IN PURSUIT OF FREEDOM.

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME. YEAR C.
(First reading: 1 Kings 19:16-21) (Second reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-18)
(Gospel: Luke 9:51-62)
July 1, 2007.

IN PURSUIT OF FREEDOM.

"For freedom Christ set us free" (Galatians 5:1).

Any one who follows Jesus is in pursuit of freedom. Thus to follow Jesus means to knows what Jesus has to offer. The most cherished gift humanity can aspire to is freedom, and true freedom only comes from Jesus.

Saint Paul in his Letter to the Galatians tells that the reason Jesus sets us free is so that we may remain in freedom.

Freedom from what?
Freedom from everything that is not human, freedom from destruction, freedom from war, freedom from selfishness. Saint Paul warns us: "If you go on biting and devouring one another, [you will be] consumed by one another" (Galatians 5:15).

A nation that goes on destroying other human beings (any human being) is not free, regardless of how powerful that nation is.

The opposite of freedom, then, is destruction. Freedom is "placing ourselves at the service of one another" (Galatians 5:13). The freedom which is used for destruction among human beings is what Saint Paul calls "freedom as an opportunity for the flesh" (Gal. 5:13).

Our struggle to attain freedom.
Attaining true freedom always involves a struggle. This struggle goes through two phases:
1. The struggle to rid ourselves of enmities, of divisions, of oppression, of self destruction, of indifference, of insensitivity, of aggression, of selfishness in order to clear the way to "placing ourselves at the service of one another".

2. Once we place ourselves at the service of one another, then we must not look back, we must "stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).

May be follow Jesus so that the freedom which we attain through him be with us always.