True Freedom-The Freedom to choose God!

On this past Friday we celebrated the Solemnity of the great Saints Peter and Paul. Even though they did not die on the same day our Holy Mother Church celebrates their death, or their birth into eternal life, on the same day. The two were one because they were both called by the Lord to be apostles.

Peter and Paul were also one in the fact that they were to proclaim the truth that sets men truly free and gives men life, not only eternal life, but the fullness of life in this world as well. They were also one in that they shed their blood for their fidelity to this truth; and they did so out of love for Christ and for His Holy Church and her members; but also in love for all men.

Peter and Paul gave their lives for the Truth in love or better yet for the Truth in Charity. They did this in two ways; first by giving their lives to preach this truth to the world in order to convict it of its sins, so that it might repent and accept this truth both in mind and in will in order to have true freedom and life. And second, they consummated their preaching with the shedding of their blood; Peter shedding His blood on the cross representing Charity; and Paul shedding His blood on the sword representing the Truth. In this Peter and Paul’s martyrdoms are also one, one in Charity and in truth. For there is no love, no charity without the truth.

The Holy Church today and all her members, both religious and lay, must continue this mission given to it by Christ to Preach the Truth to all. If they do not, if we do not, then we don’t carry out God’s great commission to love our brothers as our selves. We must give the truth. But we must do it not with a club, not with self-righteousness, but with love-with Charity.

Take homosexual acts for instance. If we deny that these acts are intrinsically evil, deny the fact that they not only offend God but hurt those engaged in such acts, and hurt society in general; if we deny that these acts go against the very nature of man and the very nature of marriage as God has created man and marriage; if we deny this truth by not only accepting homosexual acts but condoning them as well, then we fail to proclaim the truth in love. We fail to love our brother and our sister who are engaged in these acts by refusing to tell them that truth that sets them free and gives them life.

I read an article a few days ago about this very thing. It was written by a Catholic man who in love speaks out about the destructiveness of homosexual acts and so-called Homosexual “marriages.” He said he is often confronted, as are all Christians who speak out against “gay marriage,” by those who say, what does it hurt you if the government makes law allowing homosexual marriage? He says he responds to this question by saying, “It will hurt me because it will destroy religious freedom and free speech rights. It means that those hostile to our beliefs will attempt to bend us to their will to force us to not only accept gay “marriage,” but to condone it as well. Once it is law then any person who speaks out about it will be going against the law. The Law will not just allow such an evil but will coerced all to not only put up with homosexual marriage but to condone it. And this is exactly what is happening for instance in Canada where you can now be arrested by law for a hate crime if you speak out against homosexual acts and homosexual marriage.

But if we love them we must speak the truth to them, even if we are shunned by the modern society, even if we are persecuted by the modern society. We Christians must come at it from an altruistic prospected, that is from a perspective of love, love for the sinner but hate for the sin—love in truth. We must tell them it is wrong because we love them and that their actions have eternal consequences.

I recently heard that a Christian was present at a T.V. talk show in Canada hosted by a famous anti-catholic, anti Christian- atheist. The show attacks religion in every way. After the show in which they were promoting homosexuality, promoting every anti-life idea you could image, including smashing Christianity to bits, this Christian came up to try to convert this anti Christian atheist. The atheist responded to the Christian’s efforts with a very interesting comment. He said:
“If you believe that there is a heaven and hell, and that people could be going to hell or not getting to eternal life or whatever, and you think that its not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…-how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible , and not tell them that?”

Isn’t this the point, from this atheist…to tell them the truth in love, because of love, out of love for them and concern for their well-being, their physical well being (all of the many resulting diseases) their psychological well being (vastly higher depression and suicide rates), their emotional well being (incredibly higher rates of emotional and physical abuse); and most of all for their eternal well-being.

Our enemies are not flesh and blood…We tell them the truth, because we love them. And we want them to know the truth and come to the truth so that they might not be lost but might have life and have to the full. Again as I said at the beginning, not just eternal life…but the fullness of this life here on earth as well—living the fullness of life as a human person.

