Homily for Independence Day

Homily for Independence Day
Saturday, Week 13 of Ordinary Time

July 4, 2026
Proper Prayers
Amos 9: 11-15
Matt 9: 14-17
Provincial House, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Writing to his wife Abigail, John Adams predicted that Americans would celebrate the day in perpetuity

as the great Anniversary Festival.  It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever.^[1]

He was half right, because he was writing of July 2, the day on which the Second Continental Congress voted independence.  The cut-and-dried resolution of July 2, tho, was fleshed out and given immortal voice by Jefferson’s verbal, philosophical justification for it, the Declaration adopted on July 4 after much debate and amendment (see 1776), tho not signed except by John Hancock and the secretary, Charles Thomson, till a month later and beyond.

There’s an old saying that God looks after orphans, drunks, and the U.S.A.  No one’s sure of its origin.  Perhaps it sounds cynical.  But believers certainly may see God’s Providence in our history from colonial times—not only in the unlikely survival of Jamestown, Plymouth, St. Augustine, and the California missions but also in consideration of various failures like North Carolina’s Lost Colony, short-lived Spanish colonies in Georgia and South Carolina, and the Pueblo uprising in New Mexico—thru our Revolutionary War, which in military calculation we had no business winning, thru Civil War, and thru all the turmoil that you and I have lived thru:  the Cold War, the 60s, terrorism, economic confusion, Covid, etc.

The debate over the Declaration was most heated about slavery.  To keep the 13 colonies on the path to statehood, united, that had to be compromised—left for another day, continued division, and a long, bloody war.  Our prayers today acknowledge that “work still remains” to be done to make “us from many people to be one nation” and to “share [God’s] blessings with all the peoples of the earth” (Collect).

“The Lord proclaims peace to his people,” and “glory dwells in our land.”  Justice already walks here before the Lord (Ps 85:9,10,14), more than is found in most places on earth.  That’s why Lady Liberty’s torch still burns as a beacon calling people here from 4 continents, just as she summoned our parents and grandparents.  Here we can “pour new wine into fresh wineskins” (Matt 9:17), the new wine of freedom to worship God, to speak, to protest, to vote, to hold our rulers accountable as the Second Continental Congress did in July 1776.

It wasn’t easy to make the statement of independence a reality.  Later that summer, Washington’s army was almost destroyed on Long Island, escaping by a miracle of sorts, and it nearly withered away in Pennsylvania, saved by a surprise victory across the Delaware.  Later, the army nearly froze at Valley Forge and Morristown, narrowly escaped betrayal by our most brilliant general, but finally won with the help of France and Spain—and, as the Declaration itself states, “with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence.”

The British surrender at Yorktown
(Jonathan Trumbull)

That same trust gives us hope to work that Amos’s vision for Israel may be fulfilled among us:  abundance, restoration, rebuilding, security, peace and unity.  Christ’s “message lives on in our midst as our task for today and a promise for tomorrow” (Preface I).  We pray that “the unity and joy” of Christ’s people may “deepen our unity and intensify our joy, that all who believe in [God our Creator] may work together to build the city of lasting peace” (Postcommunion).

In his message to all Americans for this special anniversary, Pope Leo has challenged us:

For two and a half centuries, generations of Americans have worked together to carry [the] principles [of the Declaration] forward – through sacrifice, service, innovation and civic participation. This anniversary stands as an invitation not only to celebrate the nation’s remarkable journey, but also to reflect upon the responsibilities that the sons and daughters of this country bear to one another, and to the generations who will inherit the nation that is being shaped today.[2]

The Pope singled out human dignity, including this paragraph

Defending human life also includes welcoming, protecting and assisting immigrants, whose hopes, sacrifices and contribution have formed part of the history of this country from its very beginning. In every generation, those who have arrived seeking freedom, opportunity and a place to belong have helped to shape the nation’s character. To receive them with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity, but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person.

Love Is an Action
(Daniel Glass in South Sudan)

That’s not unlike what Jefferson wrote:  “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,” and people establish governments to secure those rights.

We, “drawn from the peoples of many lands” (Prayer over Gifts), want to secure the rights and dignity of all the brothers and sisters whom the Creator has given us.

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[1] Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, “Had a Declaration...” [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/

[2] Letter of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the 250th Anniversary of the Founding of the United States of America.