“The True Meaning of Love, Freedom, Identity, and Empowerment” - 07.03.22 (14th Sunday OT- C)
“The True Meaning of Love, Freedom, Identity, and Empowerment”
By: Fr. David Schmidt
Mary, Queen of Saints Parish - St. John the Baptist Church - Monaca, PA
Mass Readings - https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070322.cfm
The use of language and the way we define our terms is incredibly important. It is important because when you control the language then you control the culture. Right now, the culture has control of the language and it’s causing many people confusion, especially Catholics, because the way certain terms are defined effects the way we interpret various situations and how the teachings of the Church apply. The terms I want to highlight specifically are: love, freedom (rites), identity (acceptance), and empowerment.
I will say this before I get into these, that this could be a much a longer talk, but I just want to briefly touch on each of these today, so that when you are about your daily lives you can better discern and navigate these very difficult situations.
The first term is love. The culture defines love as a feeling, or the common phrase that we hear frequently is “Love is Love.” This phrase is used as a way of indicating that we are able to love (in a romantic relationship sense) whoever we want without being questioned. This is probably the trickiest of the terms I’m going to discuss because love is the fundamental desire of the human heart. We desire to love and be loved. We ache to be loved. So to say ‘no’ to someone when it comes to loving another can sound incredibly harsh and cruel. It is interpreted as, “You don’t want me to experience love?” This of course is not the case as God desires all of His children to experience love.
Love correctly defined is not, “Love is Love.” Love is not love because God is love. It is God’s love that created and orders all of creation. And God revealed the depths of His love on the Cross. When we try to come up with a good definition of love, all we need to do is point to the Cross. If love is defined in any way that does not include the Cross of Jesus Christ then what that person is describing is not love, but they are instead describing a feeling, attraction, or their own belief.
Specifically with marital love, which is the main use of the term ‘love is love,’ is again defined only through the Cross of Christ. In Ephesians 5, we hear the beautiful depiction of Christ as the Bridegroom who lays down His life for His Bride, the Church, on the cross. And it says that earthly marriage is meant to be a reflection of this as the man/bridegroom acts as Christ who lays down his life for the woman/the bride, who resembles the Church.
Even more so, God wrote His plan for human love in our bodies in how He created us as male and female. This one flesh union that is meant to reflect the union between Christ and the Church. This is why the Church will always defend marriage between a man and woman because this has been written into our bodies and into the very fabric of the entire universe.
The next term is freedom. Our culture defines freedom as the freedom to do whatever we want. However, as Catholics, we believe that this is the wrong definition of freedom. St. Pope John Paul II defines freedom as, “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
There is a sense of responsibility with this freedom. A responsibility to act rightly in each situation according to the Laws and Commandments given to us by God. The culture looks at this and will say that this is restrictive and oppressive, but this is a lie. God’s Laws and Commandments are designed to lead us to the authentic freedom that we truly desire in the depths of our hearts, and that is freedom in Christ Jesus.
As we are all well aware of in our country, freedom is not free. Our American freedom was bought through the blood that was shed by many men and women in various wars to defend our freedom. Our freedom in Christ, was bought with His Blood that He shed for us on the Cross. Because Christ, through His death, freed us from the clutches of the devil, we are called to use our freedom rightly to follow His Laws and Commandments, not as His slaves, but as His children being led to our ultimate human flourishing.
Within this topic of freedom is rights. We are obsessed with rights in our American culture. Rights are a good thing, as we are entitled to many different rights. However, what I have seen is that, in a similar way we talk about freedom, rights can also be abused, in the sense that we use ‘rights’ as an excuse to act however we want. We hide behind ‘rights’ as a way to act however we want and reject that there is an objective moral law. The most obvious one is the claim of a right to an abortion. When rights are being used to defend this type of act, then we know something has gone terribly wrong with how we define our rights and freedom.
The third term is identity. A lot of the confusion I see in our culture today has to deal with how we define ourselves. There is a push to define ourselves based on who we are attracted too, or to identify ourselves primarily through our gender, or we get our sense of identity through our career, or some other talent that one may have. However, this is not how we define identity. Our identity is rooted in the fact that we are sons and daughters of God. That’s it. If we seek our identity outside of that then we are going to be badly misled.
