True Freedom in Jesus

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Last week, as I prepared to leave my last parish, St. Joseph, I found it providential that God put as the readings Elisha leaving his home to follow Elijah as a prophet, and Jesus saying that, in ministry, birds of the air have nests and foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.  This week I find it providential that, as I settle in to my new home here in Flint, our Gospel focuses on sending missionaries to preach the Gospel and extend Jesus’ peace into the homes that the disciples visit.

So today I come before you as a missionary; not in the sense that we often think of: a member of a religious community who travels around the world to teach pagans about Jesus.  Rather, I come as a missionary of the New Evangelization, to proclaim to you Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, and to invite you, with me, to conform our lives more and more each day to Jesus, who will truly make us happy.  I come today to say, “Peace to this household.”  This peace is not merely the cessation of arguments and violence, but the wholeness that only God can bring.

And I come to you today on Independence Day weekend.  I don’t know if this is a normal size crowd for Mass (if it’s like every other parish I’ve been at, I’m sure there are a good amount of people who are vacationing for the long, holiday weekend).  But as we celebrate Independence Day as a nation, as a Church we look at Jesus’ instructions on independence.  He talks about it today in the readings in His instructions to the disciples: “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.”  Now, the word Independence is not there, obviously.  But Jesus is telling His disciples not to rely on worldly things, but to trust in Him and in the mission He is giving them.

I certainly also know that in my life.  When I was a young man (maybe the word younger is more appropriate), my dream was to be married, have a few kids, a few dogs, be decently wealthy, and be a lawyer, and then maybe later a politician.  Am I married?  Nope.  Kids?  Nope.  Dogs?  Tried it, but could never make it work.  Wealthy?  Not in financial terms.  A lawyer or politician?  Nope.  I’m a priest.  And yet I am happy.  In fact, I can’t imagine myself happy as anything but a priest.  If I would have insisted on having things my way, on doing things independent of God, then I wouldn’t be here with you today, and I wouldn’t be embarking on a great, new adventure with in my priesthood.  

In our modern understanding, independence means doing whatever we want.  But in Jesus’ understanding, independence means not being tied down by things, dreams, or even people, who want to lead us away from God.  Being truly independent, being free, means being obedient to Jesus, and following His will.  It means not letting our passions control us, not being slaves to sin.  The one who is least free is the sinner, because God never enslaves us, but that’s all Satan wants to do.  Sin binds us to death, whereas life in Christ binds us to resurrection.  Sin shackles us to despair, whereas Jesus gives us hope.  

Freedom is not doing whatever want.  Freedom is not freedom from someone else.  Freedom is freedom for someone else: Jesus, and how He reveals Himself in our neighbors.  Peoples certainly have the right to direct how they are governed, and we celebrate the freedoms enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, freedoms which come to us not because the government allows us certain permissions, but freedoms which come to us from God, and which no government can legitimately curtail.  We celebrate the freedom which is proper to every human person, no matter that person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, age, or gender.  But that freedom is meant to help us choose the good in life, not simply wherever our fancies and desires take us.

Jesus used His freedom to lay down His life for us.  And so St. Paul reminds us that we are never to boast, “except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  May we use our freedoms to preach the Gospel by word and deed, and use our freedom in being able to choose the good things that God has in store for us.