Freedom Because the Snare is Broken
On this 25th day of January, I imagine many of us are taking stock of progress towards a New Year’s resolution we might have set almost a month ago. Maybe 2024 is the year you resolve to spend more time with your children or be better about staying in touch with loved ones, to deepen your prayer life or relationship with Scripture, or to take better care of your physical or mental health. Three weeks into that 2024 resolution, I wonder if you are like me and in need of some comforting words and guidance from God.
Today is the Feast of St. Paul’s Conversion — the day we revisit the famous “Road to Damascus moment” when Saul heard the very voice of God. Rather than meditate on that specific moment, let’s zoom out and consider how one of St. Paul’s greatest contributions to Christian thought — the idea of our freedom in Christ — can guide us if we are feeling downtrodden by the state of our resolution for 2024.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul powerfully makes his case for the freedom we experience in Christ. “Before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed… [and we through baptism] clothed ourselves with Christ.”[1] In some ways, this freeing from “imprisonment” is not unlike the beautiful image from Psalm 124: “We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.” The work of God through Christ has not just freed us from the snares of this life but has broken them — He has taken away the power of those things that entrap us.
The funny thing about yearly intentions and resolutions is that they can make us feel simultaneously free and trapped. Imagining some more whole version of ourselves is liberating and can make us feel closer to ourselves and God. At the same time, how we go about working towards that idealized version of ourselves can lead us down one of two paths. The path we usually choose takes us right into the snares, entrapped by the net of voices telling us we’d meet our goals if we “do better” or “try harder” on our own. The second path is one onto which Paul calls us — the path of perfect freedom of a life in which we yield total control to our Creator, Redeemer and Advocate.
Today, on this Feast of St. Paul’s Conversion and in this final week of January, take a moment to take stock of any 2024 resolutions, intentions or goals you may have set. Yet, instead of asking, “How am I doing?” ask instead, “How am I yielding control over this goal to the God and Savior who calls me His own and has set me free from the snares of the fowler?” Trust in God’s grace and resolve this year to cling to the promises of God.
[1] Galatians 3:23 & 2