The reason why having a proper understanding of our identity is so important is because, for example, going back up to how we correctly define love, if we say to someone who is LGBTQ that the relationship they are in does not fall in line with Church teaching, then if their identity is rooted in who they are attracted to or their gender, then it’s taken as the Church rejects them as a person, or doesn’t accept them. But this is not the case. The two need to be properly distinguished. The Church loves and accepts everyone because every single person is a beloved son and daughter of God. However, there are certain actions that the Church does reject and say ‘no’ too. The Church desires for everyone to experience love. Again, this is because God is love, and God wants everyone to experience His love in the depths of their hearts. When the Church says ‘no’ to these various actions, it’s not the Church saying, “We reject you and we don’t want you to experience this love you desire.” The Church is saying, “We want you to experience a love far beyond anything you can ever imagine. However, this love that we all desire in the depths of our hearts can only be found within the structures of God’s Laws and Commandments because this is how He made us and designed the universe.”
This is important for us to understand because when we are defending our faith, the counter response always has to deal with the person feeling as if they are being denied love, and that they aren’t accepted, thus feeling rejected. And, of course, nobody wants to be the person to deny anyone love, so we think to ourselves, “Well I guess there’s nothing wrong with it. If they’re happy, then it must be fine. If they love each other, than what does it matter?”
Many people fall into this mindset, and it’s understandable as to why that is. However, again our counter response must be to say that we are not rejecting them as a person because they are a son/daughter of God. God loves everyone and wants all His children to experience His love and be accepted by Him. It is not a rejection of the person, but a rejection of their actions that contradict the Church’s teachings.
I understand that this is incredibly difficult, especially since I know there are many people in our lives who fall into this category, and we don’t want to say ‘no’ to anyone. Or maybe you are still wrestling yourself with the Church’s teaching on marriage, and may not completely agree with it. I encourage you to continue to bring this to the Lord, and He will help you better understand it. It also helps to talk with a priest to discuss this further if need be.
The last term is empowerment. Specifically, women’s empowerment. Power is another thing that we are obsessed with in our culture. We place our value in the amount of power that we have. Power in the sense of being the person who is in the position of authority and making the decisions. We know that there are many ways in which women have been oppressed in our world and even in our Church, throughout the centuries.
However, the quest to make women more like men, and the quest for power is damaging to what makes a woman truly great. Many people believe in our culture that the Church oppresses women. As I said before, in some ways this has been true because of the imperfection of its leaders throughout the centuries. However, when we really look into the depths of what the Church teaches about the dignity and worth of every woman, we come to find that it is the Church that upholds the dignity of women far higher than this culture could ever dream of uplifting women.
The most exalted human being, outside of Christ, is a woman- Mary, who is the Queen of Heaven and earth. Woman, who was the last creature that God created, can be seen as the crown of all creation. It is almost as if God said to Adam and to all of creation, “Wait until you see what I have saved for last.” We are just beginning to tap into the greatness of who woman is. Because of the greatness of woman, it is no surprise that the devil is attacking womanhood so fiercely in our culture today.
When speaking of empowerment, the most empowering thing any of us can do is surrender to the Love of God. This is true empowerment. Not being in positions of authority. But giving our fiat as Mary did, and saying to God, “Be it done unto me according thy Word.” This doesn’t mean that women can’t be in positions of authority or that there shouldn’t be a push for greater equality in leadership positions in the workforce because there should be. My point is that authority is not what empowerment is about. It is about surrendering to the Love of God and His will for our life. When we surrender then He raises us up, and He so greatly desires to lift women up to the immense dignity and worth that He destined for them since the dawn of creation, and this only comes through surrendering to His love.
As I said at the beginning, each of these topics deserve a lot more attention but for the sake of time I just wanted to briefly touch on each of them because these terms are used incorrectly so often in our culture today, and if we don’t have a right understanding of how to define these terms then it will lead us astray and we will fall into the beliefs and mindset of the culture. Thus, falling further and further away from Christ.
If there’s anything that you would like more clarification of please don’t be afraid to ask, as again each of these areas deserve much more explanation than what I was able to give today.
Let us pray that the Lord may continue to give us the grace to discern well and navigate our culture skillfully, so that we are not deceived, but continue to follow Him down the path of truth, healing, and love.
