21 March 2018

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Who is the slave in today’s readings? In Deuteronomy 3, it seems that King Nebuchadnezzar is the free man who can command Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be thrown into the furnace and burned. In the end, however, the king’s power is for naught, since Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego live the greatest freedom, even while “walking with God,” in the midst of the hell into which Nebuchadnezzar has capriciously cast them. In fact, the caprice of the king, which initially appears to be freedom (the king can, after all, “do what he wants”), ends up being revealed as the true slavery, since through his anger, the king seems to have been compelled to carry out his evil designs, whereas Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whom the king constrained through imprisonment, live out the greatest freedom within that constraint.

Who, then, is a slave, and who is free? So many people crusade for liberation, but do they even understand what genuine freedom is, or are they enslaved by false notions of freedom which ultimately enslave them even more? Those who think that they are most free because they have the greatest power to impose their disordered desires upon others are often the most enslaved, for Jesus declares, “amen, amen, I say to you,

everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” ( Jn 8:34)! Jesus offers, however, a path to true freedom, which the world cannot comprehend: “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” ( Jn 8:31). No one but Christ can offer the truth that comes from remaining in his Word: let us ask him for this grace, and discover true freedom in his life, given to us as our own.