Read the daily readings from the USCCB website here!
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
A slave does not remain in a household forever,
but a son always remains.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free."
These words of Jesus from the gospel were particularly striking to me this morning. John Paul II said in his book Love and Responsibility that "freedom exists for the sake of love." I've also heard it said that freedom exists to be given away (though I couldn't find a solid citation on that one). Jesus shows us how we as humans have an unfortunate tendency to give our freedom away to sin. We bind ourselves to fetters that prevent us from being who we are truly made to be. And who are we made to be? In being made in the image and likeness of God, God desires us to know that we are His children: sons and daughters of a Father who is ridiculously in love with us.
The only way to get out of slavery, truly, it to be made free. It's not something that one can achieve for oneself. Freedom is what Jesus is offering us. He recognizes our pitiful state as slaves even when we don't recognize it for ourselves, and He wants to free us on behalf of our heavenly Father whose plan never desired that we be enslaved. We have to choose to accept this freedom, and it comes with a total paradigm shift.
As sons and daughters of God the Father we're called to learn what that role entails from Jesus. JPII also said, "Man cannot fully find himself, except through a sincere gift of himself." Jesus gave us the sincere gift of Himself. We must imitate Him in giving the sincere gift of ourselves to God the Father. Our life is not about us.
-Amanda Nobis, Director of Evangelization