Independence Day
4 July 2025
July 4th.
Fireworks.
Cookouts.
Parades.
Ice-cold beer.
And, of course,
the Boston Pops on the Esplanade.
For over two hundred years our country has celebrated the audacious move to separate from the British domination of the colonies. The choice to declare independence was made after serious deliberation and debate. Not all were in agreement. For some it seemed better to remain subject to the British crown. However, seeing the depths to which the British Royal Family has sunk, it is obvious that the Founding Fathers were either prudent or prophets.
Where are we now?
Where are we going?
The answer to the latter question of where we are going is a source of anxiety as we approach next year’s 250th anniversary of the U.S.
Part of the answer will require prayer. Part of the answer will require reparation for sin.
Part of the answer will require, in the words of the Benedictine vow, a national conversatio morum, a difficult to translate term that can mean: conversion of life, reformation of life, and conversion of morals.
The English word conversation derives from conversatio. At its base, conversation has more to do with listening than it does with speaking. Listening with the understanding that conversation can lead to a change of thought and mind. One of the most important elements of conversatio is prayer which is conversation with God.
Today would be a good day to pray for the return of civility, decency, and morality to American society.
Today would be a good day to pray for a country in which reasoned discourse and debate have been replaced by the disinhibited emotional screeds of talk show hosts, untrustworthy journalists, and celebrity commentators of all stripes. The value to society of this last-named group is questionable at best and oftentimes divisive.
Today would be a good day to pray for a government in which all three branches have descended to a lowest-common-denominator in their public pronouncements and behaviors. It ain’t pretty.
Today would be a good day to pray for a country in which the perverted, salacious, and immoral have been elevated to the level of virtue that requires special handling and deference.
Today would be a good day to pray for the victims of the culture of death, particularly the unborn and the sick elderly. It is really physician assisted death when the elderly are put down or merely physician performed homicide?
The concept of the common good has been sacrificed to personal desire and special interest demands. The only difference between the demonized 1%,and those populating the lower ranks of society, is that those lower on the income ladder are working within smaller budgets.The desire and the sin are the same.
The Fourth of July has historically been a time to celebrate. Today, however, there is much to fear much to mourn, and much for which to pray.
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