Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

And the 250^th Anniversary of America’s Founding

July 5, 2026

There is a Native American creation story from the Maidu Indians of California…God the Earthmaker took some red clay, mixed it with water and carefully shaped a man and woman. They were beautiful but unfinished, for they lacked hands. Earthmaker asked the other creatures what kind of hands they should have. The turtle said, “Like mine so they can swim.” And the coyote spoke up, “No, like mine, so they can run fast.”

Earthmaker thought and thought and then said, “Thank you all, but I’ve decided to make their hands like mine so that they can make things.” Since Earthmaker’s hands were the pattern for human hands, women and men became the most beautiful of all creatures because they could create things with their hands.

The Maidu Indians remind us of an important truth. Our hands are godly in design and so should be busy making as God makes. They should not be hands that hold others back or hands that hold them down, “heavy” hands that prevent freedom, even the freedom to make mistakes. They should be hands busy with making peace, not clenched in anger, but waving away injury in movements of pardon. As Earthmaker’s hands left fingerprints of beauty on all creation, our hands should be busy making our surroundings, beautiful, clean and delightful.

In today’s gospel reading we find Jesus proclaiming what he wants to create. For all who are carrying heavy burdens, for all who are distressed, for all who feel they are losing hope—to all, he says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

As we celebrate the 250^th anniversary of our nation, we have been at our best when we try to relieve burdens and offer hope to those beaten down, frightened and desperate. In honor of our anniversary, I want to recall words spoken by President Ronald Reagan on the occasion of the lighting of the torch of the Statue of Liberty in 1986.

While we applaud those immigrants who stand out, whose contributions are easily discerned, we know that America’s heroes are also those whose names are remembered only by a few. Many of them passed through this harbor, went by this lady, looked up at her torch, which we light tonight in their honor.

They were the men and women who labored all their lives so that their children would be well fed, clothed and educated, the families that went through great hardship yet kept their honor, their dignity, and their faith in God. They passed on to their children those values, values that define civilization and are prerequisites of human progress. They worked in our factories, on ships and railroads, in stores, and on road construction crews….They came from every land.

What was it that tied these profoundly different people together? What was it that made them not a gathering of individuals, but a nation? That bond that held them together, as it holds us together tonight, that bond that has stood every test and travail, is found deep in our national consciousness: an abiding love of liberty….

We are the keepers of the flame of liberty. We hold it high tonight for the world to see, a beacon of hope, a light unto the nations.