18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
First Reading: Is 55:1-3
Second Reading: Rom 8:35, 37-39
Gospel Reading: Mt 14:13-21
Viktor Frankl said that one day, naked and alone in a small room in a Nazi death camp, he became aware of what he called “the last of the human freedoms”: to decide for himself how all of this was going to affect him.
Similarly, St. Paul says that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
God has made us able to discern what is good and to choose it. That freedom is something no one can take from us.
“The people of our time prize freedom very highly,” said Vatican II. “In this they are right.” Of course, as created beings we have limits to our freedom: particularly “the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.”
At first, it sounds self-contradictory to have norms telling us how to use our freedom. However, freedom is not absolute. Even in ordinary speech, the word “free” cannot stand on its own.
Suppose a man says, “I’m free!” Before we can know what he means, we must ask “free from what?” He might say free from supervision, free from debt, free from rules, or free from prison: in general, free from restraint. However, we must also ask “free to do what?” He might say free to travel, free to spend money, or free to relax: in general, free to do what he wants.
How free is he? It depends on how he answers our questions. If he means that he is free from prison on weekends, or free from his cell so that he can exercise in the prison yard, we do not consider him to be “truly” free. If he means “free to commit another crime so as to return to prison” because he is afraid to leave the familiar environment, no one would say that this man is “truly” free.
Psychologists talk about people being “imprisoned” or “enslaved” by fears like fear of getting fat, or by desires like an alcoholic’s for alcohol.
However, we do not say that someone is “imprisoned” or “enslaved” by his fear of getting into debt or his desire for knowledge.
We might say that he was “imprisoned” by his fear of getting into debt if he passed up a good chance of making money rather than go into debt even for a day. We might say that he was “enslaved” by his desire for knowledge if he put his studies ahead of human relationships.
If we think about it, we see we use the word “imprisoning” or “enslaving” about anything that hinders pursuit of something we judge to be higher and better. For example, a girl who puts slimness ahead of food will say that anyone who puts food ahead of slimness is “a slave” to food. However, the girl who puts food ahead of slimness will say that the other is “a slave” to fashion.
We say that a person is “free,” then, insofar as he uses his freedom to pursue the higher and better, and that he is “truly” free if he uses it to pursue the highest and the best.
When God created us, he made us subject to our own free choice so that we might seek him of our own accord and thus freely attain our full perfection and happiness.
That perfection and happiness lie in him. In the first reading this Sunday, God reproaches us for seeking anything else – anything less than the best. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?”
The happiness God offers us is “free” in another sense, for we can acquire it “without money and without price,” like the food Jesus supplies in the Gospel reading.
Whoever chooses Jesus obtains “all the goods of which he can conceive.” It is a choice no one can take from us.
