Let Freedom Reign
Fr. Brian Carpenter
Originally posted on 6/27/2010

As citizens of the United States prepare to celebrate Independence Day, thoughts of many Americans turn to freedom, and celebration surrounding the great freedom enjoyed in our nation. But what is freedom exactly?

So often we tend to think of freedom as the ability to act without restraint. Or put a little more roughly, the ability to do whatever I want. Certainly we place some restrictions on this freedom. No sane person seriously contends that they should be free to pillage the local shopping mall or set fire to their neighbor’s house. Instead, the notion of freedom, simplistically boils down to the notion that I should be able to exercise my own will, doing whatever I please so long as it does not violate another person.

But is this truly freedom? Is freedom simply the ability to be free of social restraints, to have a minimal amount of laws dictating what is and is not permissible? As Christians, the answer is a resounding “no.” Freedom is not about the ability to do what I want. True freedom, is the ability to live to one fullest potential. The freedom to respond to God’s specific call for our individual and communal lives.

What does this mean? It means that God, who is all-good and all-knowing, created every human being to fulfill a specific role in His divine plan. Freedom then is our ability to live out this calling. The opposite of freedom is slavery – that is being bound by something that prevents us from living out God’s call.

In modern times, it seems that our notion of freedom is often a source of slavery. That is, it focuses so much on the individual subject and the desires of the individual subject and so little on God’s call. One simple example of this is the manner in which we often pose the question “what do you want to do with your life?” or “where do you want to be 10 years from now?” Notice how neither of these questions gives God any say in the matter.

Perhaps two better questions to ask would be “Who is God calling you to be?” and “What do you need to do in order to respond to that call?”

Freedom, in other words is not about what I want to do. No, freedom is about having the ability to do what I need to do in order to respond to God’s call for me. Or put another way, freedom is the ability to do what is good for us. Responding to God’s call is what is good for us. When we are sidetracked from responding to God’s call, from doing what is good for ourselves, we are not truly free. Rather, we are held captive to forces that are trying to prevent us from obtaining the good. In other words we are slaves.

The ability to do what we want whenever we want is not a bad thing provided that what we want is what God wants and that our timeline is in accord with God’s timeline. But so often this is not the case. All too often our desires have nothing to do with reaching our ultimate end, our fullest potential. They often fail to reflect what is truly good for us. And in this sense, they enslave us, because at best they sidetrack us or divert our attention and energy away from responding to God’s plan for us, and in worse cases they lead us in the opposite direction.

Just as a lack of discretion in financial matters can lead a person away from their goal of achieving financial independence, a lack of discretion in exercising one’s own will can prevent a person from achieving their full human potential.

As we celebrate our freedom as Americans this week, let us be mindful of what freedom truly is. It is not the ability to choose Coke or Pepsi, to choose what clothes to wear, or how to live my own life. No, true freedom is to have the opportunity to hear God’s call clearly, and to use the talents we have been given for the glory of God. When we do that, we cease to be slaves to cultural values, to selfishness, and instead become free to live as God has called us to live - to be sons and daughters of God.