Synopsis of the Homily on July 4th 2026 Independence Day (L) 2026

1) This is a day to thank God for the political and religious freedom we enjoy and to pray for God’s special blessings on the rulers and the people of our country.

2) It is a day to remember, with he founding fathers of our democratic republic, especially Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, the architect of the Constitution, who believed that all power, including political power, came from God and was given to the people who entrusted this power to their elected leaders.

3) It is a day toremember and pray for all those who have served in our brave military forces on land, sea, and air, and who have made the supreme sacrifice of their lives to keep this country a safe and a free

nation, and for those who are now engaged in the

fight against terrorism in other countries

4) It is day to remember the basic principle underlined in the constitution that“all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

5) It is day to remind ourselves thatwe have a duty to protect these God-given rights by voting into power leaders who believe in God and who have character, integrity, experience, and belief in inalienable human rights.

6) It is day tofight forthe fundamental rightto life denied to pre-born children to grow and develop in their mothers’ wombs and to the sick and the elderly to die gracefully without fearing euthanasia.

7) It is day to pray for and work forliberation for all those who are still slaves in our free country – slaves to evil habits and addictions to nicotine, alcohol, drugs, pornography, promiscuity and sexual aberrations.

8) It is a day to take a pledge to become recommitted to doing something about our own growth in Christ, and to living as Americans who contribute something to our religion, Church and country, and to the lives of others.

9) It is a day to remember where we came from, what we stand for, and the sacrifices that thousands of our countrymen have made on our behalf.

10) It is a day to raise our voice in protest against liberal, agnostic, and atheistic political leaders, media bosses, and activist, liberal judges who deny religious moral education to our young citizens.

11) It is a day to offer our country and all its citizens on the altar of God asking His special providential care, protection and blessings.

Homily on July 4^th – Independence Day: 2026

Homily Starter Anecdotes 1) “The heroes are the guys who didn’t come back.” One of the most famous pictures from World War II must surely be the photo of five valiant Marines raising an American flag on the island of Iwo Jima. The young man in the center of the photo was John Bradley. After the war, Bradley moved back to Antigo, Wisconsin, married his high school sweetheart, and raised a family. Although John Bradley won the Navy Cross for saving a fellow soldiers’ life, he preferred not to talk about the war. And he absolutely refused to accept the hero worship that others tried to force on him. One of the few comments Bradley ever made about the war, he made to his young son, James. In response to James’ remark about heroism, John Bradley replied, “The heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who didn’t come back.” (“The Man in the Photograph” by James Bradley from Flags of our Fathers. Reader’s Digest, Nov. 2000, pp. 125-129.) — Today we honor the memory of those who didn’t come back. But they’re not the only heroes to whom we are indebted. There are many who have made the ultimate sacrifice in behalf of the common         good.

2) Well, that’s different! A young man called his fiancé and told her that he urgently needed to speak with her about something important. She replied it was a coincidence, because she also had something important to tell him. A while later they met, and he said to her, “When we became engaged, we agreed always to be truthful with each other. Therefore, I have to tell you that I have changed my mind about us. I can’t marry you and support a family by myself because you prefer to remain as an unemployed wife.” Then he asked her what the important something was that she wanted to tell him. She replied, “I won the lottery. I am a multi-millionaire!” –When we come together on this Independence Day to offer our nation and its people and their leaders on the altar, with Jesus in our midst, there is always something of the utmost importance Jesus wants to tell us, especially about our rights and duties as free people of an Independent nation.

3) Privilege Revisited A father was talking with his rather rebellious son one day and said, “Every person who lives in the United States is a privileged person.” The boy answered, “I disagree.” And the father replied, “That’s the privilege!”

 

It was on July 4, 1776, in the Second Continental Congress that we adopted the Declaration of Independence to declare to the world that we were separating from our mother country, England. It is likely that both Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, the architect of the Constitution, were familiar with the writings of the Jesuit saint, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, who argued that all power, including political power, came from God and was given to the people who entrusted this power to their elected leaders. That is why God is mentioned four times in the Declaration. In fact, the Founding Fathers of America believed in a Creator and in a natural law. John Adams, our second President and President of the Second Continental Congress once said “You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the universe.” In the Declaration, Jefferson wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This means that we have a duty to protect these God-given rights by voting into power leaders who believe in God and who have character, integrity, experience and belief in inalienable human rights. The first right Jefferson mentions is the right to life. In a letter to citizens in Washington County, Maryland in 1809, Jefferson wrote “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” It follows that without first securing a person’s right to life, all other rights are meaningless. That is why Pope St. John Paul II said in his 1988 letter to lay people, Christi Fidelis Laici, “The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God, finds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life.” Before he left the United States in 1987, in his Farewell Address at Detroit Airport, Pope John Paul II reminded our people and our leaders, “Every human person – no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society – is a being of inestimable worth created in the image and likeness of God. This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival – yes, the ultimate test of her greatness: to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.”

But today in our nation, the right to life is denied to pre-born children growing and developing in their mothers’ wombs. The Supreme Court declared in Roe v. Wade in 1973 that the word person as used in the Fourteenth Amendment does not include the unborn. The result was the unjustifiable murder of millions of unborn babies by government-permitted abortion, under the pretext of freedom of choice for women, violating the fifth commandment.

