Scripture Reflections

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FREEDOM FROM VS. FREEDOM FOR

FREEDOM FROM

WHEN WE THINK OF “FREEDOM FROM” WE THINK OF BEING FREE FROM POVERTY, FREE FROM DEPENDENCY ON OTHERS, FREEDOM FROM THE RESTRAINTS UPON OUR PERSONAL FREEDOM. Many persons want to be “free from” lack of restraints, lack of duty, lack of moral inhibition, having the capacity to do whatever one likes or wants to do.
IN CHRIST WE ARE FREE FOR

Paul wrote his letter to Philemon from prison – a prisoner for Christ. Although a prisoner, Paul felt free to continue sharing the gospel. His vision of true freedom, led him to encourage his fellow Christian, Phileomon, to see his slave, Onesimus, as a free person in Christ. Freedom is “sharing one’s faith.”

Jesus in the gospel of Luke also states that we are not free from, but free for. “Freedom for” “… designates the purpose of freedom itself, namely, the capacity for self-donation in love, for altruism, for morality, for duty, for service.” (Fr. Ron Rolheiser, S. J.).

BOTH BEFORE PILATE AND ON THE CROSS, JESUS SHOWS US WHAT TRUE FREEDOM IS ALL ABOUT. . Fr. Ron Rolheiser expresses this truth when he writes,

There is a great paradox in that and we see it stunningly portrayed in the scene where Jesus stands before Pilate during his trial. From every outward appearance, Jesus is unfree. He stands before Pilate and the crowd, shackled, helpless to walk away, seemingly a victim. Yet, in all of literature, one will never find an image of someone more free than Jesus at that moment. When Pilate says to him: “Don’t you know that I have the power to set you free or put you to death,” Jesus answers, “You have no power over me. Nobody takes my life. I lay it down of my own free will.” Pilate understood exactly what that meant, you can’t make a saint into a victim or a martyr into a scapegoat. You can’t take by force what someone has already freely given over.

IN CHRIST WE ARE FREE FOR -- WE ARE

• Free to see other human beings as children of God – not as possessions or slaves. To see all human being as our brothers and sisters,
• Free to share one’s faith by perceiving the good you may do for Christ,
• Free to be generous and sharing as God is generous,
• Free to get our values straight -- to let the love of God come first in your life and in your relationship with families and others,
• Free to enter into new pattern of relationships, rather than stick with old dysfunctional ones,
• Free to give over our quest for freedom to Christ’s love -- “… a laying down of one’s life for love, morality, duty. Freedom doesn’t achieve its purpose by claiming itself for itself, but by giving itself away.” ( Fr. Ron Rolheiser, S. J.).

When we seek to possess or gain freedom, we often do it at the expense of others. In so doing, we become slaves to our desire to be free while others are seen to be as slaves -- as threats to our freedom. Both Freedom and Love must be shared. If they are not, they become slavery, hate and possessiveness.

We are called to give away our freedom as Jesus did -- only then will we be truly free.

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