FOR YOUR STUDY AND ACTION by FATHER JAY BOWDEN


The following is a homily delivered by Father Jay on January 22, 2017



This past Friday (January 20, 2017,) President Barack Obama stepped down from the Office of President of the U.S.A. and President-elect Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the U.S.A.

Change the names a bit, and today’s second reading from the First Century Letter of St. Paul the Corinthians could well apply to our nation in the 21st Century. On the one hand, our Nation is so great, so beautiful, so wonderful, and yet, on the other hand, it is so angry, so divided.

But since the earliest day of our Nation, from the time of our founding fathers and mothers there have been serious disagreements and divisions. There has been so much violence and hatred, tragedy and killing. It is so true - whether we are talking about the 21st Century, or the 1900s, the 1800s with its terrible Civil War, or the days before and after American Revolution.

With all of the very real and important differences and disagreements between them, President Obama and President Trump did continue our Nation’s great tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.

Whatever our political, personal, religious, reasoned or emotional views, beliefs and differences are, I believe that we, and all of us, in our beloved United States of America need to hear and do our very best to help others to be – as St. Paul wrote nearly 2,000 years ago – UNITED in the same mind and the same purpose. As I said - here we change the names – BUT HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD. DO NOT SAY "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos,” or "I belong to Cephas.”

Sisters and Brothers, these next words are familiar to us, and in this year 2017, I urge you, and I urge myself, to resolve to do and speak what we can to help the American Dream be even more real in our time:

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."



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