Very few of the present generation know that the phrase “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” is not a line from Communist Manifesto, but a line from the Declaration of Independence. For over 70 years in the history of our free nation we failed to live up to those noble principles expressed in our founding documents by tolerating legalized slavery, and, for many years after slavery was abolished, African-Americans were denied their God-given rights by racism and unjust discrimination. On this Independence Day, let us remember that we become faithful both to God and the vision of the Founding Fathers of this nation only if we work for the protection of human rights for all of us, especially for the most basic human and civil right that we have which is the right to life. Let us pray for God’s blessing and the gift of liberation for all those who are still slaves in our free country – slaves to evil habits and addictions to nicotine, alcohol, pornography and sexual aberrations. Let us take a pledge to become recommitted to doing something about our own growth in Christ, and to living as an American who contributes something to his or her  Church and country, and to the lives of others. God bless our nation.

Prayer for our nation: God of all nations, Father of the human family, we give you thanks for the freedom we exercise and the many blessings of democracy in these United States of America. We ask for your protection and guidance for all who devote themselves to the common good, working for justice and peace at home and around the world. We lift up all our duly elected leaders and public servants, those who serve us as President, as legislators and judges, those in the military and law enforcement. Heal us from our differences and unite us, O Lord, with a common purpose, dedication, and commitment to achieve liberty and justice in the years ahead for all people, and especially those who are most vulnerable in our midst. Amen. (Prayer by Rev. Anthony Schueller, S.S.S.)

Where the Mind is without Fear (prayer by poet Rabindranath Tagore)

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

What has God done for America?  A look at some historical facts and events.

(A beautiful article by Fr. Anthony Trapani, pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 210 South Wellwood Avenue, Lindenhurst, NY, 11757)

Most importantly, God Birthed America.  The escape from oppression, religious and otherwise, led thousands upon thousands to journey across the Oceans of the World in search of becoming part of a “New Nation,” and that journey ended and began on the shores of what is now this great country, the United States of America.  From some researching I would share with you this Fourth of July weekend these thoughts: We sing, “My County ‘Tis of Thee” and “God, Bless America.” 1. In one of the first colonies, Jamestown, Virginia, the first community building was a church, the only building with wall still standing. 2. Puritans’ first act at Plymouth Rock was to kneel, praise and dedicate the new colony. 3. Lord Baltimore held church service in establishing Maryland. 4. As an illustration, when you read their writings you see no doubt that God birthed America. 5. Will Penn in writing government policies for Pennsylvania made sure “all treasurers, judges, and all elected officials professed faith in Christ.”

Our Founding Fathers consistently spoke of the need for utilizing the Bible and Judeo-Christian values in defining and preserving this nation:
* Twelve of the original 13 colonies incorporated the entire Ten Commandments into their civil and criminal codes.
* President John Adams stated, “The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal code as well as a moral and religious code. These are laws essential to the existence of men in society and most of which have been enacted by every Nation which ever professed any code of laws. Vain indeed would be the search among the writings of secular history to find so broad, so complete and so solid a basis of morality as the Ten Commandments lay down.” (Note that the American Bible Society was started by an act of Congress and John Adams, our second president, served as its first leader.)
Our laws are based on 10 commandments and Bible.
The Supreme Court Building – built 1935 – has carved on its front Moses and Ten Commandments. The House of Representatives has, across speakers’ seat, a sculpture of Moses. * President George Washington said, “It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible. Of all dispositions and habits that lead to political prosperity, our religion and morality are indispensable supporters.” * In 1782, the U.S. Congress voted in favor of a resolution recommending and approving the Bible for use in the schools.
* Henry Laurens, fourth president of the Continental Congress, stated, “I had the honor of being one who framed the Constitution. In order effectually to accomplish these great constitutional ends, it is especially the duty of those who bear rule to promote and encourage respect for God and virtue.”
Patrick Henry, first governor of Virginia and a member of the Continental Congress, stated, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Our Constitution ends “in the year of our Lord.”… “Our Nation’s Motto is ‘In God we trust’”… and with hand in sharp Salute or crossed over our heart, we Pledge ‘One nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.’”

God birthed America. Many have, and many still will, died, giving their lives for America.  Pray this weekend before you eat that meal, thank God for those who serve this great Nation, and pray that we may all build our faith so we may defend the truths that set us free and apart from all other nations of the world.

A Blessed Fourth of July to everyone.  We must never forget what God has done in the past for America. We must have our eyes opened to see what God is doing for America in the present. Then we must realize what God will do to America in the future. Only the people of this nation, you and I, can make and keep this a great nation. May God + bless you and yours, now and forever. Father Anthony Trapani.

Independence Day jokes: 1) A few days ago we celebrated Independence Day. I thought you might enjoy these thoughts from an unknown author:
Only in America can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, a large frys, and a DIET coke.
Only in America do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.
Only in America . . . do we use answering machines to screen calls, and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.
Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
Only in America . . . do we use the word “politics” to describe the process so well: “Poli” in Latin meaning “many” and “tics” meaning “blood-sucking creatures.”

Well, maybe we’re being a little harsh on politicians . . . Naaw!

2) It is by the goodness on God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and the prudence never to practice either of them. Mark Twain (L-26)

 “Scriptural Homilies” Cycle A (No.46 by Fr. Tony: akadavil@gmail.com