This is what is at stake with regards to our current struggle with religious freedom. It is so much more that freedom to worship. The enemies of the truth will give us that, at least for the time being. It is even more than the freedom to not to betray our principles and our conscience, which are part of our human dignity. Religious freedom is freedom to engage society; the freedom to proclaim to all of the members of society out of love for them, the truth that sets men free, gives them true happiness and saves them.

It is the freedom to, in Charity, speak out against all evil, yes, against the evil of homosexual acts, which are life-less acts; but also against the evils of artificial contraception which too are life-less and so oppress and degrade women and endangers their health and well-being; it is the freedom to, in love, defend life, to defend the life of the human person in all of its stages; to speak out in defense of the dignity of every single human person born or unborn, rich or poor, sick or healthy, black or white, conscious or unconscious; to defend all human persons, especially those who cannot defend them selves.

We must like St. Peter and Paul preach the truth with love, with our holiness of life; and even, God give us the grace, if necessary with our blood. The eternal destiny of millions of souls hangs in the balance, the survival of our nation and our civilization hangs in the balance.

Blessed John Paul II once said, “If you want peace work for justice, if you want justice defend life, if you want life, accept the truth, the truth that comes from God. This is what we must tell the world, not because we want to condemn but because we love it, we must tell the world…it is the truth that comes from God that gives true liberty, happiness and life.

The ruling of the Supreme Court upholding the Abortion expanding health care reform unjust law, known as Obama Care, has made many of us who have been fighting the mandate and the threats against religious liberty and fighting the anti-life forces in our country, this ruling has made many of us distraught and discouraged. The opposite needs to be the case.

Fr. Frank Pavone, head of “Priest for Life,” said the ruling must energize us. He
reminded us of the Words of Sacred Scripture which tells us, “Do not fret at the triumph of the wicked: do not let yourself be deceived or disturbed, because their triumph is always fleeting, is always temporary.” The same needs to be said for our fight for religious liberty, the ruling needs to energize us, it should make us well up with righteous indignation.

Fr. Pravone said, “We go at it spiritually from that point of view to say Lord, you allow darkness, you allow us to fall into depths of evil, and yet you never take away the way out, you never close off the way back to salvation.”
We can take the advice of Fr. Pavone to turn our disappointment to concrete action, however small. ( Sign the petition in the back, writing our elected officials and voting our conscience this fall, praying before the Blessed Sacrament for the conversion of our Country).

Father also said, so it is not a matter of praying that things will be well, it’s about experiencing the presence of Christ in the midst of this. We ask ourselves: what concretely can I do today about this? What can I do to rally people to educate them? As soon as we put our energies into some concrete action, no matter how small it is, then it starts re-encouraging us.”

In a few days we will celebrate our freedom in this country. But let us make sure we are not celebrating a false freedom. That is the false idea that reduces freedom to individuals choosing whatever they want, from homosexual acts to so-called homosexual marriage, from contracepted acts, to abortion, so long as it’s a choice condoned by the government. As Archbishop Lori, recently said, “…when freedom is reduced to individuals choosing whatever they want, so long as it’s a choice condoned by the government, then religious liberty is severely limited. And If this false secular idea of freedom prevails, it is the strong—those who have money, power and influence—who end up imposing their views, their “truth” on others. This is what Pope Benedict calls the “dictatorship of relativism.”

And With regards to the Church Her freedom will become limited to worship, preaching, and teaching only behind the walls of the building of the Church only. She will not be able to carry out its commission to preach the truth in love, to being able to put her teaching into practice through her own institutions when they hire or serve people of other faiths or of no faith at all.

But let us instead celebrate true freedom; the freedom to choose the true, the good and the beautiful, which comes from God and is ultimately God. Let us celebrate true freedom, which allows us to proclaim the truth that comes from God to all men, the truth which reveals to all men the truth about God and the truth about man himself; the freedom which allows men to choose this Truth, to choose God Himself. This true notion of freedom is the one on which this great nation was built and which rests the dignity and the worth of every human person, born or unborn. Let us more than ever defend this true freedom, but even more importantly let us live it. Our Lady of the Americas pray for us.