COMMENTARY: America Needs a 'New Birth of Freedom'

To an age which has trumpeted an unfettered "freedom of choice",Catholics in America proclaim the essential connection between freedom, truth and responsibility.

CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - Ending his stirring Gettysburg Address, one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, spoke words of hope to a war ravaged Nation.

These words echo today as we celebrate Independence Day: "That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

America needs a new birth of freedom.

Throughout this Fourth of July Weekend Americans will gather to celebrate our Freedom on this commemoration of our Nation's Independence Day. We will pause to reflect on the meaning of freedom, as well as consider the obligations which it brings.

We will remember those who struggled, sacrificed and shed their blood to make and keep us free. We will celebrate freedom in our families and extended families, at gatherings, picnics, barbecues. Then, through the weekend, we will gather in the many Houses where we worship, to thank God.

The "Fourth of July" is like many American Holidays. Though it is a "secular" holiday, in the sense that it is connected with no specific religious tradition, it sinks its roots into our National soul and fuels our religious sentiment. Perhaps that is because we know that freedom is a gift from the One who created us. We know that it brings with it obligations to and for one another.

There is a unique moral instinct which grounds the American experience. The Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of his observations of this aspect of America in his now famous "Democracy in America". He is also purported to have said "America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

Pilgrims to our shores have said similar things. Recently we had the privilege of hosting the successor of Peter and Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI. He came at a critical hour to proclaim "Christ our Hope" as the source of all true freedom. Some of his observations about our nation bear reflection on this Independence Day.

"From the dawn of the republic, America's quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the Creator," said Pope Benedict XVI. "The framers of this Nation's founding documents drew upon this conviction when they proclaimed the 'self-evident truth' that all men are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights grounded in the laws of nature and of nature's God."

He reminded us that we are not only free from external oppression but free for virtuous living. "Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility," the Pope said. "The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate."

In his inspired homilies and allocutions he referred repeatedly to his predecessor in office, the Apostle of Freedom, the late Servant of God John Paul II. He juxtaposed one of the late Pope's insights concerning the connection between freedom and truth (one of his most enduring themes) with words spoken by our first President which revealed his belief in the same connection.

Pope John Paul II said that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation". And, Pope Benedict noted that George Washington affirmed this connection,"President Washington expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent 'indispensable supports' of political prosperity."

The Holy Father reminded us "Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation."

The great struggle of this hour is being waged - knowingly or unknowingly - over the very meaning of the word freedom. It is a contest with extraordinary implications for our future. Almost every contemporary concern can be positioned within this struggle. How one defines human freedom will influence the way that he or she views almost everything.

America needs a new birth of freedom.

Freedom has consequences. Our choices not only change the world around us, but they make us to be the kinds of persons we become in the very act of choosing. The capacity to make choices is what makes us truly human persons. What we then choose either humanizes us further or leads us, ultimately, into slavery.

Our capacity to choose reflects the Image of God, present within every human person. As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote in their document on the Mission of the Church in the Modern World, "Authentic freedom is an outstanding manifestation of the divine image within man." (Gaudium et Spes, "Joy and Hope", 17)

Classical, orthodox Christians of every community, confession and ilk, need to listen closely to those using the word "freedom" today. We must ask what they really mean when they speak the word. We need to hear the true voices of freedom in our hour and reject the siren song of the contemporary libertines.

Two voices tower above all the others in proclaiming the real meaning of human freedom, the late Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. These two servants of God are sometimes presented by advocates of a false vision of freedom as archaic remnants of some perceived "oppressive system."

Yet, just the opposite is true. Their message points us to a future of true freedom. They are the champions of an authentic human liberation.

They insist that there is such a thing as truth and that freedom must always be exercised in relationship to that truth. Otherwise, our choices will lead to new forms of slavery and anarchy. It is only in choosing what is true and good that we come to experience human flourishing, serve the common good, promote justice and further true liberation.

In the first year of his service to the Church the news was filled with quotes from a message that Pope Benedict delivered to an assembly of families. He coined a phrase that was heard around the world, "anarchic freedom":

"Today's various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages as well as the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex are instead expressions of anarchic freedom which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man,"

He was absolutely correct.

In that phrase he affirmed the teaching of his predecessor. This "anarchic freedom" is what Pope John Paul the Great referred to as a "counterfeit" notion of freedom. It can lead to something he warned of in his extraordinary encyclical letter "The Gospel of Life", namely the "death of true freedom"

One of the overriding themes of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II was his insistence upon- a true and authentic definition of human freedom. Only such a true and authentic freedom, can light the path for individuals, communities, Nations and the international community to find their way out of the darkness of the hour.

America needs a new birth of freedom.

In his prophetic encyclical, "The Gospel of Life," John Paul II warned of what he called a "perverse idea of freedom". He reaffirmed the "essential link" between freedom and truth. In "The Splendor of Truth," another prophetic encyclical, he encouraged all those who truly cherish authentic human freedom to effective action by reminding us that "freedom itself needs to be set free."

