CALLED TO FREEDOM

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

We are called to freedom. Once, we were enslaved under the dominion of sin and evil, but Jesus Christ has redeemed us and set us free. So we should remain free. Why go back under the yoke of slavery? We are free because we were born from above as God’s children. We carry in us the image of God, who is the source of freedom.

What does it mean that we are called to freedom? Is it a cry of independence which is affirmed and demonstrated in an attitude of rebellion? Do we declare and exercise our freedom by turning our backs on God or by an effort to take his place? Do we exercise our freedom when we establish our own rules to allow the satisfaction of our urges? Is it true freedom to do whatever we are able to do, making our standards of good and evil?

Paul warns us that we must be careful in the way we understand and live our freedom, otherwise “this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence (the flesh).” If we do so, we care only about the satisfaction of our needs and are ready to put others at our service, depriving them of their freedom. Paul invites us to “serve one another, rather, in works of love”. The freedom that we received from Christ allows us to be at the service of others. To keep our freedom as children of God, we must be always on the alert because we are easily moved by selfishness and motivated by a lust for power, wealth and pleasure.

We may understand freedom as having no rules at all or making of my needs the rule that everybody else must respect. As a consequence, we only have rights and no duties or we have rights over the others and they have duties to us. Nothing else is sacred but what I decided to be right. When we behave like that, we end up being enslaved by self-indulgence.

Then, it is no surprise that a lot of people make a fuss about abortion. For many, abortion has been enthroned as a woman’s right, thus nobody may dare to question her decision or even suggest that the human being in her womb deserves some respect. According to them, a woman has rights over her body. But does she have the right to cut an arm or a leg? She would be put in a mental hospital. The child grows in her womb but has a body of his own. The child in her womb is not a thing that can be disposed of at will. It is a human being with a life of his own. Since when do we have the right to kill a human being?

In annulling the Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court did not abolish the right to abortion but it recognised that it is not the role of the Court to make laws and that abortion must be regulated by laws passed through the elected bodies of the different States of the Union. The supreme justices decided that "the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion" and that "the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade)

The outcry comes from a total disrespect for life and the mystery of life, where nothing is sacred but my interests.

We are called to live in thanksgiving for the gift of life, putting ourselves at the service of others. “Serve one another, rather, in works of love, since the whole of the Law is summarised in a single command: Love your neighbour as yourself.”