BY CARDINAL TIMOTHY M. DOLAN

This year, Independence Day, the fourth of July, is on a Sunday.

Good! We can praise God for our freedom and our beloved country all the better at Sunday Mass!

We can recall the observation of Billy Graham, “The surest way to preserve the independence we savor as Americans is to acknowledge that we always remain dependent upon Almighty God. The quickest way to return to oppression is to think we’re independent of the Lord!”

And, for us Catholics, the best way to confess our dependence upon the Lord is at Sunday Mass!

For 2,000 years, we Christians have made Sunday, the first day of the week, the day of the Resurrection of Jesus, weekly “Dependence Day.”

Are you back to Sunday Mass?

You should be. The fear, danger, and legitimate health precautions of the last sixteen months are over. The legitimate reasons for missing Sunday Mass are gone. The good reasons for dispensing ourselves from this grave Divine Law—“Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day,” the third of the ten commandments—because of the pandemic are no longer valid. No more “dispensation!”

Even before the pandemic, there were very good reasons that God understands can keep us from Sunday Mass: advanced age, fragile health, travel, bad weather. But not to go because of COVID? No longer a good reason.

I’m even hoping more folks start coming to Sunday Mass. COVID taught us how frail we are, how vulnerable, how shaky the world can be…and how dependent we are upon God’s providence! Show that by starting each week with Mass.

So, Happy Independence Day, America!

Happy Dependence Day every Sunday at Mass!