(Listen to this homily here.)
A crucial question for our country to answer is, what is
true freedom? As the land of the
free and home of the brave, our country was formed so we could all have the
inherent rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Today
our society has experienced a distorted notion of what freedom is. Today,
many would describe freedom as follows: doing whatever I want, whenever I want,
so long as it doesn’t hurt someone else.
It
is interesting that nobody really lives out this definition on a daily
basis. For instance, if you get
mad at your boss, you don’t punch him or her in the face. You don’t drive seventy miles per hour
in downtown International Falls.
An athlete can’t pick up the puck and skate or carry a basketball down
the court. It is curious that
morality is the only venue in which freedom has become relativistic in our
country.
As
Christians, we have a different vision of freedom. St. Paul writes, “For
freedom Christ set us free…” While part of basic freedoms includes freedom from something
(tyranny, injustice, etc.) it is more about what we are free for. We are summoned to be free
for Christ, for excellence, for virtue.
Our Catholic church doesn’t impose morality, but
proposes it to modern man: “For
freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit
again to the yoke of slavery.” I pray that you each live in the freedom of Christ who has
conquered sin and death. In so
doing, may we be good examples of what freedom truly entails in our country.
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