04 Jul Thursday

Not that anyone will remember by Sunday, but today is the 4th of July which means camping out and BBQ. The images of tenderness in the first reading are in sharp contrast to tanks rolling through the streets. Two things: if a nation is truly strong, then there’s no need for boasting of a capacity for war, and secondly, to be a great nation, we must first be a good nation. Both of these points seem difficult for Catholics today. We are a greedy nation and ought to be filled with shame for our injustices.

St. Paul writes about a new creation in the second reading. Indeed, at one point we were a new creation, but iso many today think that we are worn and tired and old some 240 years later. To renew ourselves would mean a new commitment to the freedom that true peace and justice brings for everyone. Paul’s context is that all the human made divisions of peoples counts for nothing because God is making something new. Pray for that renewal in our own time and nation.