Witnessing to Religious Liberty

Every year, the days leading up to the celebration of Independence Day in the United States affords the opportunity to reflect ever more deeply on what true liberty is and the blessings of being able to live in a free society. 

Providentially in the Church’s liturgical calendar, the two weeks leading up to the 4th of July are peppered with celebrations of several saints who gave their lives for religious liberty against societies that vigorously, and even violently, sought not only to restrict liberty, but also to impose their notions of religion and freedom on the people.  These include notable martyrs such as St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher (June 22), who refused to recognize the secular, civil power – King Henry VIII – as having the ability to redefine marriage; St. John the Baptist (June 24) who also spoke out strongly in defense of traditional marriage against the civil authority of the adulterous King Herod and his paramour; and apostles Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29) and St. Thomas (July 3), who gave their lives to bring the Faith to societies and regimes that could not tolerate the religious freedom of some to worship Jesus Christ as Lord and not their political power. And this year, we have the privilege to celebrate within the fortnight before the 4th of July, the glorious Solemnity of Corpus Christi wherein we know that the True Presence of Jesus Christ – Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity – dwells with us and remains with us even amid so many attacks and prejudices against Christians and people of faith.

These feasts call us to reflect deeply and to realize that true liberty is not merely “license.”  Our contemporary society dangerously confuses “license” as liberty.  “License” is the ability to do whatever you want to do. True “liberty,” on the other hand, is the freedom to do what is right – to live in accord with the truth of how God has designed us and the world around us to be.  “License” mistakenly believes that the truth about ourselves and our happiness is based on our desires and wants.  It entices us with the lie that I cannot be happy unless I can do what I want to do.  True “liberty,” however, calls us to a more profound truth – that true happiness lies in being free to live in accord with the truth about ourselves, our dignity, and respecting that of others, oftentimes despite our inordinate desires.

A society based on the pursuit of “license” quickly devolves into a society where those with societal or political influence seek to impose their desires and values upon others or to view others as inconveniences to the desires of their lifestyles, whether economic, sexual, or otherwise.  The laws and actions of a society should never be based on someone’s will – whether an individual or group of individuals.  Rather, the values of a society must be based on reason and truth – the truth about the human person and the world around us.  Legislators, judges, politicians, and political parties, in fulfilling their noble calling of public service, must seek to serve not so much the “will of the people” but rather to seek, recognize, and protect the truth of all human persons and their dignity.  This necessarily means basing our laws and actions not on “license” nor on our individual or even collective wills, but rather on the truth that is greater than ourselves and our desires.

Said another way, if I believe myself to be the center of the universe and the ultimate arbiter of what is right and wrong based simply on what I want to do (“license”), it is impossible to live in relationships, in family, or in community, since other persons will constantly be seen as limitations to my “license” or what I want to do.  Yet, sadly, this is how our contemporary society seems to be pressuring us to live.

Rather, true freedom – true “liberty” – is the ability to do what is right, the ability to live according to the truth about ourselves and the world that God has created around us. God has made us with a desire for perfect and eternal happiness.  In a word, God has made us to desire Him, since He is the only thing that is perfect and eternal love. This is why no amount of “license,” no amount of “self-actualization” or redefinition of realities such as marriage, gender, or sex based on our desires or power can ever truly satisfy our restless hearts, individually or as a society.  St. Augustine rightly observes that “our hearts are restless until they come to rest in you (God).”  

True freedom consists in the ability to pursue God and to live our lives in a way that is free from coercion to act against this truth.  True liberty also necessarily consists in being free to live according to that truth, not just on Sunday mornings inside the walls of our churches, but every day and in every way of our lives.  Thus we can say that true freedom consists first and foremost in “religious liberty,” that is, the freedom to pursue, recognize, and believe in God according to our well-formed consciences.  But very importantly, this also includes the freedom to be able to live that belief in God in everything that we do outside of church as well.  All other types of freedoms that we hold dear are secondary and are dependent on this first freedom.  

If this first freedom that is inherent in the human person – that is, religious liberty – is not protected, then it is only a matter of time before all other freedoms becomes subject to the raw will of those who are most powerful and influential.  Society then becomes a basin of political and popularity power struggles.  This is not what God intended for the human community nor should it be desirable even for those who do not believe in God.  Rather, religious liberty assures that all human dignity is respected, and all are free to choose the ultimate good, and to live accordingly.

This is why the true calling of a civil society and its government should always include as its most important duty the recognition and protection of religious liberty, since it is the first and most important freedom of its people.  This is, in part, the reality that the saints mentioned above gave witness to and gave their lives to defend.  This should be the reality that we also recognize, protect, and defend in our own society today, as we celebrate and thank God for the liberty that we have been blessed with in our country.