In an age which has for too long trumpeted an unfettered "freedom of choice" as the highest value, Catholics in America must insist upon the essential connection between freedom, truth and responsibility. We may be free to choose, but we are not free to make the objects of our choice right or wrong, good or evil.

The substitution of license for liberty is what John Paul warned of when he wrote of "a notion of freedom, which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and service of them." It has, as the prophet in the chair of Peter warned, resulted from the "eclipse of the sense of God and of man typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism."

America needs a new birth of freedom.

When a nation loses its conviction that the right to life is inalienable and that the dignity of every human person is the foundation of any notion of authentic human freedom, it loses freedom itself. It kills it --- in the womb --- or at the bedside of the suffering. Oh, it may continue to mouth the word, and even develop a certain veneer of compassion, and language of "tolerance" behind which it hides its own barbarism.

Fortunately, the Lord, in the words of the Psalmist David, still "hears the cry of the poor." In the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the God of the whole universe took up residence in a womb and He died on an instrument of torture reserved only for the worst of criminals.

From His wounded side, He birthed a new creation, which, clothed with the same power that raised His glorified Body from the tomb, now must open the path to the recovery of authentic freedom for contemporary humankind.

This Body, His Church, has always had as a part of her saving mission to speak truth to unbridled power and, in so doing, to expose the lies of the "cultures of death" throughout the last two thousand years. She must do so now in this new missionary age.

Sometimes, just when the darkness looks like it will surely sweep the truth away, the Church, through her members seems to lead the way to a rebirth of truth, life and authentic freedom. So may it be in our age.

America needs a new birth of freedom.

As we participate in this missionary work of the Church in the Third Christian Millennium, the task and work of restoring freedom has passed to us. In a particular way, it has fallen to Catholic Christians.

We have been given the treasury of truth through the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. That treasury includes a treasure that for too long has been hidden in a field, the social teaching of that Church. The scriptural adage makes it so clear that "to those to whom much is given, much more will be required."

This treasury has not been given so that we can retreat from this culture, but rather, so that we can transform it from within, elevate it as leaven raises the proverbial loaf, humanize it, civilize it and point it toward that which every human person longs for, authentic freedom.

We Catholic Christians must never see ourselves as a beleaguered "victim" group and simply protect ourselves. We are to live redemptively, carrying forward in time the ongoing work of the Redeemer whom we follow.

We carry on this redemptive mission of the Author of life and the One who is Truth. He still hears the cry of the poor and He expects that we will be His hands to protect them, lift them up, and to provide freedom to the captives and a voice to those who have none.

America needs a new birth of freedom.

It is time to "set freedom free" and proclaim liberty to the captives, at every age and stage of the spectrum of life. It is time to help build a new and authentic public philosophy that reclaims the word "freedom" and once again positions it within the framework of truth, solidarity, charity and human dignity.

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict are freedom fighters. In their insistence upon the existence of absolute moral norms and truths to guide human behavior, they remind us all that the struggle for freedom is the struggle of our age. The Catholic Church exists to proclaim and point the way to authentic human freedom and its complete fulfillment in the Word Incarnate who truly sets us free.

According to Benedict this was John Paul II's mission, "...when, in face of all attempts, apparently benevolent, in the face of erroneous interpretations of freedom, he underlined in an unequivocal way the inviolability of the human being, the inviolability of human life, from its conception until natural death."

It has also clearly become his mission as well.

Exposing the "erroneous interpretations of freedom" and proclaiming the full truth concerning freedom is the task of the hour and he is clearly up to that task. Our invitation is to heed his words and follow them, committing ourselves to the struggle for freedom. In one of his seminal works entitled "Introduction to Christianity" then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger wrote:"...one could very well describe Christianity as a philosophy of freedom."

And, so it still is.

Philosophy deals with the existential questions. The men and women of this age are asking the same questions which men and women of every age have always asked. They hunger for truth. They yearn to be truly free. They will never be fully satisfied without God, who is the source, author and way to freedom.

Authentic freedom leads men, women and Nations to true human liberation. The contemporary neo-pagan and post modernist age has become intoxicated on the wine of a false notion of freedom as a raw power over others who are weaker and the "right" to do whatever one wills.

Pope Benedict opined concerning legal abortion and creeping euthanasia warning: "The freedom to kill is not true freedom, but a tyranny that reduces the human being to slavery." Through His leadership of the Catholic Church, this false definition of freedom is being exposed and the truth concerning authentic freedom is being proclaimed and demonstrated.

The new counter culture movement of this age is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church proclaims the way of authentic human freedom and liberation through Jesus Christ.

To an age enamored with so many false concepts of "choice" the Catholic Church proclaims the unchangeable truth that some "choices" are always and everywhere wrong. Choosing them does not make one free, rather it erodes freedom and leads to slavery.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses these wrong exercises of human freedom reminding us of the extraordinary implications of our use of our power to choose: "Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself." (CCC, 1861.)

Authentic Human Freedom will never be found in decisions that are made against God and against the Natural Law. As Pope Benedict XVI stated, with the clarity that the world so desperately needs in this crucial moment, such a "freedom" is anarchic.

America needs a new birth of freedom.

Happy Fourth of July; Let freedom ring!

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