How blessed we are to be Americans!
A little over 231 years ago, on March 4, 1789, our Constitution, drafted by our founders and ratified by the states, went into effect. In the first ten amendments to that Constitution, what we call our Bill of Rights, the God-given rights of the people are protected from the government. That’s right, the Bill of Rights limits the government, not the people. It was designed to be a document, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “of the people, by the people, for the people.” The Constitution does not celebrate the government; it celebrates the American people.
When we look at the Bill of Rights, we discover something else that reveals the priorities of the founders. To ensure future generations understood its importance, the very first of the rights guaranteed by the founders is the right of religious freedom.
The First Amendment begins with the words:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
According to our Constitution, then, we have the right to worship freely without the threat of government interference. But because it is our Constitution, you and I, indeed all Americans, must ensure that the government we elect to do the work of the people, to do our work, must never usurp or trample on those God-given rights protected by the Constitution.
We are truly blessed to be Americans, but as the citizens of this nation, we are sovereign, and must never abdicate our sovereignty by allowing politicians and bureaucrats to rule in our stead. As Americans we are not ruled; we are represented. Those in government are called to do our work. As Christians, though, we must also live under the authority of God who is the true sovereign, the Creator of the cosmos. For us, then, His Law supersedes all human law.
It might seem like an odd choice, given the theme of this reflection, but I’d like you to turn to Matthew’s Gospel and read Mt 8:28-34. I’ve included the passage here:
When He came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met Him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with Him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine." And He said to them, "Go then!" They came out and entered the swine and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town, they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their district" [Mt 8:28-34].
This visit by Jesus to the land of the Gadarenes is a remarkable incident, a rare event in His public ministry. Jesus, who spent most of His public life among the Jews, here does something very different. He crosses the Sea of Galilee and enters the province of Gadara, a place populated largely by pagans. Gadara is depicted as a district especially under the sway of the Evil One – God’s name is not invoked there, His law is not obeyed – and so, we shouldn’t be surprised to find demoniacs dwelling there in their natural habitat.
Yes, they had heard many people pleading with Jesus for help; and had even uttered some of those pleas themselves:
Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean [Mt 8:2].
"...only say the word and my servant will be healed [Mt 8:8].
Lord, that I might see…[Lk 18:41].
Lord, save us, we are perishing [Mt 8:25].
How different were the cries they heard this day in this strange place…
What have you to do with us, Son of God? [Mt 8:29]
A remarkable question by these demons, isn’t it? How darkly urgent is their need to separate themselves from Jesus. And how do they do it? By denouncing him as the Son of God! Imagine that! Yes, in spitting out their hatred, their poison, they who lie so easily can do nothing but proclaim the truth.
We sense some tiny remnant of goodness in their nature, but one that is exclusively intellectual. They know who Jesus is. But knowledge isn’t love – something we who engage in Bible Study must always be wary of. We study Sacred Scripture not simply to expand our knowledge of our God, but rather to deepen our love for Him so we can live the life He wants for us.
The demons, though, through their own choice, have totally disfigured the beauty of their souls, a beauty created in the beginning by God. Now, no beauty remains. No moral order remains. Is it any wonder, then, that this acknowledgment of Jesus’ identity should escape from them, just as everything else does, with destructive violence?
What have you to do with us…?
What indeed can the spirit of evil have in common with the Son of God? In a sense, this question, what have we in common, is the same question the centurion asked of Jesus when he uttered, “Lord I am not worthy…” [Mt 8:8] But for the demons it’s not a matter of unworthiness, but rather a question filled with hollow pride. It’s as if they sneer at Jesus:
“How dare you come to us. Don’t you, Son of God, have better things to do? Leave us alone.”
You see, the demons can lie to everyone except to God.
“Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” [Mt 8:29]
These demons can’t believe that Jesus has entered this place among the tombs of the dead where evil believed itself safe from God’s Word. But now…now they know that Jesus’ redeeming work knows no boundaries. The Word of God must spread throughout the earth, and no place is exempt. How does the Apostles’ Creed put it? “He descended into hell…”
They know, too, that their hold over a portion of humanity is only temporary, for they scream at Jesus, reproaching him for coming before the kairos, before the appointed season of definitive judgment and the expulsion of the forces of evil. How odd. While they clearly know who Jesus is, and hate him for it, they appear pathetically misinformed about the extent of their authority. But in Jesus’ presence, they resign themselves to being cast out.
