Thursday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102011.cfm

Montnomah Falls, Oregon

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God,
the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,
and its end is eternal life.

In our language, slave and slavery are very strong words. We’d rather not speak of such things. A people whose highest ideal is freedom shudders at the thought of being bound heart and soul in submission to another person. 

The Hebrew “children of Abraham” also had a horror of slavery. The opening words of Exodus still sound like a nightmare:

Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph…. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. (Exodus 1)

Many hundred years later, we hear that same revulsion in their quarrel with Jesus:

They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free”?’ (John 8:33)

But Jesus has a deeper, more terrifying understanding of slavery:

Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.

Today we think of freedom (at its best) as a disciplined ability to endure hardship for the sake of later reward. We want our students to begin ascending the career ladder even in high school. They should continually add achievement and experience to their resumes until retirement and beyond. Their freedom is completely self-directed by goals they have chosen for themselves. Many people work out several times a week in an effort to retain their freedom of good health and vitality until their dying breath. Freedom is a passion for us. 

Saint Paul speaks of freedom as obedience to God: “…you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God.” Jesus describes it as sonship:

… if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.

Catholics and many Protestants reconcile our modern stoic conception of freedom with our religious tradition with the word, vocation. I can find the path God has laid out for me as I consider my talents, aptitudes, preferences and the opportunities before me. Jesus has called me by name, prepared me through my formation, and sent me to this place and this situation. How can I now bring the grace of myself to this opportunity? Or, more simply, “What shall I do?”

But slavery pursues us. As they say in AA, it is “cunning, baffling and powerful.” The urge to have it my way never leaves us. Even Saint Francis as he lay dying, finally had to submit to obedience. Brother Elias would not permit the saint to die naked on the dirt floor, but required him to wear a borrowed habit. Penance teaches us to be continually suspicious of our own preferences; are they from God as we pray to do God’s will, or do they come from our predilection for shortcuts and easy answers?

If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.