Today we celebrate the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, but we also celebrate our nation’s Independence Day. Today and tomorrow, all over the world, people will be gathering together to enjoy the freedom that was declared to be ours on this day 245 years ago. There are wonderful freedoms that we are afforded as Americans, but today, let us recall the true meaning of freedom. Let us turn our eyes to our Heavenly Father who sent His only Son so that we could be set free from sin and death, and so that we might come to know the glorious freedom of the children of God. While our nation celebrates its freedom from tyranny, let us all recall the day on which our souls were liberated from the domain of the enemy: the day of our Baptism.
During the Rite of Baptism, there is a point in which the celebrant says that he claims the child for Jesus Christ. The child is anointed with oil and is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. At this moment, the child is set free in a way that the Declaration of Independence could never achieve. Baptism gives the child a new freedom to love and to receive the Love of our Father. Our country protects us from slavery and coercion; it protects the dreams of a happy and fulfilled life. Our country protects our freedom by removing obstacles to it, but only Christ can set us free for love.
Pope St. John Paul II, on one of his many visits to the United States, was welcomed by President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan welcomed the Supreme Pontiff by saying. “Welcome Holy Father to the land of the free.” Our saintly Pope turned to him and responded, “Yes... but free for what?” Our Innate freedom is a great gift from the Lord, but we are asked to use that freedom to love, to serve, and to worship. We live in a world today in which there is an increasing outcry for total autonomy of the individual. Any circumstance that bars one's personal freedoms is seen as an evil that cannot be tolerated. The autonomy of the individual is exalted above all else, but this introspection and isolation can never lead to the love we are called to as Christians.
While God allows us to use our innate freedom badly, it must remain in order for us to love. Our free will is what makes love possible; it makes it possible for one person to choose a good for another, to offer a gift to their beloved. Without our freedom, we cease to be able to love, we cease to be human. To grow in love is therefore to grow in freedom, to grow in the ability to achieve the proper end set before us. In our own time, St. Teresa of Calcutta was an incredible example of freedom. From the outside she looked like a woman who was bound, who had bound herself to a lifestyle, to the work of caring for the dying. She lived by a strict schedule with very little “personal freedom,” but she was a woman who loved intensely, and therefore a woman who was incredibly free.
Christ freely chose to sacrifice Himself on the cross for the glory of the Father and the salvation of man. He was not coerced except by His love. His love for man is what led to His Sacrifice. He rose again because He loved us. He sent us the Holy Spirit because He Loved us, and now, He welcomes the addition of new children of God out of love. So today, while we celebrate our Independence Day, let us be thankful to God for living in such a wonderful country, but let us all remember our true independence day, the day of our Baptism.
In Christ,
Colm Larkin