Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
(Daniel 3:14-20.91-92.95; John 8:31-42)
Most people think of freedom as the absence of physical
restrictions. As long as one can go
where she wants and say what she wants, she is free. But this is a limited freedom. A really free person is not bound by inner
forces like an addiction or a vice. If
someone cannot stop gambling even after putting the deed to his house as
collateral, who can think of this person as free? In today’s gospel Jesus refers to this fuller
kind of freedom as not being “a slave to sin.”
The reading curiously refers to “Jews who believed in him
(Jesus).” Their faith in Jesus as Lord
evidently wavers like people today who were baptized but don’t practice the faith. When Jesus challenges them to follow him
completely, they demur. They want to
keep the prerogative of doing what they like when those deeds do not comply
with Jesus’ teaching. Jesus rightly
implies that they are acting more like children of darkness than children of
light.
It's tempting to hold out for one’s independence. Something inside us wants to do what we want
to do when we want to do it. Such an
outlook will only lead us to folly. More
sadly, it will deny us of the joy of being with Jesus.
