LOVE IS THE GREATEST FREEDOM (Bulletin Article for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time) We all want freedom. In a free country, like America, citizens are free by living according to the law. Beyond the civil laws, however, there are other laws that also affect our lives. We cannot freely disregard and violate the laws of chemistry, physics and biology without harming ourselves. A sane person does not need a policeman to keep him from driving a knife through his own body. But we are not mere bodies; we are also spirits; made in the image and likeness of God. We, therefore, have spiritual laws governing our entire lives. True freedom comes from knowing and following the spiritual laws of life. Ignorance and error destroy our life and freedom. Our opening prayer for today’s Mass asks God to ‘grant that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always stand in the bright light of truth.’ Christ shows us the truth about freedom. It is love. True love is free. The gospel text of today says that Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem”. He was going to die there, yet freely turned his journey toward Jerusalem. It was not because he loved death, but because death was his Father’s choice; and it was obedience to his Father and the only way to give all of himself to his Father and to his bride, the Church. Christ’s greatest freedom moment was on the Cross, the summit of love. Love is God’s Law of Life (his Biology). This is because God is always in relationship. His life is a circle of love that never stops. Made in his image, we are also in relationship, meant for a life of self-giving love to God and one another. Selfishness narrows our vision and prevents us from seeing and following the liberating law of selfless love. This is what Christ restores for us on the Cross. If we want to love truly and freely, we must follow him. Like Christ on the Cross, his followers are free everywhere, even in prisons and under threats of death. St. Ignatius of Antioch begged the Romans Christians not to stop his martyrdom. True love demands sacrifice. The gospel of today uses three people to illustrate the message of sacrificial love. To the first, Christ said, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head”. Total love readily gives up comfort for the sake of love. God’s love demands that we surrender our sinful pleasures to him. You cannot sincerely follow Christ and remain gay or lesbian or live in a sinful relationship of any kind. As blood remains in circulation for life to go on, real life in God is a freely ‘giving up’ and ‘pouring out’ of our life as Christ did. If we really love God, we must always be working with him to change our lives from within and to serve him in others. There is no vacation from Christian life and love. True love demands total commitment now. The second person in the gospel story says to Christ “Let me go and bury my father first”. This is the temptation to follow Christ someday when family obligations are completed. This is a spiritual bondage to tomorrow. Love liberates us to follow Him now in whatever situations we are in. On the other hand, some are caught up in bondage to the past and what is left behind. This is spiritual half-heartedness, like the third person in the story who wanted to say farewell to his family. Christ is blunt here: No one who… looks back to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God”. True love liberates us from concerns for our future security and from attachment to our past and present comforts. We surrender all to God because we receive all from him. True freedom is freely giving back what you freely receive from the one who never stops to freely give. This is the Law of God’s Life, and is meant to be ours also. Lord, fill me with your love and let it liberate me from all bondage.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 23:18:44 +0000
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