helpless, men were using women for pleasure. They needed a deep conversion and Amos was unsparing. Many were frightened as a result. Today we get to the last five verses, which foretell the consolation that awaits if they turn back to the Lord and to justice and charity in their relations with others. Through Amos God promises mercy, to “raise up the fallen hut of David … and rebuild it as in the days of old.” He promises that “the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the vintager, him who sows the seed; the juice of grapes shall drip down the mountains, and all the hills shall run.” Those are incredible images, saying that people will not be able to plant or crush grapes fast enough and that there will be tremendous fruit and joy, like grapes running down a mountain.

* In the Gospel, we see how all of this would be fulfilled. Jesus uses two images to describe how his people need to receive and respond the fulfillment of Amos’ prophecies. The first image is that of a patch. He says no one sews a new patch on an old set of clothing, because the new patch when it shrinks will tear the old fabric. Jesus has come not to patch up the difficulties in Judaism, but rather to give us new clothing. He has come to clothe us in himself. He has come to give us a baptismal garment, which is the garment that the sons and the daughters of the wedding chamber — whom he refers shouldn’t be mourning but celebrating,