14th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 7, 2002

Last Thursday we celebrated Independence Day and perhaps during the celebration you heard all or part of the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled Masses yearning to be free. Send these homeless tempest-tossed to me.

In the first reading today, Zechariah speaks to a bedraggled group of refuges returning from Captivity in Babylon. They just as likewise could have been the continental army of the Colonies returning from Yorktown. Their country, their capital, their homeland all destroyed. They had no particular strong leadership or anyone to turn to for protection and guidance. They chose General Washington but it did not take them long to coin the phrase: "In God we trust."

Those same words have been addressed to many generations of peoples who left their distant homelands to come to the United States -- some for economic opportunity, others for the opportunity to worship God as they believed in their hearts, and some came in chains. As one famous preacher once put it:

"Some of them came here on a steam boat, some of us on a slave boat; but we're all in the "same boat now."

The metaphor is also good for the Church often referred to as the bark of Peter. We are all boat people. The descendents of those who had a vision, who accepted the vision proclaimed by St. Paul:

"The earth is filled with the goodness of Christ. We are not held ransom by an earthbound view of life; but we see beyond the horizon. We live and we love life and appreciate the reality that God is making all things new."

As we take a look at today's gospel we find that it has three parts: It begins with Jesus addressing himself in prayer to the Father, rejoicing that the ministry he performs reveals God's unconditional love especially for the poor and the alienated.

In the middle of the gospel Jesus makes the transition from prayer to preaching: giving us a kind of definition of himself. We are all sons and daughters of the Father. But He is the Son to whom alone has been given full knowledge/relationship with the Father.

This revelation of the Father is not merely his ministry. It is His identity. It is not just what He does. It is who He is. Jesus is the image -- the icon -- of God. If we want to know God we need only look to the example of Jesus.

Until recently most Catholics looked to their priests and bishops as icons of God. Unfortunately the Church like the Twin Towers of New York has endured its own 9/11. Unlike the towers which were victimized from without; the devastation of the Church was brought about from within and will therefore take much more than six months to heal. But can we begin.

As we move toward the final section of today's gospel Jesus offers promise; the promise of a worldwide dominion of peace, not as the world gives peace but as the Spirit gives peace; perhaps not for today; but for the day when our hearts can be open to accept it.

The reign of God which Jesus talks about is not one we deserve or earn. It is freely given. We don't have to be clever, merely honest and humble enough to accept it. Jesus offers it as a sign of relief and refreshment in the form of a yoke: a yoke that is easy, gentle, and light.

Perhaps you might think or have even experienced that the way of Jesus is not easy, light, and gentle, but can be extremely difficult fraught with ridicule and persecution.

But it is important for us to see the entire picture. What do you see in a yoke of oxen? One single ox carrying the load alone- -or a pair? A yoke is fashioned for a pair -- for a team working together.

All too often we forget that Jesus is on our team, that we are yoked to Him no matter what it is we are doing. We tend to go it alone because we misunderstand the real meaning of independence. It is not isolation or solitude or everyone doing his own thing. It is inter-dependence, a shared dependence, a common unity. Isn't that precisely reflected in our national motto emblazoned on all our currency: "E Pluribus Unum" -- out of many one. It is the same unity that evolves when we gather to celebrate Eucharist.

Unity and Community are the gift of God. Without God there can be no communion of hearts, there can- be no peace and justice But we can place heavy and burdensome yokes upon the shoulders of ourselves and one another.

To celebrate the true understanding of American Independence involves much more than crackling fireworks and ancient tall ships. Unless we are more than nostalgic and truly learn from history, the price that was paid, then the cost was in vain.