Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
(II Kings7:7-16; Matthew 5:13-16)
As the United States celebrates its semiquincentennial, its citizens
will recall a famous sermon preached by John Winthrop, the governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1630, Winthrop
told a shipfull of Puritan colonists that they would be like “a city on a hill”
of which the world would take notice. He
exhorted the people to reflect the decency and justice which their faith espoused.
The analogy was taken from today’s gospel passage.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus coins the expression “a city
on a hill.” He means, of course, that his
disciples should lead exemplary lives of virtue. He himself is the lamp to be reflected by
every household as a guide for all the world.
Living as he teaches, they would make of the earth the forerunner of God’s
Kingdom.
The United States is not a Christian nation. It is composed of adherents to many different
religious traditions and of people without faith. Yet its founding principles are largely in
line with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It
has always advocated the primacy of law, the virtue of charity, the value of
freedom, and (yes) the necessity of belief in God. It has been “a city on a hill” that has not
only guided many to its shores but has served as a model for other nations.
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