FREEDOM SHOULD NOT BE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SELF-INDULGENCE

XIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Gal 5:1,13-18

The cry for freedom

Wherever people feel oppressed, we can hear their cry for freedom. People cannot accept anymore being treated in an oppressive manner.  And it cannot be otherwise, because God has called us to freedom and we have been set free by Jesus Christ. We cannot go back to slavery.

However, we should listen attentively to Paul's warning. While proclaiming clearly the right to freedom given to us by God, Paul tells us that this freedom can "provide an opening to self-indulgence" (Gal 5:13). The danger is always there, and we can see the results of such misunderstanding. Freedom does not mean that we can do whatever our hearts desire, without any limitations or controls. That will make a mess of our lives and of other people's lives as well.

The dangers of a self-centred attitude

Nowadays, there is a great stress on human rights, and it should be so.

However, we need the same stress on our duties towards the others. Many people understand these human rights as referring only to my personal and individual rights, without consideration for the rights of the others. In fact, my rights end where the rights of the others begin. And rights go together with responsibility. Without responsibility, they become selfishness, where nobody can control me, but I give myself the right to control everybody else.

The craving of self-indulgence

This talk about human rights (the rights of the individual) goes together with the talk about satisfying our urges and our craving for personal enjoyment and self-indulgence. 

Based on such ideology, many governments recognise abortion as a human right. The little baby growing in the womb is seen only as an excrescence of the mother's body, which brings disruption to her life and is oppressing her. They consider the mother's right to good life, and ignore the rights of a growing human being to life.

Again, based on such ideology, many governments see homosexuality as a human right and are ready to accept such relationships as marriage, considering as natural and normal what is in fact not natural. 

Aware of the dangers of freedom without responsibility, Paul speaks of the commandment of love: Love your neighbour as yourself. We need to abandon our self-centred and individualistic attitude, in order to put ourselves at the service of others. Instead of asking what the others must do for me, never infringing on my rights, I should ask what I can do for the others; and out of that selfless attitude of service, I will get peace and joy in my heart.

                "Serve one another, rather, in works of love" (Gal 5:13)