Freedom!

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free."

 

One of the greatest witnesses to Jesus Christ in the Gospel is Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus cast seven devils.  In modern parlance, she may have been bi-polar, a victim of abuse, schizophrenic, alcoholic, addicted to drugs or cigarettes, depressed, or unable to relate to other human beings.  She may have been what today we would call "homeless," wandering the streets and living off scraps, sleeping wherever she could find shelter, or out in the open.  Scripture does not say she was a prostitute; that is our conclusion, as it seems to have been the conclusion of the Pharisees.

 

Imagine feeling for the first time in your life a sense of peace and of wholeness, a sense of joy and "normalcy."  Imagine being able to be around other people for the first time without a sense of panic, or of overwhelming fear of rejection.  Imagine being able to smile at another person, or of speaking in a normal way to other people.  Such a sense of being freed from the prison of some kind of mind-and - spirit-control would make any one of us ignore polite convention and cast ourselves at the feet of our Savior, weeping for joy.

 

Mary never left Jesus afterwards; she followed Him; she became the "Apostle to the Apostles" after His Resurrection from the grave.  As Jesus said of her, "She has loved much because she has been forgiven much."  Those of us who have never experienced being freed from seven -- or even from one -- devil will never know the kind of love Mary had for Jesus. 

 

God said of the Israelites in Egypt, "let my people go, that they may worship Me on the holy mountain."  The same is true for us.  As long as we are enslaved by egocentricity, alcohol, mental disease, anger, fear, gluttony, or any number of "chains," we are not free to worship God.  We are literally chained to our sins, even to those which have been passed down to us through family bloodlines.  Some of these things are not our "fault," but we are still chained to them.  Those who have been abused are not the guilty, but they have still been damaged at the cellular level by their experiences.  Anyone who has tried to free him/herself from the effects of sin, whether our own or that of others, knows how impossible it is to climb out of darkness into the marvelous light of freedom and love.  We need a Savior, Someone stronger than the powers of darkness and evil, Someone who has met the enemy and defeated him, Someone who has gone to the gates of hell to ransom those held in darkness and chains. 

 

Those who have been through AA know at the most basic level of their being what it means to be set free from an enemy too strong for them.  They have hated themselves long enough for not being able to control their demons.  But when their "higher Power' reaches down and draws them clear, they, like Mary Magdalene, walk the rest of their days in gratitude, joy, thanksgiving, praise, and "fear" of returning to the darkness. 

 

St. Augustine said, " What am I to myself without You, O Lord, but an agent to my own destruction?"  Jesus Christ is the new Moses, leading His people out of slavery to the freedom of the Promised Land.  We have no power to unchain ourselves, but God says, "I have heard the cry of my people!" and He never fails to send a Redeemer to those who call on His Name!