THE SWEET WORDS OF JESUS ON JULY 45

THE INTRO OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE INSPIRES TODAY'S HOMILY. 

https://youtu.be/w4duJZNLPuI

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. At that time Jesus exclaimed, I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and any one to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. Come to me, all you who labor and are burdens, 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. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're eavesdropping as he's praying to his father. But we have to realize whenever Jesus is praying, he's given us an example of how to pray. We can't look at Jesus as if he's an actor on stage. No, everything that comes out of his mouth is for us. And tonight he's teaching us in simply magnificent words to trust the Father and speak to the Father and depend on the Father. Today we're celebrating the Fourth of July, 1776. Those men who were our ancestors gathered in Philadelphia and did that. They trusted the Father. What they said was the unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States colonies of America, when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds they have connected with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind. It requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to be separated. And you almost can hear Jesus whispering in their ears as they conclude that section of the declaration. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. My friends, today, in other words, Jesus says the same thing: trust in Him, follow Him, give Him our burdens. He is giving us liberty and life and wants us to share it with one another, not in a narrow-minded way, but as a creator intended. We listen to our forefathers from July 4th, 1776, and we listen to Jesus who says, All you who labor and are burden, I will give you rest. And that's why we're here tonight. To leave with that promise in our hearts that we have a great gift of freedom in our United States, and within that freedom, the freedom to practice our faith and to proclaim Jesus, who gives us solace and lifts our burdens as we are to lift the burdens of one another.