True Freedom

          The other night, the Meyers gathered in the family room to watch The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the 2008 film that looks at the horrors of the Holocaust through the eyes of two 8-year old boys: Bruno, the son of a Nazi concentration camp commander; and Shmuel, a Jewish prisoner. The movie, poignant and disturbing in all of the right ways, prompted a family discussion about the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II, and how they could do such horrible things to their fellow man. Though historians, psychologists and others can do greater justice to the subject than I could ever hope to, I tried to explain that the Nazis were themselves prisoners – prisoners of their own lies, fears, willful ignorance and sin. Trapped in these disorders, they denied the self-evident truths “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”[1] Because they denied the Truth, the Nazis defied true freedom.

          Freedom is, of course, an act of reason and will to act on one’s own accord. But, true freedom isn’t what we often think or hope it might be: true freedom isn’t the right to do whatever we want. If it were, there’d be no such thing as right and wrong; there’d be no such thing as truth. If each person were free to do whatever he or she wanted to do, truth would be subjected to individual will. What you want to do is right for you, and what I want to do is right for me. While that may sound delightfully libertarian, it’s really a recipe for unhappiness and utter chaos.

          Just think about it, if we were each free to do whatever we wanted, we’d have no right to establish community standards, create laws or judge the acts of another, even when they infringe upon our own rights or the rights of others. To use a simple example, imagine that you decided that green meant go and red meant stop, but I decided that green meant stop and red meant go. In a free-for-all world, neither of us would be right or wrong, and neither would responsible for any harm that might arise from the inevitable accident that awaits us. Now let’s get more serious: if we were each free to do whatever we wanted, we’d have no right to denounce, stop or punish theft, rape, child abuse, murder or even genocide. How free would we be in a world that permitted such atrocities in the name of freedom? How free would we be if the value of human life is determined by individual will? How free would we be in a world where lies, fear, ignorance and sin reign? Just ask the Holocaust victims.

          That brings us to true freedom. True freedom “is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness.”[2] As the words suggest, true freedom is always decisively bound to objective Truth, that is, to God. God has written his law in our hearts and minds; he has spoken to us through the prophets; he abides in our consciences; and he has most intimately revealed his Truth to us in Jesus Christ. When we live as God teaches us, we live in true freedom, a freedom that respects the God-given dignity of all people, honors individual rights and promotes the common good. When we live as God teaches us, we grow to understand that we’re truly free whenever we set aside our personal desires for the benefit of others; we’re truly free when we work for justice and peace in our world; and we’re truly free whenever we lay down our lives for a friend. As Jesus said, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8: 31-32)

          Elie Wiesel – may his memory always be a blessing – understood true freedom. In his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, the Holocaust survivor turned author and political activist said:

As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.[3]

We’re truly free when we understand that our freedom rests not in self-interest, but in self-sacrifice. That’s the freedom that our soldiers fight to protect and defend. That’s the freedom we celebrate on Independence Day. That’s true freedom.

__________________________________________
[1] United States Declaration of Independence.
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church 1731.
[3] Elie Wiesel, Noble Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 1986.