“ For freedom Christ has set us free . Stand firm, therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
(Galatians . 5:1)
Our Lord Jesus Christ through his suffering, death and resurrection has obtained salvation and freedom for humanity from the bondages of sin. Jesus teaches us that he is the Resurrection and Life. When we believe this, and live with this faith, we find our freedom to live this new life . We as Catholics and human beings have been blessed by God with freedom to choose between right and wrong , one can choose either based on his or her conscience.
One can choose right or wrong, the right decision is always made when one is inspired by the Holy Spirit who guides ones’ conscious . One must never forget that what is wrong is wrong even if everyone else is wrong and so one should never become a slave to the wrongs and evils of the world, if everyone is doing wrong doesn’t mean that one should do the same. Similarly one should do the right even if no one else is doing the right. This freedom which we are gifted should also mean that if something wrong is being done to someone around us we must not turn a blind eye but speak up and uplift the voiceless, as the late Fr. Stan Swamy once said “I am not a silent spectator, but I am part of the game and ready to pay the price whatever be it”.
Freedom is a calling to realize in ourselves what is true about us, a calling to actualize in us all what is true, good, and beautiful. The Lord came to set us free! In the Book of the Romans St. Paul tells us that some become slaves to sin when they act in ways they know are evil. Thus, freedom is not simply ‘doing my thing’ but rather a call to live as according to a right order. The true freedom in Christ is that which enables us to do what is right , to listen to our conscience and act or think accordingly, it is not the freedom which allows us to do the wrong or sinful thing. In the Bible , Jesus cured the sick even on the day of the Sabbath which was questioned by the hypocritic Pharisees, what Jesus did as we all know was absolutely right and he had the freedom to do the same.
The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes Mary as ‘full of grace.’ In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace” . To be free, Mary needed God’s grace. Indeed, Mary is the perfect exemplar of the truth that God’s grace does not inhibit our freedom, but instead makes us free: free for goodness, free for others.
As the late Pope Benedict XVI once said “the person who abandons himself totally in God’s hands does not become God’s puppet, a boring ‘yes man’; he does not lose his freedom. Only the person who entrusts himself totally to God finds true freedom, the great, creative immensity of the freedom of good. The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people. We see this in Mary. The fact that she is totally with God is the reason why she is so close to human beings.”
As quoted by Pope Francis “Just because God created us in his image, we have also received from him the great gift that is freedom. If it is not used well, freedom can lead us away from God, can make us lose the dignity with which He has clothed us.” Thus freedom in Christ is that freedom which brings us closer to God and our neighbor.
Dr. Rea Cordo Fernandes
