Luceat!

Recently I was on a mission trip with FOCUS in Mexico. While in Mexico, I found myself reflecting on God’s placement of me in this world, mainly, why am I an American?
During this reflection, I began to ask myself what it means to be a patriot. This is a great question to reflect upon, because of our tendencies to think that nationalistic chauvinism is the definition of patriotism (The whole we are better than them scenario). But the vice of pride is far from being the virtue of patriotism.
The Church understands that our faith and the natural law guide us in the building an authentic society and culture. Now this is not the Church becoming political, but the Church guiding its people to build a society that points to and is in its very nature full of life.
The political jargon of liberal and conservative have penetrated the minds of many people in our modern day, which has lead us to understanding the Church as either liberal or conservative. However the Church is neither liberal or conservative or rather She is both! The Church does not answer to some ever changing party that changes with the trends of the multitudes at the moment, but she stands firm and ever anew in each age proclaiming the timeless truths of Jesus Christ.
In Jesus, we come to know, what it means to be human and by knowing what it means to be human we learn to live among each other in communities and societies. We make laws, regulations, and codes of conduct based on how best they serve the dignity of every human person as one created equal in the eyes of God. As the Declaration of Independence puts it, 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 is why God and His Church are the greatest patriots today in United States.