This weekend remembers Independence Day, when the Declaration was signed in 1776. Pardon me as I reflect on some of the deep questions of life regarding independence, autonomy, free will, etc. The truth of the dignity of the individual is a hallmark of the modern era. This is a good thing. However, it is sometimes taken out of balance with other truths, particularly with the fact that no human being is absolutely independent. We all exist because of God, and because of other people.
In a book I am reading when available for Confessions, Peter Kreeft, a Catholic philosophy professor at Boston College and author of about 80 books, says it this way: “According to the most popular religion in America, pop culture, there are currently 350 million autonomous godlike beings who invent their own truth, who equate truth with what’s 'true for me.'… I suspect it has something to do with our founding. We fought a war against being England’s non-autonomous colony. 'Live free or die' is still the motto of one of our original states (New Hampshire). That’s fine in politics, especially when you are the rebels against the king, but its fatally easy for you to feel the same way about King God as we did about King George. The atheist poet wrote ‘I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.’ Most Americans don’t call themselves atheists, but they believe that line, and that’s practical atheism…That was the devil’s philosophy: ‘better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.’"
The danger of only proclaiming our independence is that we can so easily forget our dependence, above all on God, but also on oxygen, food, water, friends, peaceful neighbors, honest citizens, etc. This is why it is so important to say “please” and “thank you.” Both admit that you are receiving as a gift from someone else. The greatest gift is the promise of eternal life. Dr. Kreeft again: “America will not last forever. It is not our eternal home. Washington, D.C., and Harvard and Hollywood will not be in heaven. You will. Your neighbor will. What’s the main thing missing in our culture? Christ. Our culture is Christophobic. Let Christ come totally into your heart and your life, and He will do the rest. He will seep into your culture through a million pores. There are many good books about some of those pores, and many different opportunities for different people to do different things to help the common good and delay our culture’s sickness and death. But the first thing is the real presence of Christ in your soul and in your life, in your thoughts and in your motives.” .
Our faith reminds us that all things will fade away except those that are of God. Let us continue to live alongside Him and to bring His Kingdom of justice, love, and peace into our world as best we can, starting in our own hearts.
Reference: Ask Peter Kreeft: The 100 Most Interesting Questions He's Ever Been Asked