Last weekend’s second reading from St. Paul talked about the freedom God gives to us—a freedom for rather than a freedom from. The difference being that we are made in God’s image and likeness not so that “we can do what we want when we want” but rather we can become the excellence that God created us to be—and that excellence is the full expression of the image and likeness of God in our families, our work,—our lives.

This week we will celebrate the freedoms provided to us by the desires of the men and women who fought for our national independence from the Crown of England in 1776. One of these freedoms is Religious Freedom found in the religion clauses in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

But sadly, religious freedom has been challenged often in our national history and of late it has been literally under attack. Even more sadly in the last few decades and especially in recent years, the attacks have intensified and are even from within those within the circle who benefit most from religious freedom.

Religious freedom is more than just being able to wake up on Sunday morning and go to the church and the Mass of your choosing to practice your religious worship rites. Yet, many government agencies or secular organizations are trying to define “religious freedom” exclusively limited to “religious worship” – as in a building and a ritual: celebrating Mass or a baptism, by examples.
But religious freedom means to take your devoutly held religious beliefs—the tenants and traditions of faith—and live them out through your life in the world. In the Catholic Mass we end our sacred celebration of a uniquely God given mystery by hearing the proclamation: “The Mass has ended, go in peace!” This declaratory statement is a commissioning of the lay faithful to take what they have heard in Sacred Word and received in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and formed in community—and go forth into the world and transform the world into the Kingdom of God.
We do this by teaching the ignorant (spiritual works of mercy) to the Truths of Christ and by caring for the less fortunate with food or housing (corporal works of mercy—read Archbishop Blair’s editorial in the June 2016 Catholic Transcript) and thus transform the world. Some years ago, I
believe, a Washington Post editorial noted that the actions of the Catholic Church had made American society more compassionate by the lived-out teachings of the Church vis-à-vis the corporal works of mercy.

This July 4th our Church and parish will celebrate the close of the fifth annual Fortnight for Freedom, a two-week period of time when we are called to recommit ourselves to the ongoing mission for religious freedom—something that Christ calls each of us to accomplish. Here
at St. Catherine of Siena we will offer a prayer service in the Mary Garden following the 11 a.m. Mass—complete with a social of ice cream and strawberries—and ask God to give us the courage and the strength to stand up for the teachings of the Savior of the world. We are called to live
out what we believe: to Believe it, to Live it and to Share it. This means we cannot be silent when wrongs are committed or when faith is removed from the public arena,either by Hollywood pressure or public opinion or by government order. We are called to remember that the separation of Church and State does not mean the elimination of faith from our public life but rather that our Founding Fathers meant to eliminate government control from the practice of our faith.

As we prepare for this 4th of July, could we imagine a nation without faith? Could we imagine a country that does not have Catholic (religious) hospitals for the poor, or nursing homes for the uninsured, or homeless or battered women’s shelters protecting the vulnerable, or Malta
mobile health vans traveling into the poorest neighborhoods caring for children and the elderly; could we ever imagine a local disaster without the Church’s concern for everyone—Catholic or not? What kind of caring country would we be if we only had state or federal agencies providing the many services of compassion and love that the human person needs?

We have a great deal to be thankful for this July 4th and not the least of which is our religious freedom lived out each day in areas of health care for the poor, food and shelter for the homeless or protection for the battered…and for those who believe the Church has “no right” to be involved in the public arena at the capitol—would you include the aforementioned services that soften the already too harsh public arena?

Let us celebrate the 4th of July with a prayer and hope for the building up of the common good.