Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 422

Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’

The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.

Where many people talk vaguely of salvation and others speak equally vaguely of freedom, I think they are the same thing; and wonder what that means. 

After living with, and sometimes counseling, both active and recovering alcoholics most of my life, I am pretty sure freedom is not doing whatever I want to do. People often die of that childish fantasy. In the substance abuse program at the VA hospital I sometimes remind the residents they are in treatment precisely because they did what they wanted to do. 

I found insight with the Scottish Presbyterian philosopher of the mid-twentieth century, John Macmurray. Shortly after World War II, he wrote:

 

“…the essential conditions of freedom are social and the simplest answer to the question, “Why cannot I do as I please?” is “Because other people won’t let me.”

 

There is a second corollary of our interdependence which is less widely recognized, and which seems to me the most important of all. No man can secure his own freedom for himself. He must accept it as a free gift from others, and if they will not give it to him he cannot have it. This is the law of freedom…. If we struggle to achieve our own private freedom we merely frustrate ourselves and destroy its possibility; for we cannot free ourselves from our dependence upon our fellows….

When we profess our faith in freedom we often mean only that we want to be free. What honor is there in such a miserable faith? Which of us would not like to do as he pleases – if only he could escape the consequences?

To believe in freedom, in any sense worthy of consideration, is to believe in setting other people free. This is to some extent within our power, and it is the greatest service we can render; even if it must be, at times, by the sacrifice of our own.

In giving freedom to others we have a right to hope that they in turn will have the grace and gratitude to give us ours. But of this we can have no guarantee.

The Conditions of Freedom

John Macmurray,

(Humanity Books, 1949)

As I see it, freedom, salvation, and grace are pretty much the same thing. One who moves freely moves gracefully. One who gives freely gives graciously. And those who have authority and welcome others to move within their ambit give them gracious freedom. They are free with their generosity, gracious in their trust of others, and saved from the anguish of trying to control other people. 

The invited guests in today's parable lost their freedom by exercising their freedom to refuse, mistreat, and kill the king's servants. They disregarded the consequences of their free choices, and did what they wanted to do. They were not saved.  

And they probably supposed they had been cheated by the King who "sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city."

I believe that freedom considers its options; regards the needs, rights, and hopes of others; and wisely chooses the possibilities that open to greater generosity, trust, and self-sacrifice. The Kingdom of Heaven will be an endless road of opportunities to trust, support, and admire other people.