Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Our Choices Matter

My dear brothers and sisters, there is something everyone talks about but few people think about. For example, FREEDOM.

Today, the Lord wants us to think about freedom. There are three types of freedom.

First, freedom from physical restraint.

Nazi concentration camps during World War II violated this type of freedom. People were unfairly forced to leave their homes and work to the death at forced labor.

The second type of freedom is freedom from psychological pressure.

If someone threatens to burn down your house unless you give him $10,000, he is doing psychological violence to you, forcing you to harm yourself in one way in order to avoid being harmed in a worse way. In healthy societies, both of these freedoms are protected by the rule of law.

But there is a third type of freedom, not a freedom from, but a freedom for.

This is called moral or spiritual freedom. This is an ability built into every human heart. If used well, it helps us become excellent human beings, wise and honorable. If we misuse it, we become self-centered, frustrated, and even destructive human beings.

This freedom matters most to Jesus. He wants us to use it well, to become what he created us to be. Christ's life, death, and resurrection were all designed to help us do that, by showing us the way and giving us grace to overcome our selfish tendencies and follow it.

The Church, like the watchmen in today's First Reading and the disciples in today's Gospel, continues his mission: patiently and tirelessly warning us against seductive dead-end roads, and inviting us to forge ahead on Christ's path of self-forgetful love.

The choices we make every day, in little things and big things, matter. Every one of them can bring us closer to God and our true purpose, or further away. That's the essence of spiritual freedom.