Archbishop Leo Cushley delivered this homily at the annual Festival Mass in St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral, Edinburgh, on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sunday 16 August).

Organisations attending the Mass included representatives of the Knights of St Columba, the Knights and Dames of the Order of Malta, of the Holy Sepulchre, and of St John, as well as the city’s High Constables, who accompanied the Lord Provost Councillor Robert Aldridge.

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A while back, I noticed that one of the principal themes of this year’s Festival is the United States of America, as the country marks the 250th anniversary of its independence.

Many of us here have relatives and friends and all sorts of other ties and connections of affection with America.  Furthermore, it is evident to us all that what goes on there has an important impact on us here. 

The BBC journalist and former North America editor John Sopel wrote a book about his time in America in which he claimed that we just don’t understand Americans, although we like to think that we do. 

He called his book, If only they didn’t speak English. And maybe he had a point.

There are other reasons for our overlap with the United States. 

Perhaps because the British presence in New England gave way to the birth of the United States, or perhaps because of our many blood ties, we feel close to America.

And then there is the enlightenment in Scotland, and specifically here in Edinburgh, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: our city was a place of clear thinking and serious ideas and discussion, and some of the best of it was taken up in North America. 

So, perhaps we in this city are able to feel a little pride in Americans’ achievements, and almost a family’s concern for them when things do not go so well.   

I recently came across an article in the Times – the London Times for our visitors from abroad – about the visit to Edinburgh in these days of Historian Ken Burns, one of America’s best-known documentary filmmakers. 

As his name suggests, Ken Burns says he has roots in Scotland, and he expressed his delight at “coming home” here.  He’s been in town specifically for the Festival and for a global ideas panel discussion hosted by Nicola Benedetti, the Festival’s director again this year. 

Ken Burns is someone who has had an immense impact on our understanding of ourselves, especially in the anglosphere and Americans and among those with connections to the United States. 

Ken Burns has madesomeimportant documentaries, about the American Civil War, the West, Vietnam, and the Second World War, from an American perspective. 

His documentaries have been acclaimed for their nuanced and careful research, and their humanity, and his desire to let the history speak for itself, and, as it were, step out of the way.  They’re also great telly.

Ken Burns has been here to join a panel discussion in a Festival eventthis year entitled, All Rise.  Last year’s theme was The Truth we Seek. 

And I presume these themes are intended to overlap. As I said at the beginning, this is the year in which the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

It was long and sometimes very bitter, and it did not resolve all the problems facing the settlers, the British or the first nations there.  Nevertheless, over time, America and Britain patched up their differences, and perhaps it was simply because we had too much in common for us to fall out for long.  

And, in my view, that is still largely the case.  The differences we see today can make for long, and even passionate, conversations.  The things we have in common, however, make sure that, like the end of a good episode of Star Trek or The Simpsons, we usually end up back where we started. 

Edinburgh has much to celebrate in the successes of the United States, and not all the best ideas of the Scottish enlightenment took root easily or quickly, either here or there. 

Most countries, like most of us, are a work in progress.  That’s not an excuse, but a call for understanding, for comprehension, and for room to listen to each other and to understand the other, the real human being sitting next to you or standing in front of you.  In the article I mentioned, Ken Burns makes a wonderful point to finish. 

As he looks at all the people who make human history, he says that he’s guided by one principle: at the end of the day, there’s no them, there’s only us. 

If history teaches us anything, it teaches us that.  Let’s keep that principle in mind, and let that quiet comment nourish the success of our festival this year. There is no them, there’s only us. 

Have a wonderful Edinburgh festival.  Thanks for listening and God bless you all!