Defining Declarations

Cherishing our earthly and heavenly citizenship

07/05/2020

Matthew 11:25-30 At that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

The weekend before their big history final, four college buddies decided to go to St. Louis to party with friends. After partying all night, they slept all day Sunday and didn’t make it back in to Springfield until early Monday morning. Instead of taking their final, they found their professor later that day and explained their story. They had gone to St. Louis for the weekend, they told her, and planned to be back for the test. But they took a short-cut down a dirt road, and got a flat tire. They didn’t have a spare and couldn’t get help for a long time, and so they were too late to take the test.

The professor thought awhile and then said they could come and take the test the next day. When they arrived, she handed them each a test booklet and placed them each in a separate room. They looked at the first question. It asked, “(For 5 points) On what date was the Declaration of Independence ratified?” All four boys smiled big and happily wrote down: “July 4, 1776.” Then they turned the page and read the second question: “(For 95 points) Which tire?” History professors have heard it all.

I share that humorous episode because it shows how “higher education” these days has eroded into a kind of “lower education.” College campuses are more famous for their party scenes than for their Ph.D.’s, where students memorize every flavor of Samuel Adams beer, but have no idea Samuel Adams was an American statesman, a political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. The only Greek they know are the letters of fraternities and sororities. That’s why it often takes a foreigner to help the natives appreciate the country they live in, like a little brown boy from India who eventually became pastor of Immaculate Conception Church. As a naturalized citizen of the United States, it breaks my heart to see how many Americans take their heritage for granted.

In 1883 Emma Lazarus wrote the poem “The New Colossus” for the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The last lines should stir the soul of every American – even college students. It reads: “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she / With silent lips. “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-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Every new wave of immigrants to this country, like the unceasing waves of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that caress our shores, teaches us Americans what a treasure we have to call this country our home, and not take it for granted.

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus expresses a similar sentiment as Emma Lazarus about how people take their blessings for granted in being a Christian. Our Lord almost lifts a few lines from the lips of Lady Liberty when he says: “I give praise to you Father…for although you have hidden these things from the wise and learned (like college students who blow off history exams!), you have revealed them to little one (like poor immigrants).” He continues, “Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

If you read the New Testament attentively, you will discover that 50% was written by converts to Christianity. Luke’s gospel and Acts of the Apostles (also written by Luke) is 27%, and Paul’s thirteen letters are 23%, totaling together 50%. Luke and Paul were newcomers to Christianity – immigrants, you might say – converting after the death and resurrection of Christ. And in some ways, they taught the old guard of Peter, James and John what a treasure they had in their faith and not to take it for granted. Sometimes it takes an immigrant to a new land – on earth as well as in heaven – to educate the natives how blessed they are.

Like the history teacher in the joke, and Jesus in the gospel, I’d like to test your knowledge of the United States and the Catholic Church. How American and Catholic are you? It’s a sort of “citizenship test” for your citizenship on earth, and your citizenship in heaven, as St. Paul says in Phil. 3:20. I’ll read ten famous quotations, five from the bible, five from U.S. Presidents, and you have to answer who made that statement. Ready?

(1) “He must increase and I must decrease” (St. John the Baptist in John 3:30). (2) “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” (President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address). (3) “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (St. Paul in Phil. 4:13). (4) “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (President Franklin D. Roosevelt, inspiring Americans in the Great Depression). (5) “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live for ever” (Jesus, the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:51). (6) “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address).

(7) “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (St. Peter’s profession of faith in Mt. 16:16). (8) “Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far” (President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy statement). (9) “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Blessed Virgin Mary’s response to the Angel Gabriel). (10) “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” (President Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence).

Are you wishing you had a flat tire on the way to Mass today to avoid that quiz, like those college students? I hope that any answers you missed inspire you to go back and look up those quotations and learn who said them and why they are so famous. These are the declarations that defined our nation and our Church, and we have no excuse to be ignorant of them. Sometimes it takes an alien to America, a foreigner to the faith, to teach natives not to take their blessings for granted. How blessed we are to have dual citizenship, and can enter the Golden Door, both on earth and in heaven.

Praised be Jesus Christ!