As all faithful readers of The God Squad know, I’m a big fan of holidays.
Holidays, though I would rather call them holy days, remind us that there are two types of time: secular time and holy time.
Secular time is the way we measure common events. Every piece of secular time is equal. Every second is the same as every other second.
Holy time is different. Holy times are distinguished from secular times in that they are transformative moments that change us forever.
Christmas and Easter and Easter and Ramadan and Diwali are all major religious holidays that are in America but that transcend America.
Christmas has definitely shaped American culture in many ways, but it is still the celebration of the birth of Christ.
Some holidays are just holidays in the most superficial sense. Valentine’s Day and Halloween are the best of them, but then there are many holidays that seem like they were invented by the Chamber of Commerce.
And then there are the holidays we celebrate as Americans that are actually examples of holy time.
Thanksgiving is a truly holy time because it is about gratitude, and gratitude is a fundamental virtue of any decent culture.
Memorial Day is a sacred time because it is about sacrifice, and sacrifice is a fundamental virtue of any decent culture.
An American holiday
And then there is Independence Day, which is approaching, and which invites us to celebrate America as a whole. To see also : US announces new commitments to respond to global food security crisis – World.
In our deeply and bitterly divided culture, the Fourth of July forces us, especially this year, to give thanks and pray for our great experiment in freedom.
For those who deeply feel that the American freedom experiment has failed, I want to acknowledge and honor your anger. With all our wealth and will and all our wisdom, we should certainly do more for the most vulnerable among us.
For those of you who feel that America still represents the best and brightest hope for a world that needs defense and help and inspiration, I want to acknowledge your patriotism and love for the country.
Coming together
Let me suggest a way to bring the two sides of the cultural wars together on this Independence Day, and all the days after that.
If you’re mad at America, drop all your complaints – and make time for them. See the article : New city budget increases funding for the arts. So, after five minutes of gripping, for example, force yourself to talk loudly for the same amount of time about all the things you still love about America.
Same advice for the other side. If you are a full throat lover of the United States, give yourself a measured amount of time to describe in detail what you love about America. So give yourself exactly the same time to talk about the ways America can be better, more equal, and more compassionate.
I use this technique to give advice to the bereaved, and I call it spiritual balancing. We must balance our awareness of what we lack with an awareness of what we still possess.
The Great Seal
Take out a dollar bill. Read also : Review of Chinese Words for ‘America’ Over Time. Look at that. Careful. It shows both sides of the great seal of the United States, the national symbol of the United States designed by Charles Thomson.
The seal has three Latin mottos on it, two on one side and one on the other:
“Annuit coeptis”, which means “supply has favored our enterprise,” is from Virgil’s epic poem Aeneiden. It clearly establishes the belief that America’s agenda is not just political, but is an expression of God’s will to see politics used to secure God – given freedoms. I will never forget that during the Capitol riots on January 6, I saw a person hanging from the balcony of the Senate just above the verse “annuit coeptis”. I remember saying to myself, “I do not think so.”
“Novus ordo secularum” is the second motto, and it means “a new chronology”. This is also from Virgil, in the fourth of his Bucolics. It is yet another proof that our founders considered the founding of the United States to be not only the creation of a new state, but rather the creation of a new order in human history.
The third motto is the most famous, “E Pluribus Unum”, which means “of many, one.” It has 13 letters, just like the 13 stripes on the American flag.
I think the three mottos should be read as a simple motto: If we try to create a single unit out of our plurality, then God will bless our enterprise, and here in America we will create a new agenda.
This fourth of July is what I believe and that is what I am praying for.
Send questions and comments to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies”, co-authored with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.
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