"If America wishes to be blessed by God in the new millennium, it must come to him in humility!"

I saw an interesting T-shirt the other day. Uncle Sam was pictured on it, and above him were the words, "What America needs most." Oh yes--one rather important detail about Uncle Sam: he was on his knees praying. On this Fourth of July weekend, I can't think of a more appropriate message for us and for our nation. As Archbishop Chaput of Denver said in late April after the horrible tragedy at Columbine High School, "We [Americans] are losing God, and in losing him, we're losing ourselves." And so Jesus says to you and me and every American citizen in today's Gospel: "Come to me. Come to me in prayer. Come to me all you Americans who labor and are burdened with anxieties about injustice, racism and crime in your country. Come to me all you who worry about the welfare of your children, the safety of your streets, the breakup of your families. Come to me, and I will refresh you."

But here's the problem: there are two possible ways for a person to "come" to Jesus. A person can come in pride, or he can come in humility.

From my personal analysis of current events, it seems that all too many Americans these days are coming to Jesus in pride. They pray, in other words, but then they live by their own rules, because they think they know what's best for themselves and for society. Consequently, they carry their Bibles or missals to church on Sunday, and then support the killing of babies and every other kind of moral perversion Monday through Saturday.

In contrast, think of some of the people in the Bible who received great favors from Jesus: the Roman centurion, the prostitute who is often associated with Mary Magdalene, the leper who prostrated himself before our Lord, the hemorrhaging woman who touched the hem of our Lord's garment, the good thief. What did these and the many others who were blessed by Jesus have in common? In one word: humility. They all came to Jesus with humble hearts. They recognized their need, and submitted themselves obediently to their Lord. On the other hand the proud Scribes and Pharisees--who thought they had all the answers--received nothing.

If our nation wishes to be blessed by God in the next century, it must come to him in humility. This is implied by Jesus when he says, "Take my yoke upon your shoulders." The Lord's yoke is his truth; it's the full Gospel message as preached by his Church. We must humbly submit to that yoke, if we want the Lord's peace and justice to reign in our land. This is what I really liked about that T-shirt: it showed Uncle Sam in a humble posture. He was in prayer, on his knees.

Our nation's second president, John Adams, once said, "We have no government armed with power which is capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."