Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish
As we celebrate Independence Day this week, we’ll no doubt be reminded several times of the freedom we enjoy as citizens of the United States.
The second reading today reminds us of the origins of our freedom. It is, as all things, a gift from God. Paul says, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.” God wants us to live in freedom. Freedom is our calling. God does not want us to live a buttoned-down, constrained life. He wants us to live a full and abundant life.
I’d like to talk about three specific freedoms God is calling us to today:
1) Freedom from the pain of our past. This may be regrets, guilt or resentment that keep us from being all that God wants us to be.
2) Freedom from the pressures of our present. This is the tension we feel when trying to manage the complexities of everyday life.
3) Freedom from pessimism about the future. These are the anxieties about our own future, or the future of those that we love.
The first one, the pain of our past: Life is ultimately too good to spend it dwelling on the missteps or failures of our past. This doesn’t mean that we should forget about our past or pretend that unfortunate things didn’t happen, but if something is still stuck inside us, nagging us or making us feel guilty or unworthy, we need to resolve in our minds to forgive ourselves just as Jesus himself has forgiven us.
When we accept freedom from the Lord through the completed work of his Son, renewal can take place inside us. As we internalize the depth of his forgiveness, and the fact that he has blotted out our sins, whether in the past, present or future, we can begin to let go of our need to punish ourselves by staying in guilt and shame.
Once we have surrendered our desire to hold on to our transgressions, we can humble ourselves to others, ask for their forgiveness, and take responsibility for our mistakes. As this happens, restoration occurs and we build up an inner strength and resilience that enables us to better endure a world that sometimes wants to defeat or devour us. It’s in our surrender that we find the liberation that this gift of freedom provides.
The second freedom is the freedom from the pressures of the present, negotiating our daily path in a way that is life giving, not life draining.
The word binary is a word that some have come to be familiar with in this digital age. Binary can mean “one or the other” or “on or off”. We hear expressions like “You can’t be a little bit pregnant, or a somewhat bankrupt, or relatively honest.” In each case, you either are or you’re not.
Paul presents a binary decision in the second reading where he says, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” So, we should live by the Spirit, serve one another in love, and not serve ourselves in selfishness.
Paul makes it clear that sin and selfishness in any form are types of slavery. He explains that anytime members of a community are focused on their own selfish aims, they end up “biting and devouring one another” and are eventually “consumed by one another.”
The words mutually assured destruction come to mind.
By living in the Spirit, we become formed to be more Christ-like. In Romans we hear: ”From the very beginning God decided that those who came to him- and all along he knew who would, should become like his Son.” God’s goal is to enable each of us to develop a godly character.
Maybe the number one question that those of us in pastoral ministry seem to be asked is, “Why is God letting this happening to me? Why is he putting me through this?” Well, the answer very well could be that God wants us to grow in the Spirit. Everything in life is designed to help us grow up spiritually – the good, the bad, the ugly, the stuff that we bring upon ourselves, and the stuff that other people do to us. God is not the author of evil, but God can bring good out of bad things.
Instead of asking, “God, why is this happening to me?” ask, “God, what do you want me to learn from this?” Every situation in life will either make us better or bitter. Yes, it’s a binary choice, one choice is life giving and liberating. The other is life-draining and enslaving.
The third and final freedom that I’d like to speak on is freedom from worries and anxiety about the future. The pathway to achieving this freedom comes from a commitment on our part to abandon our need to control our outcomes. Strong word - abandon. It is defined as “to give up the intent of never again claiming a right or interest in.”
That may sound a little scary when we think about our lives, but the truth is that we don’t abandon our goals or our dreams. We never give up on our hopes, nor do we stop working hard to get where we want to be. We do, however, give up our right to take ownership of the outcomes.
As we live day-to-day and do the very best we can, we trust that the Lord will work in and through our efforts to accomplish his plan and purpose. In essence, we do our part and we believe that he will do his.
Many of us have worries about what the future holds for ourselves and those we love. Will our health hold up through old age? Can we keep the rug from being pulled out from under us financially? Will our kids gain the appreciation for their responsibilities and their faith at some point in their lives? We’d love to be able to control all those things, but we can’t. As we let go of our need to control outcomes in our lives, we are freed from the worry and anxiety that accompany them.
You may have heard the story of a little girl who was on travelling on a passenger flight unaccompanied. The mostly comfortable plane ride that she was on began to get rather bumpy. The voice of the captain interrupted in-flight beverage service and asked passengers to make sure their seatbelts were fastened because a storm was ahead. Soon the plane began to roll and pitch like a ship on a wind-whipped ocean. While the rest of the passengers were frantically doing their best to deal with the turbulence, the little girl sat through it all, just reading her book.
After the plane landed, she was asked why she had been able to be so calm. She responded, “My daddy is the pilot and he’s taking me home.”
Just as the passengers of the plane had no control over whether the plane would land safely, we can’t expect to control all of our outcomes. No matter the storms that might lie ahead of us, we can be confident that our pilot can handle them just fine and he will get us home.
I guess it can be said that we can best achieve our freedom, be it from the pain of our past, the pressures of the present, or our anxieties about the future, if we develop, and invest in, a permanent and unconditional relationship with Jesus, one that is demonstrated by one of his disciples in the Gospel who said, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Living in faith with a commitment to a personal relationship with Christ moves us from a self-directed life to a Christ-directed life.
When Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah, he had come to earth to proclaim freedom. As he said, "If the Son sets you free, you will truly be freed". He was liberating us to enter into relationship with God and to be the kind of people he created us to be. Author Jessica Nicholas said it well when she said, “God wants us to live in the world the way he designed it to be enjoyed. His design has boundaries, yes, but living within these boundaries does not constrict our freedom; it expands it.”
As we submit to Christ, the allure of sin loses its power. Christ's power takes over. As we choose to trust and follow Him, our sinful habits, thoughts and attitudes lose their control. Guilt and anxiety dissipate, and peace of mind prevails. Right habits are easier to attain.
In the end, in our abandonment of self, we find empowerment. That's freedom — that’s true freedom!
And so we pray, Dear Lord, you are the source of all freedom. Help us to live in the Spirit and abandon our desires to live in the flesh. We confess that we have too frequently been running our own flight pattern without your direction. Please draw us nearer to you. We invite you to direct our steps and make us into the people you have created us to be. Make your plan our plan. This we ask through Christ our Lord.
Amen!