Unlike the centurion who saw his servant’s illness as an evil that needed Jesus’ healing intervention, these demons, having made evil the cause of their very being, find only torment in their Healer. Rather than surrender to Jesus’ healing presence, they beg Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs – a choice that reveals their true condition.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus offers each one of us healing and life. There is just one other choice, and it leads only to death. How humiliating this incident in Gadara must have been for Satan. Satan, the pure spirit, is routed by the mere presence of this Divine Person who has inexplicably humbled Himself by embracing the weakness of our human physical and psychological nature.
Yes, Satan still lurks about seeking souls who will admit him. But at the same time, in the presence of Jesus Christ, he is powerless. When Jesus is present, in our individual souls, in our community, in our nation, Satan has no power. He can do nothing.
But when a people and a nation turn away from Jesus Christ, when a people decide that the presence of God, the name of God, is an embarrassment, that the sovereignty of God is an insult to their intelligence and freedom, then they create a vacuum that Satan is only too ready to fill.
Although our nation is far from perfect, for most of its history it turned openly and willingly to God for help and guidance. “In God we trust” is still embossed on our currency. And we still pledge ourselves as “one nation, under God.” But sadly, although religious freedom is a fundamental human right, one that comes not from man but from God, much of recorded history is the story of men trying to deny it, to take it away.
Throughout our nation’s history many have given their lives so you and I can reap the benefits of religious freedom and the other rights enumerated in our Constitution. Like those who came before us and sacrificed so much to guarantee the freedoms we so often take for granted, we too are called to defend these rights. But today the greatest threat to these rights is not from foreign adversaries, but from many of those we have elected to represent us or appointed to exercise judgment.
The Church – and brothers and sisters, that’s you and me – is under attack. We face real threats to our religious liberty. Many in Congress want to force us to accept and even pay for that which violates our deepest religious and moral convictions.
The most obvious and egregious example is abortion, an evil like no other. To accept the slaughter of the most innocent among us, our own unborn children, by torturous dismemberment…well, it is simply beyond comprehension. And yet, as a nation, we have done exactly that to over 60 million Americans since 1973. Can anything be more unjust than the slaughter of these innocents?
Perhaps, as a nation, we should turn to the prophets, who repeatedly called the people of another nation, Israel, to return to the Lord before they experienced divine judgment. Amos, for example, chastised a wealthy Israel, a nation that practiced a religion without justice, pleading with all:
Seek good and not evil, that you may live; then truly the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you as you claim. Hate evil and love good, and let justice prevail at the gate; then it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will have pity on the remnant of Joseph. [Am 5:14-15]
"Seek the Lord that you may live..." [Am 5:5] God expects us to seek Him in all that we do. He expects us to act, so justice will prevail! You and I may think we’re not important enough for our voices to be heard, but that’s simply not true. Just consider how God has called on the weak and the obscure to be His messengers. Amos was a simple sheep herder and pruner of sycamore trees [Am 7:14], and yet, chosen by God, he courageously confronted the hypocritical and unjust leaders of Israel.
Isaiah and Jeremiah were both called from the womb to be God’s great prophets [Is 49:1; Jer 1:5]. David, the young shepherd, raised up by God to be King of his people [1 Sam 16:12]. And John the Baptist, dwelling in the desert, was destined from the moment of creation to be the herald of Jesus Christ [Mt 11:9-11].
Brothers and sisters, we too are called by God, just as Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, John, the apostles, and so many others were called from obscurity to take God’s Word to the world. Like that tiny mustard seed of the Gospel, wondrous things can come from even the smallest voice.
Today, as we face so many challenges to the most fundamental of our rights, we, you and I, must plant and nourish that seed. We must speak up. We must defend our right to religious freedom in both the public square and the ballot box. To do so is a responsibility, an obligation that derives not only from our citizenship, but even more so from our faith.
Satan would love to turn us into today’s Gadarenes, but believe me, that will not happen if we, as the People of God, as the Body of Christ, as a nation of free men and women, remain true to the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church. Pray for the Spirit, dear friends, for the presence of the Holy Spirit as the guide for our nation. Where the Spirit is, so too is Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Yes, how blessed we are to be Americans. Let us pray that our children and grandchildren will always be able to say those same words.
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