Never Take Freedom for Granted

An Everyday Stewardship Reflection for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2016

1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

1738 Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order.

– from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

For those of us that are Americans, we must never take for granted the freedom we enjoy to worship and to believe as we desire. God has given each human being the free will to shape one’s life. There are many places in the world that seek to limit or destroy that free will. At times, even our own country risks curtailing those freedoms because of political agenda or blindness to the Truth.

Good stewardship demands we not only give thanks for that freedom, but we use it to grow in faith and maturity. How can we not fully live out our faith in freedom when there are others in this world that have no way of expressing their beliefs? Once we grow in our faith and become mature disciples, we need to recognize the need to fight for all of our human brothers and sisters that they may enjoy the same freedom that we do. We must not count the cost in this struggle, for the cost involved with doing nothing may be even greater.

For all those in the US, Have a blessed and safe July 4th Weekend!