As the United States enters our two hundred fiftieth year as a nation, we can look back with much gratitude for the freedom, liberty, and opportunities given to us, while we also call to mind the sorrows of many who sacrificed and suffered in the past as well as those who struggle today.  We contemplate the importance of former and current residents: indigenous inhabitants, pilgrims, settlers, immigrants, slaves, dreamers, and those who desire citizenship; and as we pledge allegiance to the flag, we still strive to become one nation under God.

Of course, our various religions present diverse conceptions of God.  Pope Leo XIV was recently elected as the spiritual leader of Catholics worldwide—some 1.4 billion people.  His motto gives a message of hope for us all to share “oneness in the One.”  For him and us, the One is Christ Jesus.  In the early days of his pontificate, he has already emphasized the value of interreligious dialogue.  With some eight billion citizens of earth, over half can trace their religious roots to Father Abraham: over 2 billion that are Muslim and 2.4 that are Christian, and another 15.8 million that are Jewish.  According to Sacred Scripture, God told Abraham that his descendants would outnumber the stars of the sky and the sands on the seashore.  Unfortunately, his many children don’t get along well.  Christians have called Jews “Christ killers”; Muslims have called Christians “infidels”; Jews have called Muslims “terrorists.”  Children of the earth, like children in families and children within nations, often fight to get their way.

Our national motto is “E Pluribus Unum” (from the many, we are one); it’s not very different from the motto of our first U. S. born pope.  We also recognize in Christianity’s infancy that Saint Paul proclaimed there are many parts, but we are all one body; we possess many gifts, but we are called to use them all for the one goal that advances the vision of the Gospel and the mission of Christ.  And Johannine Scripture is filled with sentiment that we are one in and with God, like a vine and its branches.  There are over 340 million people in the United States.  But the children of our nation, like the children of Abraham, fight things out—daily in Washington, D.C. and other political arenas as well as periodically through conflicts in city streets and on some college campuses.  When we see this portrayed in news reports, we wonder whether we can ever get along and if it’s possible for us to find unity in our diversity.  The pope, the founding fathers of our nation, and founders of religions set a goal for us to live with one another in harmony, to seek the common good, and to reverence one another for the greater glory of God.  It’s a great challenge, perhaps impossible to attain, but one that our forebears’ thought was worth our efforts to strive toward.

Now that July 4, 2025, has passed, we begin the semi-quincentennial or quarter millennial year celebration of our country’s birth.  We would do well to dedicate this year to fulfilling our nation’s motto.  And now that Pope Leo XIV has been installed as supreme pontiff and asked us to renew our oneness in Christ, we might consider our task as “Children of God.”  Let us do our best to set aside childish ways so we can move forward together, and perhaps even attain, the unity that our nation and church set as a goal.  God bless America as we continue to strive for greatness and God bless each of us as we strive to be one in the Lord.