Therefore, brothers and sisters,
we are children not of the slave woman
but of the freeborn woman.
For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm
and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Karl Marx complained of the Church that promised relief and joy in eternity but only drudgery in this present world. Nineteenth century religion, he said, was "an opiate of the masses." That may have been true of his time; our gloriously holy church is always a sinful church and we often miss the mark. But faith, hope and love promise freedom. If our graced life is not graceful and gracious; and our generosity, not gratuitous, it is certainly not the freedom for which Christ set us free.
In his day, Saint Paul saw the powerful, persuasive, seductive influence of Pharisaic Judaism as the great threat to Christian freedom. Many Jews had come to Jesus but had not abandoned the attitudes and sensibilities of their youth. Paul, the Pharisee, knew the danger better than anyone. Pharisaism offered an assured, proven way of life. It provided guidelines and rules, boundaries and restrictions from infancy to old age; the child of Abraham could live anywhere in the Roman Empire and know what was expected by fellow Jews and alien gentiles. There is a kind of freedom in that security, so long as you're willing to stay within the boundaries.
But the Christian revelation was moving way beyond the boundaries of traditional Judaism. Saint Paul announced to Jews and gentiles alike, that a man had risen from the dead; and those who belong to this man have as much freedom as one who has died and been raised up. The Christian missionaries demonstrated that astounding freedom. They laughed at the authorities who told them never to speak that name in public. They healed the sick, forgave sinners and gathered grateful converts into congregations to worship in the name of Jesus. Beaten, imprisoned, chained, they spoke as readily in jail as they did in public; and people kept coming to them.
The gospels, letters, and writings of the New Testament continually remind the Church of the freedom which swept through the world in our early history. The authors were acutely aware of the threats to freedom; they struggled individually and collectively to preserve its elusive spirit. This is why we open the scriptures daily, to breathe that spirit in a world vastly different from theirs, and yet remarkably similar. The rigid rules of the Pharisees are passed from generation to generation through our traditions, and yet their roots lie in not in our history but in our concupiscence. Sinners, we are always ready to define the indefinite and contain the effervescent. Worldly wisdom, masquerading as religious, gives us a false authority over others, especially the defenseless, naive and foolish, which we find irresistible.
Always we must be ready to ask the One who came to be served, "What would you have me do today?”
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.