Semper Fidelis – a motto that can help us preserve our Republic for another 250 years
We will shortly celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, when 56 of our nation’s founding fathers pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to help bring the American Revolution to a successful conclusion.
The occasion of this momentous “birthday” of our great Republic brings me back to my own 18th birthday, when I took an Oath to preserve the country they helped establish –swearing to defend the U.S. Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic– as a U.S. Marine.
So help me God.
When they declared our revolution, our founders were explicit that without God’s help they could never succeed.
They recognized then that we were an incredibly blessed people residing on incredibly blessed land. “America the beautiful” is a land that enjoys a temperate climate, the largest contiguous stretch of high-quality farmland in the world, oceans on both coasts of our nation, and the rugged terrain around our northern and southern borders, traditionally making enemy invasion difficult.
But it’s not just the physical blessings bestowed upon our land that makes us unique and that has led to our prosperity. When one studies the history of our Republic, it becomes clear that what enabled our nation’s independence and eventual prosperity were virtuous leaders with humility and faith in God. These virtues included the love of country and confidence in the rightness of its founding principles, the willingness to sacrifice and serve others, and courage in all its forms – moral and physical.
In this, our 250th year, it’s natural to wonder if our country today exhibits the virtue, faith and humility of its founders. It is easy to see how our foreign adversaries wield influence with falsehoods murmured by sophisticated agents of influence. Corporate interests promise wealth in exchange for access. The media plays to pride and narcissism, and the social media platforms value “clicks” over truth. All of which can tempt us to a yet more perilous vice, despair. We hear the tempter’s voice saying that no matter how hard we might work to defend this Republic, it is bound to fall, like all those that preceded it.
The motto of the United States Marine Corps is “Semper Fidelis” – Latin for “Always Faithful”. During my time in the Corps, I tried my best to live out my faith to God, family, country, Corps…in that order. I failed plenty. But I am blessed first with a most merciful God, second with the most steadfast and faithful wife and family, a country that, for the most part, appreciates its freedom, and many Marines who were willing to fight for it.
It’s not the U.S. Marine Corps that will save our Republic and her people from destruction in these perilous times. What will save us is our Faith, if we can renew it, and God’s Mercy, if He will grant it.
Prior to his election as President, during the fierce debates over ratification of the Constitution, George Washington remarked in a letter that, “the Providence which has hitherto smiled on the honest endeavors of the well meaning part of the People of this Country will not, I trust, withdraw its support from them at this crisis.”
In other words, in times of crisis, have faith in God’s mercy upon us, that as He has helped us before, He will help us again.
As we look at the daunting challenges facing our Republic, I turn to this faith and also to the closing prayer of the Divine Mercy Chaplet:
“Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is love and mercy itself. Amen.”
May we as a nation submit to the will of our Creator and may we be “Semper Fidelis” for our next 250 years.
