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True Freedom
Dear Friends,
I recall my Old Testament professor Paulist Father Larry Boadt describing the ancient authors of the book of Genesis as using a mythical approach to speak of the twelve tribes of Israel. He suggested that a mythical approach to understanding the formation of the United States of America would describe each state as possessing a personality that reflected its physical characteristics and its natural and manufactured products.
As an example, we could say that in the myth, America, a female parent, had 50 children. One of the oldest was a daughter who loved the warm ocean water and the nectar of citrus fruits. Her name was Florida.
Among her children, one of the youngest of the family was also the largest. Having feasted on whale blubber since childhood, Alaska enjoyed cold weather and delighted in winter sports.
This weekend, when we Americans celebrate our political independence and freedom, I felt a pull to personify the country I love in the same way Irving Berlin did when he wrote “God Bless America” and prayed that God would “stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above”. I want to write to America in a way that sees her as an adolescent, as a nation that still has some growing up to do. Like many teens, she doesn’t know that she doesn’t know everything.
I use the insights of Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Franciscan Father Richard Rohr. Rohr spent years addressing the spiritual and psychological issue of attaining what he calls “true freedom”.
The “False Self” (Merton) is the ego-driven person we have all learned to show others. We are all culturally conditioned to live this way. Merton and Rohr call this self-image “false” in that it is the respectable self we present to the world, how we want to be seen by others. When we live out of our projected self, we are trapped by our insecurities and do not have the belief that we are loved for who we are, warts and all.
So, following that rather lengthy introduction, allow me to share a letter I have written to my old friend and beloved country, America, as a person in need of the true freedom Richard Rohr has spoken of and written about.
Dear America,
I have a hope that, as you celebrate your “freedom” this weekend, you will see yourself as needing to grow in acceptance of your own limitations and your shadow side. I’ve noticed that in the past ten years or so, you have been acting as one who is deserving of more respect than other nations. You strike me as wanting to be seen as someone who is better than others, who is entitled to use more of the planet’s gifts than other national identities.
You remind me of an adolescent who, out of a deeply hidden fear of being unacceptable, puts on a false bravado that uses a tough, even mean exterior to exert his/her desires and to keep others from getting too close. So long as you wear this mask, you will continue to live in a way that is not authentic, that lacks integrity.
America, please don’t be afraid to show other nations you really aren’t any better than they are, but that you are beautiful and unique and that you have many gifts to share with the world.
Some people consider sharing and caring a sign of weakness. But there are many generations of people who would disagree. They came to you with hopes of a better life and they have benefitted from the opportunities you gave them. Some of your citizens who arrived before others, have in the past, feared those newly arrived people who looked or spoke differently than they. There will always be those who resist the truth that your diversity is not a weakness; it is your strength! It makes you all the more beautiful in the eyes of other nations.
The notion of independence that you so cherish was never really true you know. You always needed others as much as they needed you. Perhaps one of your scholars, maybe one who was not born within your shores could write a new “Declaration of Interdependence”?
I want you to know that the natural gifts you have are there to be nurtured and to be careful with. Please do not see them as resources to be used without thought of the children you also need to provide for in the future.
The words printed on your founding documents imply that you follow the way of Christ. But if there is anything Jesus taught us, it’s that the path to true freedom necessarily involves pain and suffering.
Christ’s great spokesperson, St. Paul, told people in the early Church that obtaining true freedom will involve a process of transformation. So I say to you, my dear America, what the Bible says 365 times, “Do not be afraid”!
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