This week we celebrated July Fourth, commemorating our first steps toward freedom with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
In the words of that Declaration: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And for all the complicated ways the United States of America struggles with and aspires to these ideals on either side of the political aisle, I keep returning to the ways the Belmont Abbey monks and our campus home embrace these self-evident truths through hospitality, love, stability, stewardship, and all the Benedictine hallmarks that help to form our students in mind, body, and soul.
It reminds me that freedom isn’t the same as independence: that it’s the capacity to choose what is Good, True, and Beautiful – to recognize who and what we are in the sight of God. Only then can we effectively “pursu[e] happiness,” live “life,” or express our “created equal[ity]” as children of God, made in His image and likeness.
So this weekend, as we clear the firework shreds and food wrappings out of our yards and driveways, I invite you to celebrate the paradoxical rootedness of freedom, as the monks of Belmont Abbey live it. Committed to the good of the college, the local community, and the country as a whole, their prayer and guidance show us how love – which is always concrete and always rooted in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty – frees us for eternal life.
