My dear friends, we come together to celebrate Mass on this Canada Day to say thank you to God for the blessings we enjoy and to pray for our country. In the Opening Prayer of this Mass we pray for three things. First we pray for our political leaders, for those who govern us. We ask God to grant them wisdom. Wisdom is a word we use a lot. I have just finished celebrating Confirmation in the archdiocese, visiting thirty parishes and Confirming hundreds of children. As you all know well, Wisdom is the first gift given to us when we receive in Confirmation the fullness of God’s Spirit.

Being wise means knowing what is the right thing to do; it means being marked by deep understanding, keen discernment, and a capacity for sound judgment. We can easily understand why this would be a gift and a quality that would enable our political leaders to govern our country for the benefit of all its citizens.

But Wisdom comes not only through experience of life but also as a gift from God.  And so it is good that we pray for our political leaders so that they will be blessed with this gift. In the Bible we hear these words:

For (wisdom) is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;
therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.
For she is a reflection of eternal light,
a spotless mirror of the working of God,
and an image of his goodness…

 for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.
She is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars.
Compared with the light she is found to be superior,
for it is succeeded by the night,
but against wisdom evil does not prevail. Wisdom (7: 25ff)

And so we pray today that those who govern us will carry out their responsibilities filled with the spirit of Wisdom and their decisions will be a light of hope and security for the citizens of this country of ours.

And then we pray for each of us. We pray that God will assure that every citizen of Canada will be given respect for their human life and for their dignity as human beings. Pope Francis in his exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel” reminds us that Jesus indentifies with the “little ones.” He tells us that we Christians are called to care for the vulnerable of the earth, and we Christians in Canada are called to care for the vulnerable and weak in our own country. The Pope speaks of “the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned, and many others.”

Along with these Pope Francis includes those who are victims of human trafficking. We are embarrassingly aware that this happens here in our own wonderful country that is Canada. The Pope writes: How I wish that all of us would hear God’s cry: “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9). Where is your brother or sister who is enslaved? Where is the brother and sister whom you are killing each day in clandestine warehouses, in rings of prostitution, in children used for begging, in exploiting undocumented labour?

Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenceless and innocent among us. We are well aware that in our Country strong and deliberate efforts are made to deny children in the womb their human dignity. In an unsettling development we are all aware that one of the major political parties of Canada now excludes from membership anyone who holds the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of his or her development. This is quite astounding!

As followers of Jesus we believe that this defence of the life of the child in the womb is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right. Pope Francis says: “Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defence of all human rights.” And so we pray today that God will grant respect for human life and dignity to every person in Canada at every stage of their growth and development.

We pray for these things so that “justice may flourish and all peoples live in unity in peace” in this country in which we are blessed to live our lives.

I believe that it is important that we never forget that all of us who have been baptized are called to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in the ordinary affairs of our world. Catholics are encouraged to become involved in political parties and political organizations in order to give witness to the joy and wholeness of our faith which we see as good news to our country. We do this not to impose our ideas on anyone, but to let everyone know the hope and the promise and the brightness that the sincere disciple of Jesus can bring to our country and to our world.