In July’s Give Us This Day, the monthly prayer book published by Liturgical Press at Saint John’s Abbey, long-time Bridgefolk participant Fr. William Skudlarek OSB offers an “explainer” concerning how Catholics in the United States are being prompted to celebrate their Independence Day on July 4th. With permission, we reprint his essay here.
A Liturgical Celebration of July Fourth
A good number of countries where Catholicism is (or used to be) the dominant religion still observe some Catholic feast days as national holidays. In the United States, on the other hand, two civic holidays, Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day, are inscribed in the liturgical calendar and even given a special Mass.
Like the Mass for Thanksgiving, the Mass for July Fourth has proper prayers and a proper preface for the Eucharistic prayer. In addition, it includes the Gloria, an alternate proper preface, and a solemn final blessing. There are, however, no assigned Scripture texts; the readings are to be taken from the Mass for Peace and Justice or the Mass for Public Needs.
The prayers and the choice of readings for the Fourth of July invite us to reflect not so much on what the Declaration of Independence has freed us from, rather, they remind us what it has freed us for: to be a nation that secures justice for all its inhabitants and calls them to be artisans of peace.
In the Scriptures chosen for the Mass on July Fourth, the word peace appears eleven times. The most striking occurrence is in the Responsorial Psalm where it says, Justice and peace shall kiss (85:11). These words call to mind the fervent appeal for peace Pope Saint Paul VI made in his 1972 World Day of Peace message: If you want Peace, work for Justice.
Peace and justice are two of the richest themes in the He- brew and Christian Scriptures. To wish others peace is to wish them the fullness of life. The Liturgy of the Eucharist has us do that right before we receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, who came that we may have life in abundance.
Peace is Christ s gift to us, but the gift goes hand in hand with the practice of justice, that is, with the right ordering of relationships. Such right ordering is always to be carried out with mercy and generosity, especially when disordered relationships are the result of past injustice. Creating a level playing field for everyone is necessary, but not enough. This nation also must try to find ways to make amends for the immense social, economic, and psychological scars left by the injustice of enslaving people who were forcibly brought here from abroad and of dispossessing and massacring Indigenous peoples the two original sins of this nation.
As we consider what it means to celebrate Independence Day liturgically, we cannot overlook the fact that this year the holiday falls in the week when the first reading for week- day Masses is taken from the prophet Amos. Throughout the week, with the exception of July Fourth, this farmer-turned- prophet will rail against the privileged and influential people of eighth-century BCE Israel who mercilessly exploited those they impoverished. On Saturday, however, Amos proclaims God s promise never to forsake a nation that repents of its unjust treatment of the poor and the powerless.
July Fourth is certainly a time to give thanks for what was achieved when this country claimed its place among the family of nations. It is also an occasion to repent for what we have failed to do, to strive for peace with justice, and to place our trust in a merciful God who promises not to abandon us.
Fr. William Skudlarek
William Skudlarek, OSB, is a monk of Saint John’s Abbey and Secretary General of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue.
From Give Us This Day, July 2024. giveusthisday.org. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press). Used with permission.