Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Recently I’ve been reading Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm. This book is a classic. Basically, it asks (or asked) the question of why people in free societies would sometimes give up their freedom and support authoritarian regimes. Erich Fromm had a startling but clear answer for this: freedom in individualistic societies could lead to a sense of isolation and insecurity among people. They, in turn, might turn to tyrants to have a sense of security.
The lesson from this is simple. Freedom is not free. Freedom holds with it certain responsibilities. We shouldn’t give up our freedom to fall into division and strife. It doesn’t matter what groups we belong to. St. Paul declared to his followers that it didn’t matter if the disciples belonged to Apollos’ teaching or to his own. The only thing that mattered to Paul was that all people belong to Christ. It didn’t matter to Paul who had converted someone as long as a person had come to know Jesus in truth. It is just as true today as it was then. We belong to Jesus. We serve Christ. That is our greatest freedom. We must not give in to the pressure of a mob mentality or following competing factions. We must use our freedom to follow Jesus all the more.
Reflection: We live in a time of great division and strife. Jesus healed people in the Gospel today who suffered from different diseases. Say a prayer today asking God to heal the greatest disease of all: division among people.
Reflection by Br. Matthew Marie, OSB
Posted in Articles for Lent, Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources