Independence Day

“Let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body” (Col. 3:15). Today is a good day to ponder Saint Paul’s comments to the church of Colossae. We need to embody Christ-like virtues of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Holding grudges has become a way of life; consequently, we have forgotten how to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. Because we have made an art form of putting people down and demeaning them, we have forgotten that love can heal our hearts and make us one again. We have grown so accustomed to retaliating that we have forgotten how to bear with one another and forgive grievances. We have forgotten the message of our founding fathers. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence).

It is not too late for us to reclaim our dignity as disciples of Christ. It is not too late for us to love one another and to allow the love of Christ to reign in our hearts. It is not too late for us to put aside our petty grievances and start living as “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. Having been grafted to Christ, each of us is called to live a life characterized by love, forgiveness, and peace. Think about it this way, the Beatitudes are not a set of rules to earn God’s favor. Rather, they describe the character and attitudes proper to those who have received His grace and are living in His kingdom. We cannot divorce what we are called to be from what God has done for us.

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles…

 With silent lips [she cries]. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

(The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus)