“Having your church chosen for you, your work, your
laws, your religion, your clothes, your schooling; your whole life laid out for
you. Now, that’s, that’s what I call liberation.”
This
is a quote from a documentary that I watched in class about the Amish.
The
screaming paradox within this quote startled me.
Having
no freedom
is
as liberating as can be?
The
gift of choice being taken away
is
freeing?
The
Amish, as I have learned,
appear
to be the original
‘Not
of this World’ promoters.
They
believe themselves to be living in this world
but
they do not consider themselves part of this world.
Though
we would consider them to be lacking in freedom,
they
see themselves as free.
We
have been given a choice.
We
have been given free will.
We
have an opportunity to choose God
or
Satan.
There’s
only two options
and
we do have a choice.
Much
of the Gospel contains great paradoxes.
Christ
died that we might have life,
it
is in giving that we receiving,
and
in dying that we are born.
So
too with Montfort,
giving
of everything,
remaining
with God Alone,
and
finding that we have all we could ever need.
Freedom
is a paradox too.
We
must free ourselves of decision making,
of
chance taking,
and
of life directing.
We
must surrender.
It
is through complete dependence on God that we find freedom.
Paradox.
We
are told that freedom is
the
gift of doing whatever you want.
And
we do still have a choice.
But
true freedom is different than
we
perceive it.
True
freedom is being wholly dependent on God,
dependence
on the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
and
the call of the human race to serve God and one another.
Maybe
the Amish don’t have it quite right just yet
but
there is something to be said for their understanding of the fact that
only
when we truly surrender it all
do
we find liberation,
do
we find freedom,
do
we find Christ,
giver
of free will and source of freedom.
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This Lenten blog series is based upon St. Louis de
Montfort's writings. Unless otherwise noted, all the phrases in quotation marks
are taken from the book Jesus Living
in Mary.
A.M.D.G.
ReplyDeleteI have always admired the Amish and their simple way of life. I would LOVE to live in that freedom...only with the way of the Holy Catholic Church...kinda like the group at Little Portion Hermitage with John Michael Talbot...deep sigh...such a simple joy-filled life of freedom!
God bless,
Mrs.O.