Yesterday was July 4th and the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, more or less, I guess you could say. So happy 4th of July. Happy anniversary to the United States of America.

The United States, as you all know, has fought several wars over its history, including the War of Independence. And there’s some connections actually you could make from the readings of the tyrant and oppressor and so forth to the War of Independence. Maybe I’ll touch on that in a second. But there’s an interesting war or a series of war that were known as the Barbary Wars that the United States fought in the early 19th century, 1804 to 1807 – and then around 1808 to 1812 or so.

The Barbary Wars were the Barbary pirates, as they were known, were a group of, well, pirates from North Africa who basically tyrannized the entire Mediterranean for centuries from what is today modern-day Libya and Algeria and so forth and even parts of Morocco and Egypt. And so these pirates basically controlled the Mediterranean other than the British Navy, and they would, of course, capture ships, they would sink them, many, many goods, valuables were lost over the centuries. And the European powers were just either too afraid or disinterested or disorganized in attacking or taking care of this problem.

So this change, though, with the United States of America is actually Thomas Jefferson who said enough is enough, and he sent the United States Navy and the Marines to the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily. And long story short, I won’t get into all the exploits of the battles and so forth, but we basically won this war. And it was actually Pope Pius VII who said after the conclusion of these wars, saying, “The United States of America, though in its infancy, has done more for Europe and the Church than any other nation has in centuries.”

So the Pope recognized the United States for taking care of a problem, serving Europe and the rest of mankind.

Now, this was a calculated risk on Jefferson’s part. Again, the United States is in its infancy, so if it fights this war and it loses or it does poorly in the war, it’s going to invite other European powers maybe to take advantage of the United States and for other European powers not to take this country seriously. But he believed that we could do this. And it was ultimately, as the Pope recognized, an act of service to humanity, to free people from this oppression.

All right, let me make a quick historical connection here to the Gospel, because when Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Come to me, all you who labor and are rest.” There’s a historical context to this.

Jesus, of course, is the Messiah. He’s the King of Israel. But the Jewish people, the ancient Israelites, did not have a positive notion of the Messiah or of the kings of Israel because the kings of Israel imposed very heavy burdens, literally taxes on the people. They weren’t kings or leaders that brought peace, prosperity, and freedom to the people.

So it goes actually to King David. King David, in fighting his wars, establishing and consolidating the empire of Israel, basically conscripts many men to fight. And then his son Solomon, in building the temple, actually has to sell off portions of his people into slavery to fund the temple. And there’s other things that Solomon does that aren’t really helpful for the people. And then finally, the straw that breaks the camel’s back, kind of like the King George for the American colonies, is Solomon’s son, a guy named Rahoboam.

Rahoboam imposed very heavy taxes on the people, and this causes the rupture in Israel. There’s a civil war, and the place will never be the same.

So again, the people just had a heavy feeling about kings and leaders. So when Jesus says, “Look, I’m not going to be like these other kings and leaders from the past. I’m here to set you free, to impose a burden on you that’s paradoxically going to lift your spirits.” This is what our faith is about.

So it’s helpful for us to maybe do an examination of conscience of how we see our spiritual lives, how we see the Church, how we see God. Does He impose heavy burdens on us? Is there a feeling of heaviness around our faith? Do we feel that it just constrains our freedom? Or does God truly set us free? Does God give us a light-hearted spirit? Does He give us the Holy Spirit that allows us to really be people of peace and joy, and that bring other people into this beautiful faith too? This is the kind of faith that Jesus proposes to us.

And so we ask the Holy Spirit to give us the proper understanding that we may live in freedom and invite others to live that way too. Amen.