Commentary: Contend for the Future by Setting Freedom Free

When a Nation loses its conviction that the right to life is inalienable it loses freedom itself. It kills it -- in the womb -- or at the bedside of the suffering.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - The end of the year often brings with it lists of people who should be remembered as praiseworthy. I read today of the "NARAL/Pro-Choice Hall of Fame and Shame." Among those who were "honored" by this evil organization is the late term abortionist Dr. LeRoy Carhart. Among those dishonored are some whom they call "anti-choice" for trying to protect our youngest neighbors from being killed by voluntary abortion. The perversity of the thinking which gave rise to this profane list reminded me of the great challenge we face in the coming year. We are contending for the very future of freedom itself. Freedom needs to be set free.

Two years before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wotyla (Pope John Paul II) spoke to the Catholic Bishops of the United States. His observation was republished in the Wall Street Journal on November 9, 1978: "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church... must take up."

The challenges we face include the calumny of our fellow citizens. For example, we are accused of being against progress and "anti-science", when nothing could be further from the truth. We insist that science exists to serve the person, the family and the common good. Science can become a force for evil. Our common history has shown how that can occur when the human heart and capacity for making the right choice becomes corrupted. As for progress, we are the real progressives. We proclaim a new and true humanism which will foster true progress and stem the descent into a new barbarianism.

In "The Gospel of Life" John Paul II warned of a "perverse idea of freedom" and reaffirmed the "essential link" between freedom and truth. In "The Splendor of Truth" he proclaimed that "freedom itself needs to be set free." Christians are the champions of freedom in this age. We insist upon the essential connection between freedom, truth and responsibility. We agree that humans certainly are "free" to choose but insist some choices are always wrong, like killing children.

We are not free to determine right or wrong, good or evil. We all really know that. Some simply hide evil choices behind fraudulent language which tickles their ears, as demonstrated by "NARAL, Pro-Choice America".Our acceptance of universally recognized rights, truths and obligations has formed the foundation for the Rule of Law and made Western Civilization itself possible. There is a Natural Law written on our conscience which is knowable through the exercise of reason. It is the measuring stick for any just positive law. When we fail to recognize it, we lose our way and we lose our freedom.

The substitution of license for liberty is what John Paul had in mind when he wrote of "a notion of freedom, which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and service of them." As he prophetically warned it has resulted from the "eclipse of the sense of God and of man typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism." There is a struggle underway. We have only begun to contend for the future.

When a Nation loses its conviction that the right to life is inalienable it loses freedom itself. It kills it --- in the womb --- or at the bedside of the suffering. Oh, it may continue to mouth the word but it is hollow, without any real content. Without the right to life there are no other rights. Without the freedom to be born, there are no other freedoms. Freedom is a good of the human person. It brings with it responsibility for one another. We are our brother/sister's keeper, at every age and stage of their life.

As Christians we proclaim that in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ the God of the whole universe took up residence in a womb for nine blessed months. From that living tabernacle He was saving the world. He was born in our midst as one like us in all things but sin. We recently commemorated His Holy Nativity. He lived among us, re-creating us all in the process. He died on an instrument of torture reserved only for the worst of criminals in order to set us free. St. Paul told the Galatians "It was for freedom that Christ set us free". (Gal. 5:10)

From His wounded side He birthed the Church, which, clothed with the same power that raised His glorified Body from the tomb, is called to proclaim freedom. Over two millennia she has been called upon to expose the lies of "cultures of death" - such as the one which currently threatens freedom in the West. In the past, just when the darkness looked like it would surely sweep the light of truth away; the Church arose, leading the way to a rebirth. So it will be in our day. The work of setting freedom free" has now passed to us.

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We can never retreat from human culture. We are called to transform it from within, elevate it as leaven raises the proverbial loaf. We are called to humanize it, offering freedom to all with whom we share our life. Christians must never see themselves as a beleaguered "victim" group. We are to live "redemptively", carrying forward in time the ongoing work of the Redeemer whom we follow.

The Venerable John Paul II was correct: "We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church... must take up." It is time to contend for the future by 'Setting Freedom Free'.

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