Freedom?

A new year has begun! We have 7 new missionaries with us, 3 from the US and 4 from Honduras. We just finished up orientation, and now are embarking on a new journey together! I’m so excited to see what year 2 has in store!!!

Since my last blog, Honduras (and all of Central America) celebrated their Independence Day, on September 15. Amidst all of the parades and music, I got to thinking…what is freedom? We hear so much talk about freedom, and especially as people from the United States we value freedom so highly. But what is this ideal that we fight so hard to achieve and defend?

The proposed answer by today’s culture is: freedom means you can do whatever you want, without limitations. There is some truth to this – it is great to be able to choose where we want to live, what career we want to pursue, what kind of Cheerio’s we want to buy. But I also think this is a very flawed view. Young people today (myself included) are so used to viewing the world in this way, that we find it very hard to make decisions. Any decision “inhibits” me, because it closes so many potential doors. “I don’t know which major to choose in college because once I choose, I can’t do any of the others.” Or “Ya we’ve been dating for 4 years, but I’m just not sure if he/she’s the one. What if I find someone better in the future?” Etc etc.

I don’t find this idea freeing at all. In fact, when I came home from Honduras at Christmas last year, I went in to the grocery store, and was completely overwhelmed by the options! I don’t want 25 different types of Cheerio’s to choose from!! In one sense I’m freer because I have more options, but on the other hand, it makes it that much harder to choose anything at all! We’re so used to having a million options to choose from, that in the end we can’t choose anything!

For me, freedom does not mean having a million options to choose from; it doesn’t mean being able to do whatever I want, without limitations. In fact, just the opposite. For example, I speak English very freely. I don’t have to think about it or try to do it – I just do it! I am completely free to speak English. But why? Because I can put whatever words I want in any order I want? No – because I understand all of the rules and the structure of the language. I need there to be rules and structure. If I just spat out random words, I wouldn’t be free to speak English – I would be free to speak gibberish. The rules and limitations allow me to be free.

Or another example – let’s say I’m part of a symphony, playing the violin. Am I free in this symphony to play whatever I want, regardless of all the other instruments? Well, sure I am, but it’s going to be a disaster! I’m truly free when I’ve practiced the music and know it so well, that I can play in complete harmony with all the other instruments. It’s the same with our lives. We can use our freedom to “play whatever we want” on our violin, but it will be a disaster. Only when we recognize who we are, what we were made for, where we are going, can we use our freedom to play a beautiful harmony with our lives.

Any created thing works best when it is used for the purpose for which it was created. I can use a saw to chop down a tree, or I can use it to try to brush my teeth. I can use an oven to bake a cake, or I can stick my head in it. God has given us freedom in our lives. We can choose to use our freedom to bring peace, or to bring disunity. We can choose to follow God in the way that He made us, or we can choose to “stick our head in the oven.”

Ultimately, we’ve been giving freedom to choose love. That is the highest goal of our freedom: to choose to love. Because, like I said in my last post (and in the link I included), love is a choice. Our freedom has been given to us by God so that we may learn, day by day, to move from choosing our own selfish desires and motives, to choosing to love others – to put their needs and wants first, whether they deserve it or not.

            Jesus told us that if we gain the whole world, and lose our soul, it is a loss. This reveals to us something so incredible – that you, I, each individual person, are worth more than the whole world!! And yet, we often choose to sell our souls for much less than the whole world; in fact, for things that are worth nothing. We use our own freedom to enslave ourselves in things that leave us empty.

            But God has given us our freedom as a gift, and not even He could take it away. Jesus once said to St. Catherine of Siena: “I created you without you, but I will not save you without you.” It’s our choice. Will we say yes? Will we choose love?

As I said a few months back, I’m going to add a few reflections from Pope Francis’ Encyclical Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), with a few of my own, much less wise, thoughts added in:

-“It is precisely in contemplating Jesus’ death that faith grows stronger and receives a dazzling light. In that hour the depth and breadth of God’s love shone forth…gazing on the Pierced One. Jesus’ death is the supreme manifestation of God’s love for us.” –-- On the Cross, the deepest yearnings of our hearts are fulfilled…God loves me intensely, and is willing to suffer for me, to give me everything.

-“Faith transforms the whole person precisely to the extent that he or she becomes open to love.” –-- Faith is truly able to transform us and open us out from our selfish ways. It can free us from being trapped in ourselves, and open us outwards towards others. This is the goal of our freedom!

-“[Faith is] a light which, even as it enlightens us, calls us and seeks to be reflected on our faces and to shine from within us.” –-- Faith is not meant for us. One is not a Christian for one’s own sake! We are meant to be transformed in to God’s loving presence for others. Let’s let His light shine in our faces! Like Blessed Mother Teresa always said – Love begins with a smile!

Happy Fall to all you people who live in places where seasons actually exist! ;)

God’s Peace,

Eric