The Fourth Commandment and Patriotism

The fourth commandment, honor your father and your mother, reveals a profound truth about the moral order established by God. It teaches us to revere those through whom we have received life and education. Yet the Church, in her perennial teaching, affirms that this commandment extends beyond the family. It includes the honor owed to our homeland and to civil authorities who within the bounds of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Of the divine and natural law, bear responsibility for the common good.

At the heart of the common good is the flourishing of the family. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that after God himself, we are most indebted to our parents and to our country, for through them we receive existence, nourishment, education, and the foundations of virtue. Consequently, we owe to them a debt of justice. The love we render to our homeland is, therefore, not sentiment, but piety, the virtue by which we acknowledge benefactions received and respond with fidelity and generous service. In our time, this noble virtue is frequently obscured.

Patriotism is often confused with nationalism. Nationalism exalts the nation above the moral law, and at times, even above God, Referring power to truth. Patriotism, by contrast, is rooted in the order willed by God. It honors what is good in the homeland while refusing all compromise with injustice. It serves the nation through fidelity to truth and a commitment to the dignity of every human person. Rightly lived, patriotism becomes a work of charity, safeguarding the cultural and spiritual patrimony of a people, fostering virtue, and praying for the conversion and peace of the nation entrusted to us by divine providence.

O sacred heart of Jesus, king of heaven and earth, I place today my nation, the United States of America, into your heart, pierced for love of us. On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I acknowledge that true liberty is your gift, and that our lasting homeland is the eternal kingdom of God. Under the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, and through the intercession of her immaculate heart, bless my homeland anew, purify her from sin, and guide her leaders in truth, justice, and peace.

So that she may safeguard all human life, respect the integrity of marriage and the family, and honor the practice of religion, reign in my home and in my nation, draw every heart into communion with you, that your truth, love, justice, mercy, and peace may triumph in America and throughout the world. Amen.