On Tuesday we celebrate the 4th of July, a celebration of the birth of our nation.  It is a natural time to feel very patriotic, and reflect on all the things that makes this a great country to live in.  Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? 

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.  Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.  Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.  What kind of men were they?  Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.  Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well-educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy.  He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.  He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding.  His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.  

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.  At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire.  The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.  The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.  John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.  Their 13 children fled for their lives.  His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste.  For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.  Clearly, there was a price for being a patriot.

Discipleship also comes at an earthly cost.  This Sunday's Gospel and Second Reading invite us to ask ourselves how our lives would be different if the waters of baptism had not flowed over us.  

Would our values, our view of the world, our treatment of others, our relationships, our business dealings, where we spend our time and money, the way we live our lives and how we speak be much different?

For many of us, being baptized or not being baptized appears to make little difference. Other than going to Mass and making sure our children receive the sacraments, most Catholics live very much like their neighbors. The county in which we live seems to affect our lives far more than the waters of baptism.
     
However, in today's second reading, Saint Paul asserts that baptism makes a great deal of difference. In fact, he says it makes all the difference. "Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life."

When we live in this "newness of life" that comes with baptism, things are different. God is not a distant force but a loving Father, a caring Brother. Mercy and kindness are more important than accumulating money or power. Values are grounded in the Gospel of Jesus and not in the whims of society. Freedom is found not in going our way but God's way. Strangers are not those we do not know but fellow children of God whom we have yet to meet. Mass and prayer are not obligations but moments of contact with the source of all life and love. 

When we live in this "newness of life," our relationship with the Lord guides all other relationships, even those with parents and children. As Jesus tells us, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

When we live in this "newness of life," we see death not as a fall into nothingness, but as an eternal embrace by the Lord who said "everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." (John 11:26).

While this Fourth of July can remind us how different are lives are because we live in the United States, this Sunday's readings can remind us how different our lives should be because of our baptism!