Patriotism and Family

As you read this, I am up in Edmonton, Alberta at a conference dedicated to Familiaris Consortio.  It is a sort of happy coincidence that as we Yankees are busy celebrating our Independence Day and the founding of the United States, our Canadian brethren are celebrating the founding of an even more important Republic: the Family.

Independence Day is, for us Americans, the primordial celebration of our beginning as a people.  It is the original celebration of American patriotism, and patriotism is a good thing.  Patriotism is rooted in the same thing that Familiaris Consortio is rooted in: the conviction that the family is a natural good, instituted by God and reflective of him because we are in his image and likeness.  Love of family is the origin of patriotism and patriotism is simply the love of family carried to one’s borders.  It is a good thing to love and enjoy your natural family, to have the shared stories, the enjoyment of your father’s, mother’s, brother’s and sister’s, aunt’s and uncle’s, grandfather’s and grandmother’s quirky anecdotes, tales of adventures, dirges of mourning, prayers of thankgiving and tales of joy.  You love your country as you love your family, not because of something they did to earn your love, but because they are yoursyour family, your people.  You and I owe our country a debt we can never repay just as we owe our family such a debt.  Our very ability to gripe about our country is due to the fact that she gave you your native tongue, your freedom to gripe, and your critical intellect rooted in a distinctly American outlook that allows for civil disagreements without firing squads or jail to hinder us from deliberating on the common good.  And that’s just the beginning of the immense bounty that has been poured out on you and me, fought for and bled for on Bunker Hill, at Gettysburg, and on the beaches at Normandy.  We owe a debt to millions who surround us and millions who precede us for a birthright we can’t even measure, much less repay.

So it’s a fine thing to celebrate patriotism toward ones country, just as it is a fine thing to celebrate Father’s Day and Mother’s day.  It were rank ingratitude not to do so.  Love of your neighbor, which is the second greatest commandement, is what patriotism is.  Just so long as this second greatest commandment does not supercede the first commandment to love God, our love of neighbor—and, of course, our reverence for those who love their countries as we love ours is good, normal, and healthy.

So to my Canadian neighbors I say, “Cheers to you on your Home and Native Land!”  And to my American family I say, “Happy Fourth!”  And to all the families of the world I say, “God bless you!  You are the image and likeness of God!”