14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A (2026)

In the first hundred years that followed our nation’s birth 250 years ago, the Catholic bishops formally convened 10 times, in what were called the Provincial Councils of Baltimore, to set the pattern for the Catholic Church of the United States of America.

At the sixth of these councils, the 23 bishops in attendance declared on May 13, 1846, the Blessed Virgin Mary as patroness of this nation, which at that time consisted of 30 states. They invoked Mary under her title of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception—nine years before Pope Pius IX eventually declared the Immaculate Conception as dogma.

With that in mind, the holiday we celebrate this weekend commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, our independence from Great Britain. Two words that we tend to associate with today’s holiday are independence and freedom—they are among the highest values we hold as citizens of this nation. They speak of our desire to be independent of and free from the imposed rule of a state or government.

And yet, as citizens of God’s kingdom, we also have very different ideas about independence and freedom—we recognize that for us to flourish as human beings, we must acknowledge our complete dependence upon God, and further, that our truest freedom comes in saying ‘yes’ to His will for our lives.

Consider Mary’s response to God’s plan: “May it be done to me according to your word”. We tend to think of Mary as merely meek and lowly, a passive figure, but I believe we do well to look at her and her response from another perspective. At the heart of her ‘yes’ is an act of war. Satan first waged war against God, although he has no real way to hurt God directly. Instead, he does so by using us, just as he did Adam and Eve. He manipulates us, confuses us, tempts us, and gets us to hurt ourselves, to turn against each other and to turn away from our heavenly Father.

Acknowledging those spiritual truths, it makes Mary a well-suited patroness for us, for our nation, she who in her freedom, in her ‘yes’, opened for us the door to interior freedom by crushing the head of the serpent, giving way to the invasion of grace that comes through her son, our Savior. As we celebrate our nation’s birthday, we bear in mind that…

• She waged this war for every person, regardless of skin-color, language, or country of origin.

• She did it for those who are too distracted to even care.

• She did it for those, who in their foolish pride, say ‘no’ to God’s will.

• She did if for those who desire and intend to eliminate any association between God, and our nation and its guiding principles.

• She did it for those who reflect God’s love, as well as those whose irrational fears give way to anger, hatred, destruction and chaos.

• She did it for those who contribute and build up, as well as those who use and take.

• She did it for those who are grateful, as well as show who blame everyone else for whatever they believe is lacking.

• She did it for those who are open to dialogue to make things better, as well as those who are pridefully determined that they already know the only solution.

As people of these United States, who do well to acknowledge our dependence of God, and to desire a right use of human freedom, we consider how Mary modeled these virtues, but also spoke of them in that beautiful proclamation we call the Magnificat:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant…

…From this day all generations will call me blessed:  the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

…he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers

to Abraham and his children for ever.

May the God in whom Mary had such confidence and trust, whom she approached with humility and in whom she found true human freedom—may He hear the maternal prayers she makes for our nation and may He bless us with peace and unity.

Mary, Mother of Christ…Pray for us.

Mother of Divine Grace…

Mother of Good Counsel…

Mother of our Savior…

Mother of mercy…

Mirror of justice…

Seat of wisdom…

Cause of our joy…

Health of the Sick…

Comforter of the afflicted…

Queen of families…

Queen of peace…

Mary, patroness of our imperfect, yet great nation…