Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary time (27 June 2010)

Fr James McTavish FMVD

“Freedom!”

In the film Braveheart, Mel Gibson’s famous line is “Freedom!” Even when he is being killed he shouts out “You can take my life but you will never take my freedom!” Freedom is a great gift, given to us by God. St Paul reminds us “Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.” What the following of Christ offers to us is this – freedom. Whoever follows Christ becomes free to be who they are, to be fully human.

Each human being has been given the gift of freedom, a freedom to love others, to help, to serve. What do we use our freedom for? Charles de Focauld said at one moment in his life “I have lived so much for myself. Now it is time to live for God”. Do I use my freedom to build up this world or just my own interests like my bank balance? The freedom of our intellect too can be used in a way that constructs, that helps others, that builds the Kingdom. Personally speaking I will not read any old book, watch any movie that comes along or even waste time watching TV. Life is too short and time is too precious for that. The opposite of freedom is slavery. If we find ourselves spending hours in front of the TV or on Facebook then perhaps we are slaves and not really free. “Do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.” (Gal 5, 13). There are many things that can enslave man – alcohol, gambling, pornography. It is awful when you see someone who should be free becoming totally enslaved to a vice.

Seeing the needs of others can move us to respond and can make us more free from ourselves. Visiting a deaf school this week I realised how beautiful it is to be able to communicate with these children. I have started to learn basic sign language as I would like to communicate more with them. Many people are deaf in our world of today, not only physical deafness but also spiritual. They are deaf to the cry of the poor, deaf to the cry of others. How about you and I? Are we able to hear the cry of others? One boy was in the city with a friend. He was explaining how insensitive the world was becoming. To show his friend he started to shout out for help. No one responded. Then he took a dollar coin and dropped it. As it hit the ground everyone stopped, everyone turned their heads. Is it possible that this world could be more sensitive to money than to the cry of those in need?

This week we have been busy hosting a mission trip. A group of young students from 4 different universities in England have come to Philippines for 20 days. They spent the first four days in Tagaytay, just outside Manila. What is amazing is seeing how keen they are to do good, how open they are to experience other cultures. On their first night they spent time with some simple Filipino families who even though they were poor were so joyful and generous. The students themselves said that the people with so little were more generous and joyful that many rich people in the UK. When they came to Manila they visited a poor neighbourhood of squatters. One sad scene was seeing a funeral wake of a little girl, two years old, who had died of pneumonia due to a lack of antibiotics. The students were confronted by this and wondered how a little girl could die for want of a course of simple antibiotics costing a little more than a dollar. The question they had was “How could this happen?” Perhaps this is a good question for us all. For sure we can all do more to help the world around us. For sure if we were more attentive to the cry of our poor neighbours these things would be less common.

Jesus himself came to teach us how to be free. Am I free Lord to follow you and serve you? For sure, following Christ we become more free of ourselves and are able to leave so many useless attachments behind. Jesus shows us an example of a determined man. He was determined to be dominated by no man and nothing. He sets his face towards Jerusalem with so much determination and asks us to follow him. Each one of us is called to share in his mission as priest, prophet and king. In the first reading Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over Elisha. This gesture means that Elisha too is called to share the prophetic calling as each one of are too as in baptism the Lord throws his cloak over us in a sacramental way. We are each called to denounce injustice, to seek a humble daily conversion and try to be better people. Let us ask for this grace to be truly free and to use this freedom to build up the Kingdom, while we still have time.