{"id":13732,"date":"2022-06-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-25T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turski.blog\/?p=13732"},"modified":"2022-06-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T23:00:00","slug":"13th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=13732","title":{"rendered":"13th Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

An American actor with a cringe-worthy Scottish accent provided an entire generation of Scots with visuals and a battle cry supporting their cause for an independent Scotland. The 1995 film \u201cBraveheart\u201d was a massive success because of the gripping way it told the story of William Wallace, but also because it had a very clear main thread: freedom. Even those viewers – like me – who hadn\u2019t had any previous knowledge of the Scottish Wars of Independence could identify with the story because freedom is something that everyone craves, and most nations have fought for. Freedom is one of the strongest ideas that draw people together and one for which many people are ready to pay the ultimate price. We can see that in the Ukrainians\u2019 resolve to fight the Russian invaders, who themselves claim that they’re fighting to free the former from Nazis and fascists. The latter idea is completely groundless and absolutely ridiculous, but it doesn\u2019t stop Russian officials from peddling such nonsense. That leads us to a question: what is \u201cfreedom\u201d or how do we understand it?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the most fundamental meaning <\/span>\u201cfreedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfil one’s purposes.\u201d (Wikipedia)<\/span><\/i> It\u2019s a very noble but impractical idea. When I exercise my personal freedom in an unrestricted and unlimited manner it means that everyone else’s personal freedom must be restricted and limited. Not to mention that we are restricted by the laws of nature, our own physicality, and our mortality. Of course, there are people who push the boundaries of their personal freedom but it\u2019s at the expense of others. A good example of this is offered by the so-called progressive ideologies which, in the name of freedom to defy various aspects of reality, shut down any discourse and trample over freedom of expression. To conclude, there\u2019s no absolute freedom; but we can and should crave, fight for, enjoy and exercise relative freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s second reading offers us an interesting insight into that: <\/span>\u201cWhen Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. My brothers, you were called, as you know, to liberty; but be careful, or this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence.\u201d<\/span><\/i> As human beings, we are inclined to selfishness in various shapes and forms, such as greed, self-importance, excess and so on. This is the main reason why every society since time immemorial and across the world has had social norms and laws. They are guardians of the personal freedom of each member of society and their role is to enforce acceptance of the limits to our personal freedom. However, St Paul offers us a higher level of freedom: <\/span>\u201cServe one another […] in works of love, since the whole of the Law is summarised in a single command: Love your neighbour as yourself.\u201d<\/span><\/i> In other words, we are called to put limits on our freedom without being forced to do so by external law or social norms. I call it the internal freedom to love and serve. The freedom that takes advantage of opportunities and is not extinguished by adversities. Such freedom can be exercised and practised regardless of external circumstances. This kind of internal freedom was exemplified by St Maximilian Kolbe, who in the most unimaginably barbaric reality of a Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz was able to freely offer himself on behalf of another prisoner. If we follow such an example in our small ways, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we can make the world a slightly better place for everyone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Image by John Paul Edge<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An American actor with a cringe-worthy Scottish accent provided an entire generation of Scots with visuals and a battle cry supporting their cause for an independent Scotland. The 1995 film \u201cBraveheart\u201d was a massive success because of the gripping way it told the story of William Wallace, but also because it had a very clear main thread: freedom. Even those viewers – like me – who hadn\u2019t had any previous knowledge of the Scottish Wars of Independence could identify with the story because freedom is something that everyone craves, and most nations have fought for. Freedom is one of the strongest ideas that draw people together and one for which many people are ready to pay the ultimate price. We can see that in the Ukrainians\u2019 resolve to fight the Russian invaders, who themselves claim that they’re fighting to free the former from Nazis and fascists. The latter idea is completely groundless and absolutely ridiculous, but it doesn\u2019t stop Russian officials from peddling such nonsense. That leads us to a question: what is \u201cfreedom\u201d or how do we understand it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-c"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}