Man by nature yearns for freedom. He is a person. Man is a rational and relational being that know and elects; he has free will, a potential for freedom.
Our Judeo-Christian tradition expresses it in the words of the Bible: “And God said: ‘Let Us make man in our image and likeness’.”
It is surprising that, knowing the reality of social and political oppression, our tradition is oriented primarily to the redemption from slavery to sin. If we list words such as liberty, redemption, rescue, and all their synonyms and variations in the Bible, we could be surprised. “Oppression” appears 21 times, and “to oppress” 23. Upon examination, we find that it is God who rescues and frees the oppressed. It is Israel who is ordered not to oppress and who is most punished for oppressing.
The liberating experience par excellence is the liberation from the oppression in Egypt. It is God’s hand that liberates the people of Israel:
7And the Lord said: I have looked and seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have listened to their cry before their overseers, for I know their suffering;
8And I have descended to tear them from the hand of the Egyptians, and taking them from that land make them go up to a good and ample land that flows milk and honey…
9Now look, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me; and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians squeeze them. (Ex 3, 7-9)
Throughout scripture we can clearly see that the greatest oppression is the personal sin of each which becomes social due the inherent solidarity that joins us all. A good example is Ezequiel 22. Even thought Israel comes to yearn for a liberator who will restore her independence and greatness, and that by the time of the Maccabees this is understood in a political and military manner, it is clear that Jesus rejects this option and submits himself to the Sanhedrin and the Romans even to his death. This option was already clear in the narration of the temptations in the desert where the devil tempts him with wealth, temporal power and fame; temptations he rejects.
That St Paul so understood it is clear when, despite being imprisoned by the Roman authorities, he instructs us to obey those very authorities.
True liberty comes from truth. He who does as he pleases, misguided by his ignorance is only a slave to his desires and ignorance. 14But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own lust. 15Then lust when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully consummated, engenders death. But truth sets us free. 31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." 33They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become free'?" 34Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave. (Jn 8, 31-34)
Even though mankind has always had this yearning for freedom, in each age it has had its own flavor. About 250 years ago, when so many lived under political oppression, but began to dream of a political liberty –exaggerated in France, disciplined and responsible in what would be the USA.
In the first case, the words of the so-called enlightened thinkers broke their dikes and overran the people with a torrent of violent justice seeking sentiments. In the second, a deep knowledge of human nature afflicted by sin, led to the elaboration of a system that took this reality into account without flinching or pulling back; a system under the law, that required discipline and self control.
Today, when so many have so much, and all dream of having all, the ideal of liberty tends to be one of licentiousness. The baby boomers became the generation of hippies and then yuppies and now we can say with Jesus: “This wicked and perverse generation.” This makes it all the easier to succumb to envy and judgment –both go hand in hand. In Latin America this led to guerillas and libertationism. Fidel, Castro, Che Guevara, Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales on the one hand; Camilo Torres and Ernesto Cardenal on another, and also many theologians, bishops and priests, have succumbed to paths that provide a divergent way to man’s realization.
So many of them could not understand their failures, the sterility of their mission, the meaning of the faith they had inherited, so much pretty bourgeois rite in the midst of hunger and suffering. It made sense to them that “it makes no sense to preach the Word of God to an empty stomach.” They had no experience of the resurrected and powerful Jesus Christ. Oh, yes! They knew the scriptures, historical and literary criticism, and all the technical analysis of the experts, but, of the Word of God, nothing. They admired the efficacy of the sciences, of sociology, of psychology, of medicine, of economics; but they could not understand poverty and misery, much less in view of the success and wealth of so many.
These “injustices” blind them to a truth that is not far from us: real suffering comes not from want of material goods or lack of health, but it is a moral suffering born in fear of death, in insecurity before the absurdity of a futureless life, a Godless life. The pursuit of a material and ephemeral life is absolutely frustrating. Whoever, through fear of death, surrenders to slavery, will search for life where there is none and will unavoidably go from disenchantment to despair.
A rootless people will never find security or liberty. A people need to be rooted in truth and to exercise their liberty from a trust founded in a sense of life oriented to Love, by Love.
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