Letter from the Pastor
-
July 4, 2021It will be wonderful to celebrate the 245th year of the founding of our country with family picnics, parades and fireworks. We can gather together today as family and friends to enjoy each other’s company. Certainly we have been through a difficult year on all the levels of society, from the individual to the communal. One of the casualties of the “war” on Covid has been our country and the feelings about our government leaders, our politics, even our history. Yet despite all the difficulties, we still live in a most wonderful and blessed land of opportunity and freedoms.
However, I do wonder what our Founding Fathers would be thinking of their “Great American Experiment” today? Sadly, patriotism has been on the decline for the past six years, the numbers tell us. Patriotism is a virtue, a good habit of life. It flows from the fourth commandment: Honor your father and mother. It is also derived from the Cardinal virtue of Justice, and the virtue of charity. Patriotism is living in the human community; it is a form of familial love. You love your country because it is family. Just as no one lives in a perfect family; patriotism acknowledges there is no such thing as a perfect or sinless country. We can never pay back or call it even with our parents and family, thus we can never repay our country.
Patriotism is not a blind, unquestioning love of one’s country, or seeing it as faultless. America had many, many great moments in her history, as well as moments we should feel shame. All countries are made of sinful humanity; we have sinful leaders, and sinful citizens, who commit sinful acts. It is important to be realistic of our past, but we can never have or foster a sense of self-loathing or a cynical hatred of one’s history. Tearing down statues or judging the actions of the past with today’s ideals is extremely dangerous.
I wonder what the people will think of our way of life and society 250 years from now? Will they think of us as barbarians for killing our unborn children, or allowing our young to go through sex change mutilations? Will they think of us as unsophisticated, ridiculous or heartless, will they tear down our monuments?
We can’t sugarcoat our past or be intent on destroying it. We must acknowledge our sins, learn from the past and avoid the same sins in the future. If the past means nothing, and the only thing that matters is now, and what I am constructing and have control of, then our future is self-destructing.
Love of one’s country means desiring its good. We ought to be proud Americans, proud of what our country has brought to the family of humanity over the years and continues to do so. We need to be proud of our flag, our National Anthem and the good that the United States stands for. We also ought to correct the faults, repent of our past and present national sins and strive always to do the good and be noble.
And as Catholics we are thankful to God, we are citizens of this earthly country, always with our eyes set on the Heavenly Kingdom.
God Bless America.
Farewell to the Pilgrim Statue of Fatima
During the month of June the Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima has graced our sanctuary for the entire month. The traveling statue is a replica of the statue which was sculpted in 1947 based on the description of Sr. Lucia, one of the three young children who saw Our Lady in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.
Thank you Emma for bringing our beautiful Lady to St. Margaret’s every year. Thank you to all who brought beautiful flowers and especially roses to Mary. Roses, they say are our Lady’s favorite flower! The statue will now travel to Sacred Heart in Suffern.
