The Catholic Herald recently asked for readers’ thoughts and comments on what the word and idea of “freedom” means to them.
Following are some of the responses we have received. Thank you to everyone who has answered thus far.
If you’d like to ponder and answer that very same question, we’d love to hear from you.
Send your responses via email at
[email protected] or by mail to Catholic Herald 702 S. High Point Rd., Ste 121, Madison, WI 53719.
Juan de Bonilla, a 16th century Franciscan wrote “True freedom consists in not being attached to anything. It is in this detachment that God seeks your soul in order to work His great marvels.”
This definition of freedom rings so very true because of a man I met several years ago.
I was visiting hospice to support a friend visiting a dying friend of hers.
After pleasantries, he recounted his life, his childhood, both of which were filled with extreme pain.
Things that went beyond the usual very bad occurrences and offenses.
After what seemed to be a horror story, all he could say was “Thank you, God. Aren’t we blessed? Jesus is right here with us right now!” (verbatim)
I was shocked. This man was known throughout the diocese to be very holy, but I’m not sure how many people know how much pain he had gone through.
He was free of the chains of bitterness, anger, and self-loathing and had been for some time judging by his fruits in parish life.
This dying man who couldn’t leave his bed was freer than I in my complaints on daily life or from my sinful attachments.
I was free to go outside or go to a restaurant.
He possessed true freedom though.
Monica Simpson
Madison
Days after Kevin Wondrash’s invitation to write about FREEDOM, it was the song lyric “freedom was the highway,” sung during this week’s three-hour country music extravaganza that produced this musing . . . Yes, TV can be motivating.
During the same show, a FREEDOM charge card promo promised up to three percent back on spending.
That confirmed my need to at least consider Kevin’s challenge.
By night’s end, I had come up with quite a variety of phrases which included the enticing word FREEDOM.
It seems to me that FREEDOM by nature is perfection. It is man’s nature that complicates the “state of being free”.
God gave each of us our own unique talents and personalities which leads each to define what perfection is.
And therein is the problem. Each of us has our own idea of FREEDOM.
My husband’s reluctant response to what FREEDOM meant to him was “freedom to relax in retirement”.
We are both 80 years old, so we have had lots of time to set new personal standards . . . If you sense his challenge you are spot-on.
Of course, I have my “honey-do” list on the refrigerator which conflicts with his FREEDOM to relax.
“Freedom from religion” opposes “freedom of religion”. Facebook has become a censor of “freedom of speech”. The “freedom train,” the “freedom caucus” . . . “let freedom ring” brings conclusion to an inspiring song about “my country” and its offer of liberty.
Of course, many peoples of the world want to live that life. But freedom is not free; that is a fact.
Is freedom a right of ALL or is it an individual thing? My husband is living proof that freedom is not possible as an individual goal . . . sorry, well sort of sorry.
So how do we bring harmony to such diversity? My only conclusion is to live the words of our creator and brother Jesus Christ and “LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”.
We all have that FREEDOM of choice. God bless us, everyone.
Lucy Parisi
Black Earth
I think of freedom in terms of our responsibility to others to make God’s love known through our actions.
To me freedom is being able to walk down the street and feel safe and welcome, not fearing the harmful and even deadly consequences of others’ assumptions based on the color of one’s skin or someone else thinking you’re not “from here”.
Freedom is the dignity of being able to buy food, pay for housing, have the resources to live comfortably, and take time to enjoy life because you make a just living wage by working only one job.
Freedom means being able to go where you need to go to meet your basic needs, feel safe, and have opportunities, even if that means leaving the home you know and love to cross a border into a new land.
Freedom means being able to connect with God’s Creation and enjoy the beauty of nature which we have taken care to preserve, and to breathe fresh air, enjoy clean water, and have access to healthy, sustainable food systems.
We have much work to do to bring about a world where all are free, but I find hope knowing all this is possible, and I can choose to help make it happen.
Laura Green
Madison
“Freedom” has indeed become a divisive issue in our society today. So when you asked what freedom meant to your gentle readers, I was reminded of Bishop Robert Barron’s words on the subject of freedom.
To paraphrase Bishop Barron, freedom cannot simply mean license, or the ability to do whatever one wants. That of course led to the downfall of Adam and Eve in the garden! Rather, in our Catholic worldview, freedom is the ability to follow a well-formed conscience into submission to God’s commands.
As Jesus told us, “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21)
Katie Rice
Fitchburg
What is freedom? Freedom is a gift from God. God created us in His image and likeness and endowed us with intelligence and free will.
God made us so we could share His life with us in Heaven. And he didn’t leave it all up to us. He also showed us what we are to do to get there in the Ten Commandments and through the life, death, and Resurrection of His son Jesus.
With the intelligence we received from God and with His guidance, we can know the difference between good and evil.
That’s where our freedom comes in and the responsibility that goes with it.
Do we choose a life with God or not?
So it is with all our freedoms. If we cherish our freedoms, we must also accept the responsibilities that go with them according to the way God has intended.
Virginia Schmitt
Fitchburg