4 July 2020
Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time (U.S. Independence Day)
Today, Catholics in the United States celebrate “the Fourth of July” or Independence Day. This is a day on which all of us, American or not, can reflect on what it means to be a good Christian citizen and patriot. One patriotic anthem that shows the right relationship between patriotism in this world and citizenship in the next is a British hymn, but it could just as easily be sung by a citizen of any country with appropriate sentiments toward their own country without any change to the words at all, since the country is not mentioned. The anthem is “I vow to thee, my country,” which Gustav Holst penned in 1921 by adapting a poem by Cecil Spring Rice and setting it to the tune of his own Jupiter anthem. (Most American Catholics would recognize the tune from the contemporary worship song “O God beyond all praising,” which dates only to 1992.) I recommend that anyone not familiar with “I vow to thee, my country” listen to that anthem at https://youtu.be/bvouc8Qs_MI
One of the first things that is striking about “I vow to thee, my country,” is that it goes beyond a mere vow of “total commitment of self” to one’s country towards a vow of personal love, “that lays upon the altar the dearest and the best, [a] love that never falters, [a] love that pays the price, [a] love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.” This anthem does far more than some waxing romantic about this or that battle or the beauty of a place, as good as those things could be. It presents a gift of self that resembles that of Christ for his country. BUT this anthem does not confuse our country in this age with our true homeland. It is the second verse that is so extraordinary. In that verse, the commitment that one makes to one’s own country in this world is extended and expanded to an even more profound commitment (yes, that’s possible, by grace!) to “another country… most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know.” This is, of course, that heavenly country where God will be all in all, which is the true homeland of every Christian, to which we all most truly belong, even as we fight battles for disparate countries here below. And yet, in rightly fighting legitimate battles here below, we already show our membership in that heavenly homeland, for here below, “her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering.” The battle for this eternal homeland is fought here below, as “soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase…her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.” Oh, would that this could be the anthem of every Christian in every nation!
We are not alone, or even separated as Christians, even if we might belong to warring nations. The true Lord and his heavenly host (“we may not count her armies, we may not see her King”) are fighting for us, and he promises us, as he promised Israel through Amos: “I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, […] all the nations that shall bear my name, say I, the LORD, who will do this.” Amen. Alleluia!