Some thoughts on freedom

It’s amazing how quickly time passes. As I review the endless tasks before me each morning, I sometimes feel like a wizened actor trapped in a bad rerun of “Days of Our Lives”.

There are things to do, commitments to keep, mails to answer, decisions to make, errands to run, people to meet, and all this before the first sip of coffee even passes my lips.

For most of us (whether lay or religious), it’s a real challenge balancing the demands of our lives with the needs of our souls, and in the whirlwind of commitments and preoccupations, it’s easy to forget the man inside, the face we see each morning in the bathroom mirror, the heart of flesh that continues to beat with human frailty.

Our many duties - personal and professional - can drive us from the intimacy of ourselves when they bury us with obligations. I sometimes wonder in the story of “Quo Vadis” if Peter wasn’t just running away from death, whether in fact he was also fleeing the overwhelming demands of his flock, his duties and his ministry, which can also crucify a man without respite in its own way.

I often joke that I’m in the valiant process of digging a tunnel from under my desk with a spoon, and any day now, I shall make a run for it. The truth is, I have little to complain about since many of you reading this share an equal, if not more challenging quest for simplicity and freedom.

But before we can find it however, we need to recognize what authentic freedom is. And since most of us are not languishing in real dungeons, our quest for freedom is better described as a desire to be liberated from every obstacle to our authentic happiness.

In this, some might argue that liberty comes with more time, a better job, a beautiful wife, a house in the country or anything else that we can add or do to increase our personal treasury of things to have for fulfillment.

On the contrary, I think freedom is less what we have or do, than who we are.

By that, I mean that the world’s perception of freedom as having more choice to choose from (since the greater your choices, the more freedom you experience) is greatly at odds with the “Christian freedom” of choosing the better good because it’s spontaneously who you are, and not what you do.

If freedom is merely seen as choosing between alternatives, then one’s life is measured simply by a succession of good and bad decisions - pros and cons, Coke or Pepsi, him or her, this or that.

But as Christians, we are making decisions about who we are, and not what we do or what we have. And the greatest authentication of Christian freedom is being able to spontaneously choose good, because that is what our souls most desire - the same way some athletes spontaneously respond to the ball or some dancers spontaneously turn to the rhythm without missing a beat.

This spontaneity is unhesitating, generous and giving. At its best, it is instinctive.

Of course, it takes years of mastering the clumsy basics for Michael Jordan to leap to the skies and slam-dunk the winning shot. But at some point in the flight plan, deliberation and calculation blend into instinct and reflex.

In the same way, the long years of persevering in small good acts, making mistakes and trying again and practicing Christian spontaneity, all add up to that wondrous moment of transfiguration when a Christian soul acts, chooses and thinks from the depths of who he really is in God’s love, and not what he does.

It is the freedom to be a prince, to live our princely dignity wherever we are, even in the slums of human decadence and restrictions. It is the freedom of one in harmony with his dignity in Christ, who enjoys a liberation beyond his physical and circumstantial chains.

Above all, it is the freedom to do what must be done, as in the case of our Blessed Saviour.

At the last supper, Jesus performs the freest act in human history…he gives away his life for love. What he must do expresses who he most deeply is…the beloved Son of the Father. Indeed, his deepest freedom was that he could do no other than the Father’s will.

Christian freedom is ultimately an act of obedience to God, since the Christian soul is enobled in fidelity and not success.

To love and believe in Christ and his gospel truth sets us free from our own delusions and false ideals, it liberates us from bad decisions, wrong choices and destructive patterns because it shows us the truth about ourselves, our world and our eternal destiny in Him.

"Because God is the very embodiment of love, his love inspires you to be what you are meant to be: a free person in the highest sense of the word. The more you are led by God's love, the more you become yourself, and it is all done without even losing your freedom." - Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

This my friends, is God's gift to us...the freedom to live in the Holy Spirit, freedom from sadness, from guilt, from repression, from sin, from oppression, from the inability to see, recognise and choose rightly. What we do with this freedom is our gift to God.