Fr.
Timothy M. Alkire, J.C.L.
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At the end of this
week, we'll celebrate July 4th, our American
Independence Day. It’s always a wonderful time to be with
family members and friends for one thing.
Here at St.
Boniface, at the Mass at 8 in the morning, we will ask God,
as always, to continue to shower His blessings on the land
of our birth. And while we call to mind the many, many
blessings of God on our country, we cannot fail to remember
that there is much work to be done here.
Most of us
acknowledge that God has blessed our country. We can even
see this in the millions of immigrants, legal and illegal
who want to come. But we may forget that His blessings
always come with responsibilities. And I must repeat again
this year that at this moment, we cannot say the pledge of
allegiance with an open heart in the United States. In that
pledge, we say, “With liberty and justice for all.”
But when an entire
segment of our population, the unborn children, are denied
the very protection of law and life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, how can we say those words of allegiance
with openness, with joy?!
Years ago, Bl.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta visited this country to speak at
an annual event called the National Prayer breakfast. In
the presence of a pro-abortion President, Vice President,
and their wives, Mother Teresa, who walked the walk of her
words, who went to the poorest of the poor and loved them,
said “The true greatness of a country is found in its
commitment to the most vulnerable in the society – the
children born and unborn.” While everyone else in the room
applauded her talk, the President, Vice President and their
spouses sat in silence.
For our nation to
be known authentically as "the land of the free and the home
of the brave," we have to do some soul searching regarding
what has surrounded us for so many years now: namely the
culture of death. And we as Americans cannot rest until,
that moment when freedom, justice and liberty are offered to
all the members of our society, especially, in Mother
Teresa’s words, to the “most vulnerable.”
A true patriot
wants to see our nation be all that it can be, one nation,
under God, indivisible, with liberty and just for all, born
and unborn.
May God bless
America, but may we accept His Grace to become truly
free.
Fr. Tim, MI
Read
Fr. Tim's Pastoral Letter for the Year of the Eucharist
