America! America! God Shed His Grace on Thee

by Mary Kochan

Other Articles by Mary Kochan

07/04/06

		Today we celebrate our country’s 230th birthday. We find the U.S. of A. still free, more powerful than ever and prosperous almost beyond imagination. All of these things are reasons for celebration — and cautious pause.

In This Article... Confirm Thy Soul in Self-Control Crown Thy Good with Brotherhood God Mend Thine Every Flaw


Confirm Thy Soul in Self-Control We celebrate these things because they are goods. They are blessings. That they are blessings means that they are received as gifts and with gratitude. There is nothing vague about this. The gratitude is not toward some lucky alignment of stars, nor merely toward the founding geniuses. The gratitude is toward God. Hence the caution. For God is not a Giver indifferent to the use of His gifts. The proper use of gifts means the proper ordering of their value, and value is measured in reference to ultimate things. God is ultimately and absolutely free. From this flows the fact that freedom is a good desired by those made in His image. But though God is free, God is not freedom, and freedom worshipped becomes selfish idolatry. God is ultimately and absolutely powerful; hence power is a good. Freedom without the power to exercise it — and, in this world, to protect it — would be useless. But though God is powerful, God is not power, and power pursued for power’s sake makes freedom a casualty. God is love. That the One Who is love gives us freedom and power and prosperity changes the calculation of everything for citizens of this republic who believe in God. In Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI addresses us in the complexity of our roles both as citizens and as bearers of God’s love to others. As the lay faithful, it is our “direct duty,” the Holy Father says, “to work for a just ordering of society,” and “to configure social life correctly, respecting its legitimate autonomy and cooperating with other citizens according to their respective competences and fulfilling their own responsibility.” Because God is love and because we see our fellow men through loving eyes, “charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful and therefore also their political activity, lived as ‘social charity.’” Do our hearts quail at the injunction that “charity must animate” our entire lives, including our political activity? They should, for this is a supernatural order given to us, and we know how weak we are. We know how prone we are to use freedom to indulge the flesh; how prone we are to abuse power; how often our acquisition of material things fosters pride and ingratitude. We know what great grace we need to do even the smallest things. To where can we turn for help? Our Holy Father recommends to us Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Crown Thy Good with Brotherhood Under her title the "Immaculate Conception," Our Lady is the Patroness of the United States. The act of Consecration that placed the United States under her protection petitioned God thus: Most Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that she may present the country to You. Through her we wish to thank You for the great resources of this land and for the freedom which has been its heritage. Through the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church in America. Grant us peace. Have mercy on our president and on all the officers of our government. Grant us a fruitful economy, born of justice and charity. Have mercy on capital and industry and labor. Protect the family life of the nation. Guard the precious gift of many religious vocations. Through the intercession of Our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the tempted, sinners — on all who are in need. In Deus Caritas Est we are told to look to Mary for understanding of how to express in concrete acts the charity that “must animate” our lives in a world our Holy Father describes in this way: Today the means of mass communication have made our planet smaller, rapidly narrowing the distance between different peoples and cultures. This “togetherness” at times gives rise to misunderstandings and tensions, yet our ability to know almost instantly about the needs of others challenges us to share their situation and their difficulties.... [W]e now have at our disposal numerous means for offering humanitarian assistance to our brothers and sisters in need, not least modern systems of distributing food and clothing, and of providing housing and care. Concern for our neighbor transcends the confines of national communities and has increasingly broadened its horizon to the whole world. When we look to Mary as an example of charity, what do we see? First we see her making her fiat, an act of loving obedience to God the Father that culminates in the greatest charitable gift to the rest of the human family — the gift of God the Son by the Holy Spirit. Then we see Mary moving from the love of God and of all humans to the concrete neighborly love of Elizabeth, to whom she hastens. Pope Benedict asks us to pay attention to this act of neighborly love, and when we unpack it, what do we find? We find that Elizabeth is both near and far; she is a kinswoman of Mary, yet to get to her, Mary must undertake a journey with some hazards. Elizabeth, like many a young woman, is about to have her first baby, yet she is advanced in years. Elizabeth, then, like the robber’s victim in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, is Every Neighbor. She is our relative and the distant stranger; she is old and young; she is simply one in need whom we can help — hastening to serve, as Mary did. The love that “must animate” our lives, then, is initiated by God’s grace, which elevates the pursuit of human goods. It dares to raise itself to return the gaze of God and then to look, with purified vision, upon others as beloved. It hastens to the service of everyone in need, near or far, young or old, relative or stranger. It requires freedom and power, but it orders both toward truly human, and thus divine, ends. God Mend Thine Every Flaw Every petition of the Act of Consecration of our country to Mary could be the subject of an essay — or a book. But briefly let us attend to the request that Mary intercede for the Catholic Church in America and to protect family life. All other things for which we petition Providence depend finally upon this: the health of the Catholic Church and the strength of our families. The Church is the soul of the world, breathed into the world at Pentecost. The Catholic Church in America is the soul of our country. It is of no matter that the country at large may not be Catholic. There are human beings walking around who would deny to you that they have a soul — their mistake does not change the fact. There are many misguided Americans who think that American freedom is best served by minimizing the presence of the Church in America, by making our faith so “private” that we Catholics act for all practical — i.e. political — purposes as atheists. This we can never do! It would be no act of charity toward our beloved country to hide the light of Christ. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary proclaimed, so the Church in the United States must continue to hold Christ high. We can never deny Him — not with our voices, not with our votes, either. For us lay people though, magnifying Christ may depend more than anything else on how we live our family life. Years ago, the US Government published guidelines for good citizens. They make quaint reading now. “A good citizen is regular,” for example, might provoke laughter. But there was an underlying idea that was very Catholic: We are all connected and how we live really does affect others. We may be celebrating “Independence Day,” but the reality of human life is interdependence: we really do help our country and strengthen our Church when we are faithful to our marriage vows, attend to our children and show love to our neighbors. By these simple grace-filled acts we magnify the Lord and bring His favor to our land. © Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange Mary Kochan, Senior Editor of Catholic Exchange, writes from Douglasville, Georgia. Her tapes are available from Saint Joseph Communications.

We sang that as our closing hymn at Mass on Sunday. I cannot sing the third verse at all because I get so fahklempt.

Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife.
Who more than self, their country loved, and Mercy more than life.

**I do think we have lost our umbrella of protection with all the abortion and such in our nation.**

Which is all the more reason for us to keep praying. Prayer will shut down the abortion clinics!

Blessed Mother, be with us.

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