Freedom sounds like a good idea, but not everyone is comfortable with it. To leave behind the world of rules and regulations where other people, whether directly or indirectly, in all kinds of subtle ways, decide what we think or do, and enter the world of genuine freedom, is to discover a place where only mature adults live. It can seem like a desert, sparsely populated. devoid of landmarks and signposts, inhabited only by brave and courageous frontiers-men and women who live on the edge, are able to stand on their own two feet, make their own decisions based on personal faith and personal experience and live with the consequences of those decisions regardless of what everyone else says. It’s a land where conscience is king, discernment its first minister and life a series of often difficult choices. Many, having entered it and seen for themselves how demanding it is, draw back, seeking refuge again in the more familiar and less demanding world of Law; which is what St Paul is talking about in today’s second reading.
Last week, we heard him tell the Galatians that, with the coming of Jesus, the era of the Law, which he compared to the Paedagogus or slave who looked after Roman boys until they reached their majority, was over. In Christ they now enjoyed the status of sons and the Law had no longer any authority over them. In Christ they were free men and women, the crucial point he makes today being that ‘When Christ freed us he meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore,’ Paul says, ‘and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.’ And in this we have the challenge facing every human being: to grow into the freedom God created us for and, having come to it not to flinch or abandon it again when the going gets tough.
And yet, despite the fact that freedom is God’s greatest gift to us, the one which most profoundly reflects the fact that we are created in his own image and likeness, many fear it. They confuse it with licence, imagining that beyond the world of Law with its rules and regulations lies only choas, anarchy and self-indulgence. And, of course, this is exactly what does happen when we confuse freedom with licence. Paul himself spoke about it in that reading. ‘You were called to liberty’ he says. ‘but be careful, or this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence. If it does, of course, it is not genuine liberty, not real freedom, but there are plenty of examples of how we confuse the two.
A couple of weeks from now I hope to be with my friends in Madrid, a city which, in the 1970s and 80s, after the death of General Franco, saw the most amazing example of licence dressed up as freedom. After years of suppression and the imposition of the most severe form of Catholic morality, Madrid went through a period of almost uncontrolled licence. In a city where, during the years I was there, the censor would have removed from a film a scene where a couple simply kissed each other, there was an explosion of uncontrolled sexual promiscuity, of the most deviant forms of pornography, of drug abuse and every kind of vice you could imagine. It was all in the name of freedom but it was no more genuine freedom than fly in the air. And, as Jesus says at one point in the gospel, ‘You do many other things like this.’ So what exactly is this thing called freedom?
Well, it’s what Paul speaks of in that reading, what the NT calls the freedom of the children of God. If we are guided by the Spirit, Paul says, there will be no danger of yielding to self-indulgence. This is not freedom ‘from’ but freedom ‘for.’ It’s the kind of freedom the people in this morning’s Gospel lacked, the freedom to go where God was calling them, the freedom to follow Jesus, the freedom to be everything that God dreamt of them being. It’s the freedom God is offering each one of us and it has implications for every aspect of our lives.
In a consumer-driven society, for example, it is freedom from attachment to material things. These are not bad in themselves, but if seeking them rather than the kingdom of God becomes the most important thing in our lives then our capacity to respond to the call of God is severely limited. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also Jesus tells us, going on to describe how it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. You cannot serve both God and money, he says a truth with profound implications for our modern world. In the first reading, Elisha burns his plough and cooks his oxen on the fire in order to free himself to follow Elijah and only those who, like him, can use material things but let go of them when necessary can count themselves truly free in this world.
Then there is freedom from law. If you are led by the Spirit, St Paul tells us today, no law can touch you. But what does this mean? Surely without law there is anarchy and chaos. No!.. There is still a law which says we should go to Mass every Sunday, but I haven’t obeyed it for years. It has no power over me now. I do not commit murder or burgle people’s houses. But it has nothing to do with a law forbidding these things. The law is irrelevant. It’s like the peodagogus, redundant. Not so straight forward, however, is the struggle to be the people God rather than the crowd want us to be. This kind of freedom comes only after a long hard struggle. At least that is my experience.
Freedom has huge implications, too, for a society so conscious of sexuality as ours is. For many today sexual permissiveness is the ultimate freedom. But is it? Of all the forces in ourselves which drive us and have the power to make us do things we don’t really want to do and often deeply regret later, there is none more powerful than sexuality. Our sexuality can be used to love or it can be used to abuse and use others. Real freedom in this area, as in every area, is not the freedom to do what we feel like, but the freedom to do what is right, a truth millions today have not begun to understand.
To be genuinely free in so many areas of our lives is a huge challenge. Which is hardly surprising, since to be free is, ultimately, to be like the God who made us.
BIDDING PRAYERS
We live in a world facing many problems. We need to address global warming or we will destroy the planet. We know that something has to be done about world poverty before it plunges us into violent conflict between rich and poor. And yet, so often we do nothing, paralysed as we are by our inability to let go of the lavish life-style we have become used to. And so we ask God to lead us into the freedom we need to do what is right even when it involves sacrifice on our part ………………...Lord hear us
To do this, we need not only freedom, but courage and generosity of the kind we saw in the first reading. In it, Elisha burns his plough, cooks his oxen on the fire and follows Elijah. He leaves everything. The oxen and the plough were his security and the source of his income, everything he possessed. And so we pray for even a little of Elisha’s willingness to leave everything and go where God leads…….….Lord hear us
Down through the ages, tyrants, dictators and despots of have been afraid of the very idea of freedom. Supported by the rich and powerful classes, they have done everything in their power to prevent ordinary people acquiring it and, continue to do so today in many parts of the world. And so we pray that this new century will finally see an end to this abuse of power and that our own country and our government will never again be complicit in this most ancient of evils……………………Lord hear us
Sadly, the Church has often been up to its eyes in the abuse of power. Many in positions of leadership even today fear freedom and prefer instead to exercise tighter and tighter control through the use of law. And so we ask God to pour into the Church at this time a Spirit of genuine freedom, a freedom which enables us to move beyond the world of religion, enter the promised land of faith and so grow in that inner freedom which enables us to go where God leads………….……....Lord hear us
Millions today are caught up in false understandings of freedom. This is especially true in the area of sexuality where, after years of repression and denial – deeply influenced by distorted versions of christianity – people have rebelled and embraced ways of thinking and acting which cause harm to many. And so we ask for the grace we need to show the world the true face of christian thinking, restoring the link between sexuality and the giving and receiving of mature love………….Lord hear us
This last week has seen the appointment of a new Prime Minister and a new government. And so we pray for all involved, especially Gordon Brown and our own MP Des Browne. We pray especially that they will be faithful to the promises they have made, especially those which involve returning power to Parliament and the people, and that, by doing so, they will enable the country to move beyond the cynicism about politics which so endangers freedom……………………Lord hear us
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