Why patriotic hymns do not belong at Mass

Today, 27 May 2018, is Trinity Sunday.  Mass was, to put in mildly, beautiful.  All except the closing hymn.  The jingoistic "America the beautiful".  Please relax, I am not bashing the song, America (I am, after all, American), or soldiers.  In fact, the Bible exhorts us the be soldiers for Christ (2 Tim 2), and both my maternal and paternal grandfathers served in the military (my maternal grandfather largely raised me),  I guess my problem is, is that we're not there for patriotism and honouring our soldiers, though those are good things in and of themselves,  This is an example of putting man before God.  The song was sung to honour, not God, but America.  I know hymns don't have to be about God (National anthems can also be called hymns).  Something about it, seems, out of place.  Again, I mean no disrespect toward veterans (although I am very critical when someone automatically assumes a veteran is heroic, that is usually true, but the inverse is too often true).  Another thing is this, if the song was to honour the veterans, why didn't they play it TOMORROW at Mass, instead of the closing hymn today?  To me, that kind of cheapens not only the song, but is really disrespectful to why we're there.  It is the CATHOLIC Church, not the American church, not the veterans church, but a church for all people, in all places, at all times.  Today was supposed to be about God, not veterans.  Honour our veterans, honour them everyday, but not at the expense of why we're at church.

God's love for us

  Hey y'all, it's been a while.  I thought I would do something a little different today, but still apologetic in nature.  I wanted to talk about God's love.  See, you may love your Grandma or your spouse, but that's only an iota of how much God loves you.  All throughout scripture, we read about about God's love and mercy, Psalm 86 (85):15, for example: "But you, O Lord, are a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and faithfulness". (RSVCE 2nd Edition).  So, what does this mean?  Well, a few weeks ago, I made a video about how the universe could not possibly be infinite (if something's growing, it can't go on forever, if it has room to grow, than it's finite), but how God's love is.  Apparently, people love changing definitions of words.  Anyway, when Jesus died on the cross, that was God showing his love to us.  "Greater love than this, no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends".  (John 15:13 Douay-Rheims version).  Of course, Jesus did just that.  Jesus could do that, because Jesus is God, and God is not limited by what we think is impossible.  God loves us, not only because he is our friend (although I'm beginning to think some apologists ignore that verse), but because a Father loves his children.  (I'm not getting into the heresy of modalism, relax).  God isn't selfish because he demands our obedience and worship, we're selfish because we're arrogant enough to think he doesn't deserve it.  So many people think that they can magically prove God doesn't exist just by willing that he doesn't (and yes, "magical" is the correct term, psychologists call it "magical thinking"), because someone would have to be pretty ill to thoroughly rage against an allegedly nonexistent God he doesn't believe  Pretty irrational to me.  So does God love those people?  You bet he does, in fact, he even gives them time to repent.  But if you spend your life rebelling against the law, then you only have yourself to blame when you end up in prison.  God does love you, and he sends no one to Hell.  Hell is a choice, and the choice is yours.  Either you can choose to deny that God exists, or you can serve him and be with him for all eternity.  (Keep in mind, that in the New Testament, a  word often translated to love "agape" is charitable love.  God has so much charity for you.  Think about how important that is).  That is LOVE.  Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am NOT saying that atheists automatically go to Hell, I don't pretend to be able to judge someone's eternal destiny, but I think an atheist would do well to learn about God.  God not only loves you, but God IS love (1 John 4:8)