Recently, I saw a short presentation of why our nation celebrated Juneteenth a few weeks ago. The video noted that even though there has been great progress for African Americans over the years, the one constant is the presence of random racist bias. The narrator said that “even though slavery ended in 1865, the desire to master and to dominate black bodies did not and we have never dealt with that. “ These are the kinds of stark realities that are highlighted during Juneteenth. If black people’s lives can be expunged through racist violence and no one is held accountable, how free are we?
With the horrific rise of violence, hatred, and discrimination of every kind such as Asian hate, “anti- fill in the blank” based on race, color, creed, preference, orientation, age, or sex, we must ask how free we really are? Even though there are some limits to freedom understood as those that if expressed would endanger another, freedom in the USA has been a sense of pride, a value from which we may critique other nations for their prohibition of said perceived freedom. We value, desire, and enjoy the freedom earned by our ancestors (some who paid the ultimate sacrifice in laying down their lives for a cause greater than themselves).
The Coronavirus Pandemic, especially those months of quarantining, tested our freedom when choices were limited or even non-existent. Prior to this, many were saddened by declining church attendance but who would have thought there would be a time when we were prohibited from attending Mass in person? Freedom to assemble, freedom of religion…not during these trying times. One of the many lessons offered to us during this time was the preciousness of our freedom and the anxious waiting to recapture it and celebrate it.
To me, the most valued freedom is that inner freedom where it seems the individual is in control with the help of others. It is here that I ask, “Are we really free?” Interiorly, spiritually, mentally, are we free? Are there things that keep us from fully being the image and likeness in which we are created and called to be? Things that we were “taught or caught” that bind us? Do we love God and self freely, without reservation, with trust and confidence?
I often feel that we are beset with issues that have plagued us over the years (poor self-image, over-inflated sense of self, hunger for the next thing, addiction to praise, food, drink, money, sex, success, or misery), things we have tried to work on with little success, things we know are not healthy but “get us by.” We have learned to live with them, and they may go undetected by others, yet they bring us down and keep us from being fully present to ourselves, others, and our God. It is in these places where we need to be set free, to fully enter relationship with God. As it was said to the crowd on the road to Jairus’ house for Jesus to heal his daughter, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
So comfortable have we grown in those inner struggles that what we may most truly fear is the freedom or release from them and the invitation to a new, inexperienced grace and deeper friendship with God that is awaiting us. We will not trust. Fear of the unknown (as we have always lived this way) and the awesome power of this new offer of freedom unsettle us and retreat is often the option. The exhortation “Do not be afraid,” said some 365 times in scripture, must be repeated so often for a reason. “Just have faith” the size of a mustard seed (so minuscule a single seed is hard to see), faith that was the ever-present and more important gift given than the physical healings Jesus performed in his ministry for it called the healed into relationship and set them on mission to serve and to evangelize.
In those things that plague me and keep me from fully entering relationship with God and by extension, others, I often echo the mantra offered by God to St. Paul who often felt himself weak, helpless, and defeated with this “thorn in the flesh” given him, “My grace is sufficient for you for power is made perfect in weakness.”
Paul’s boast was of his weakness for there God was powerful. It is in our shadows where God is profoundly present, waiting for us to ask for his forgiveness, mercy, acceptance, strength, and unconditional love. Gifts that are indeed absolutely freeing. There God is waiting? What are we waiting for?
How do we get to this place? We ask for God’s grace that is continually on offer in the present moment. We recognize God’s presence “in the moment” beside us, inside us, in the task at hand, in the beauty and in the shadows, and in places and persons to discover. We live freely in the moment relying on this grace. It is a perpetual trust and surrender lived in each present moment.
Are we tired of living less than who we can be? Are we ready to let go of fear and embrace faith? Do we want to give it a chance that God’s grace just may be enough for us? Are we convinced that as strange as this wording may see, “God is enough for me”?
As we celebrate our nation’s independence this July 4th, let us be resolved to be totally free and pray this gift for all others.
Rev. John Fisher, OSFS
