July 4 - St. Pius X Catholic Community

The Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeIndependence Day ~ July 4, 2010“Discipleship and Citizenship”The Scriptures at a Glance:First (Hebrew) Reading: Isaiah 66: 10 -14God will comfort and bless us.Second (Letters) Reading: Ephesians 4: 30 - 5: 2Be imitators of God, as his beloved children and live in love.The (Good News) Gospel: Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20Jesus sends out his disciples and instructs them on discipleshipBreaking Open God's Word ~ The Table of the Word:We have been called and sent out to do the work of the Lord. We are to carry on thework of Christ as disciples who spread the Good News. We as faithful disciples andgood citizens are called to be imitators of God, spreading the love of Jesus Christand being kind, compassionate, and forgiving.Some Independence Day Reflections on Discipleship and Citizenship by Father Tom:As citizens of our great democracy, we are first and foremost disciples of Jesus Christ. The call to discipleship is a radicalcall to wit ness to our faith and to witness to the true freedom which comes from faith in Jesus Christ and faithfulness to the Gospel.Like Jerusalem, we live even in these difficult times blessed as a nation of prosperity, which is called to share our wealth and to givepraise to the God of our blessings and wealth.As followers of Christ, we are called to "hear the cry of the poor" and as a land of immigrants open our land to those whoseek to join in the blessings of this land and to share in our freedoms. True disciples, we are to witness to justice and peace. We arecalled to be open to the immigrant and the foreigner. We are called to spread the message of true freedom to all through our faith inJesus Christ. We are called to promote life and to protect and to defend all human life and the quality of that life at all stages.As we mark the birth of our Nation, we of the Catholic Community are called to discipleship through our openness to thosewho seek the freedoms and opportunities offered in our land, while also defending these freedoms and the quality and growth ofthese freedoms. We are called to share the Good News but also to recognize the many diverse peoples and faiths which havecollectively shaped and molded the fabric of our Nation and its amazing diversity and cultural richness. We offer Christ to all, livingin his Holy Spirit, but we never impose our faith on others. Rather we promote and witness to the great truths and moral values ofour faith, calling others to Christ by our words and deeds. We share our values and work through our political system to bring theseuniversal values to fruition in our great Nation through the exchange of dialogue and ideas and the call to conversion and acceptancewithout rigid imposition and totalitarian repression. This requires the delicate balance which has made this diverse Nation both greatand successful. We truly share what we believe and we call others to belief; we work to establish values, and we dialogue on theissues. We later even vote and express our dismay over fundamental differences which may prevail, while never overthrowing ourgovernment even as we work to bring about change. These are the wheels of democracy and freedom, precious values which mustguide our direction for the future, taking strong and moral stands as disciples, even as we work to change the prevailing culture whilerespecting the strong and deeply held positions of others, even to the contrary of our own.As citizens may we work to refine and strengthen our freedoms and as disciples may we work to promote and advance ourChristian values in the dialogue of freedom which is this Nation, whose birth we celebrate today. May we also remember all thosewho have attained these freedoms in our short history through the exchange of ideas and working to bring these ideas into our realityas a Nation and also those who have fought to defend our freedoms, even giving their lives military and civilian to keep this Nationfree and open.www.stpiuslombard.orgPage 2