Are the United States Beautiful?

Today, on the Fourth of July, our United States of America celebrates its founding, its independence, and freedom.  God, our creator, is explicitly mentioned in our Declaration of Independence as the giver of our unalienable rights.    While there are those who object to the phrase today, we were founded and exist as “one nation under God.”

We hear the phrase “Make America Great Again.”  What does it mean for any nation to be “great.”  I recently reflected on this from the perspective of God’s promise to Abraham to make from him a great nation (see my recent article, “A Great Nation”). 

Today I would like to reflect from another perspective of what makes a nation great.  Actually, today I would like to reflect on what it means for a nation to be beautiful.  Who gets to decide what is beautiful?  For me, there can only be one answer, God!

Can you guess where I am going?

For this reflection, I will use a song familiar to many in the United States, “America the Beautiful” (first written by Katherine Lee Bates as a poem in 1893 with later melody by Samuel Ward). Let’s take a look at the text.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Beginning with its physical appearance, America is a beautiful land.  Who made it that way?  It was not human beings.  It is God who made the spacious skies.  I do not care what the Big Bang Theory says.  There is far more to the creation of the universe than what the Big Bang Theory offers.  There is a divine order in the universe.  God created things beautifully.  Our world as we know it is more than just a product of unguided scientific processes.  God brought (and continues to bring) order to creation and He did (does) a beautiful job.  The majestic mountains are beautiful.

Above the fruited plain!
The plain can bear fruit because of the way God created our world.  To bear fruit, human hands contribute to the work for the land to bear fruit.  Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.”  God is the creator but He calls us to share in creation through work to cultivate the land just as a man and woman united as husband and wife in marriage show in the work of creation by having and raising children. 

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
God did not create the earth and then walk away.  He remains involved in our lives every day as He sheds his grace on us.  We help make America beautiful when we cooperate with his grace.  We build a great nation when we seek to fulfill the words we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
We are a nation founded with freedom at its core.  However, we make the best use of our freedom not be seeking our own will.  We reach our greatest beauty not in radical individualism.  No, we reach our greatest beauty when we work for solidarity.  Hence the words, “and crown thy good with brotherhood.”  To achieve the beauty God created us for we need to heed the words of Pope St. John Paul II, “Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought” (“Homily of his holiness John Paul II” during his Apostolic Journey to America. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore. October 8, 1995.  https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1995/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19951008_baltimore.html, 7.)

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
How have we contributed through our work to make our nation beautiful as God sees it?

Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
How we contribute to the proper use of the freedom God has given us?

Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
We are not perfect.  God is.  We sin.  God forgives and mends our every flaw.

Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Self-control?  Yes, we do not get to do whatever we want if we want America to be beautiful as God intends.  We have to exercise self-control, using our freedom as we ought, not as we like.

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
Yes, we are called in brotherhood to love our country over our selfish desires.  A hero does not act to make himself great.  A real hero acts to make everyone great!

And mercy more than life!
Hum…this makes me think twice.  Jesus teaches us, “Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).  Without a doubt, being called to love our neighbor requires mercy at times.  What about the life part?  I turn here to the Beatitudes where Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7).  When we are merciful to others, then God is merciful to us.  When God is merciful to us, He gives us eternal life.  When someone wrongs us in this world, rather than receive revenge in earthly life, we offer mercy to the person who has wronged us.  We let go of earthly life in being merciful and receive eternal life.

America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
We ask God to refine us like gold that is refined in fire (see Wisdom 3:1-9).

Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
What defines success for you?  Actually, the better question is who defines success for you, God or worldly ways or your own selfishness?

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Yes, God please help us to see beyond our worldly time to see as you see (see 1 Samuel 16:7).

Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
Yes, let us hallow God’s name as we speak of all that He has done for us.  Glory be to God as our lives shine with the Light of Christ!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Yes, God please shed your grace on us so that we can live in brotherhood throughout our nation and throughout our world.

Amen.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff