A lot of our work in the School of Community (the weekly catechesis for those who follow Communion and Liberation) has much to educating our heart and mind to depth and horizon of freedom as a gift give by God for our living in grace –His inner life. Today, I came across a terrific essay on freedom that is at once liberating and daunting. A real substantial call to be in communion with the Holy Trinity. Here’s an excerpt of Ware’s essay and a link to the full article follows.
“Freedom is, indeed, a heavy burden. But as soon as we renounce our freedom, as soon as we refuse the cross of choice and conflict, we reject the Divine image within us. We become less than human. We become unmen. Likewise, if we deny others their freedom, we dehumanize them. We cease to regard them as living persons in the image of God. It is precisely here that we discern the wickedness, the grievous and shocking sinfulness of all human trafficking, of all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse. We are treating human beings in such cases not as subjects endowed with freedom, but as commodities to be manipulated as we wish. We are treating them not as persons in the image of God, but as objects. We lose all reverence in this way for the Divine image, and so we lose all sense of relationship with the other. That is why human trafficking is so disgraceful! It is a denial of the value, the freedom, of the person—a denial of the image.”
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware
The rest of His Eminence’s essay may be read here, “Restoration of the Human Icon: Divine Compassion and Human Trafficking”