Universal Slavery

Gospel: John 8: 31-42

In today's Gospel portion we find those speaking with Jesus make the statement that they have never been a slave to anyone in their history.  The irony of the statement is not lost on anyone with a passing knowledge of the Old Testament, but leaving that aside we will come to realize that all of us make this same boast of freedom.  Each of us has this same false belief that we never have been and are not now under the yoke of anyone.

Consider our lives and what consumes them.  We live for our own self-interests every day.  We go to work as a slave to those self-interests.  We work to pay for our expensive houses, cars, trips, and other possessions.  When our possessions are threatened we become violent in some cases, utterly morose at their loss in most other cases.  We are not free but slaves to our possessions and desires.  

If we take the discipline of Lent seriously, the fasting and almsgiving we undertake are to free us from our slavery to these desires and possessions of ours.  These essential disciplines enable us to become poor in spirit, detached from all these things so that we might serve others with the same love, compassion, and mercy that the Lord Jesus did in his life on earth.