Each evening a guard in Washington, D.C., locks up the rights of American citizens. With a push of a button, the guard at the National Archives puts our independence, our guarantees and privileges, our rights, behind the heavy doors of a fireproof, bomb-proof, steel and reinforced concrete vault. What is being “locked up,” of course, is only the original parchment documents of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Locking up these precious papers so tightly each evening does not mean that we American citizens don’t continue to enjoy our rights and practice our responsibilities. Our government keeps on functioning. But what would happen if our government decided to ignore the guarantees of rights and do away with the responsibilities of us citizens? Would we still have them? As Christians we know that it would make no difference at all in the reality of our rights and responsibilities. These do not come from governments. They do not exist just because some documents say so. For the Christian, rights and duties in society come directly from human nature, the creation of Almighty God! Because of the dignity of the human person, child of the Father, redeemed by the Son, filled with the Holy Spirit, each one of us possesses rights and responsibilities that no one can give or take away! In the opening of his encyclical, Pacem in Terris, St. Pope John XXIII emphasized this truth about the source of individual rights and responsibilities when he said: “Any human society, if it is to be well-ordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation this principle, namely, that every human being is a person, that is, his nature is endowed with intelligence and free will. By virtue of this, he has rights and duties of his own, flowing directly and simultaneously from his very nature. These rights are therefore universal, inviolable and inalienable.” Consequently, we must measure the national reality against the ideals and we must acknowledge that an American culture has emerged from our democratic ideals and market economy that is often blind to spiritual values and human rights! Over-consumption of global resources, materialistic lifestyles, a standard of living built on cheap labor in Third World countries, and a foreign policy that often tolerates human rights abuses where our economic interests are at stake - these also belong in our patriotic review of the unfinished ideals which our country was founded on. True love of country is as much about working to change what is wrong as about celebrating what is right. In fact, our freedom to influence both our government and the evolution of our national life is one of the greatest qualities of being an American! Pope St. John summed all this up beautifully in Pacem in Terris: “When the relations of human society are expressed in terms of rights and duties, people become conscious of spiritual values and understand the meaning and significance of truth, justice, charity and freedom.” Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him. Today, we are his witnesses in the world!