INSIDE AMERICA

"OUR" DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE
THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF SACRIFICE IS NOT SOMETHING BOUND TO THE IDEA OF LOSING BUT RATHER TO THE IDEA OF GAINING. AS CHRIST'S LIFE-GIVING GIFT, IT BEARS UNIMAGINABLE FRUITS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. OUR TRUE INDEPENDENCE LIES ONLY IN THIS BELONGING TO HIM.

BY LORENZO ALBACETE

IT WAS THE 4TH OF JULY AND I WAS WITH A FRIEND WATCHING THE PATRIOTIC FESTIVITIES AND FIREWORKS DISPLAYS ON TELEVISION, AND WE BEGAN A DISCUSSION ABOUT THE SACRIFICES THAT ALL OF US MUST MAKE TO BE ABLE TO REALISTICALLY MATCH THE EXPECTATIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF AMERICa expressed in those festivities.
"I don't like sacrifices," I said. He replied, "How can you say that? You are a believer, a Christian. The Christian religion is about sacrifices, about giving up things you like." "The Christian faith values sacrifice, but it is not about giving up," I said. Then I tried to explain this to him... and to me:
Consider the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians 3:8. The literal translation goes something like this:
"I count all things as loss, because of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, because of whom I have suffered the loss of all other things, and I do count them to be refuse that I might gain Christ, and be found in Him."

Notice the interplay between losing and gaining. This verse is not about "giving up" anything. It is not primarily about learning to discipline our desires. It is about gaining the greatest desire of our heart: to be found in Christ; that is, to be sharing His life, to be living of His life, so to speak, and thus "know" Him better, with the knowledge that comes through experience of His infinite value. For Paul, it is not only what he has already experienced as not enough (wealth, honor, career, fame), but also all that was imaginable to him. It was about being willing to lose life in order to gain the real thing.
It is like the sailors aboard a sinking ship being willing to throw overboard all their possessions in order to save their lives. Christian sacrifice is thus an affirmation of the "superabundant value" of Christ.
In terms of the beginning (and end) of the Declaration of Independence, it is the affirmation of the value of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" over all else for which the signers were willing to "pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
At each moment, we are called to sign our personal declaration of independence from everything that is not Christ. That is what true freedom, true happiness, and true life are for us.

There is one more point to underline: sacrifice as a "giving up" of a valuable possession in order to obtain something considered to be more valuable is an exchange in which both sides are satisfied that they have justly obtained what they desired. Not so for the Christian sacrifice. Christian sacrifice is an act of unconditional love. What we ultimately hope to obtain never ceases to attract us more and more. Its value is always much more than what we thought. Nothing could be more valuable than to be "found in Christ." Indeed, as the psalm says: "Your grace is greater than life"–also translated as: "Your life is greater than life."

As an act of love in response to the Love offered to us, the Christian sacrifice is fruitful; it bears fruit in leading us to find the Love freely given to us in everything we do, in our relationships to others and things. As such, Christian sacrifice has creative value. It is therefore never a negation of the value of what we offer. On the contrary, it affirms, preserves, and increases the value of what we entrust to Christ.
Christian sacrifice, therefore, unites us with others because "in Christ" means becoming part of His life-giving Sacrifice for us that builds the Church. Indeed, Christian sacrifice is the sacrifice of the Church, living and growing into the Body of Christ through our own sacrifice. Thus our declaration of independence from the world becomes a declaration of dependence on Christ for the good of the world.