God called Moses, as He spoke to him
from the burning bush, to free the Israelites from the bondage of Pharaoh in
Egypt. After the slaughtering of the Lamb and crossing through the Red sea on
dry land they were freed from the bondage and slavery in Egypt. God called
Moses to be the ultimate leader of the people from slavery to freedom. In the United States in the time of the
President Abraham Lincoln, the degrading reality of slavery came to an end.
Blacks would no longer be sold in the market-place but respected as human
beings with inherent rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!
All those of noble hearts and lofty
aspirations rejoice exultantly over these victories in which slaves were given
their inherent rights. The thought of
being treated like a mere slave, sold like a slave (a mere property or
commodity to be purchased at the highest bid) causes most of us utter
repulsion, true repugnance. Why? For the simple reason that we cherish FREEDOM!
This being said, we must introduce a
more extensive interpretation to the meaning of slavery. Physical slavery is
one thing, but there is an even more serious slavery—it is the slavery to sin.
Jesus Himself calls sin slavery. Sin can make us true slaves to moral evil; and
this is the worse form of slavery.
St. John the Baptist was made a slave
of imprisonment under the wicked King Herod. However, the Baptist experienced the
true freedom of the sons of God. Even though King Herod experienced exterior
freedom, interiorly he was a true slave of his disordered passions and sin—lust,
greed, gluttony, and insecurity.
In the United States we boast of the
freedom that we experience, especially on the 4th of July by blowing
off fire-works, admiring fire-rockets and guzzling down beer barrels! But do we
really experience the true freedom that Jesus came to give us, the freedom of
the sons and daughters of God?
What might be one of the major
obstacles to freedom and the major form of slavery? Anybody who utilizes simple reason will
quickly be brought to the conclusion: the Capital sin of lust. The flagrant, pervasive and universally
promoted promiscuity in the realm of sexuality must be touted as the modern
binding force of slavery far and wide.
The expressions of sexual promiscuity
are many, but for sake of brevity we will mention only three. First, it must be
stated that all that God created was good, is good and always will be good.
However, the problem is in the abuse of the goods of creation. One of the most
exalted gifts of God’s creation is the proper use of human sexuality. The
expression of human sexuality has its plan, purpose and divine blessing only in
this context: a man and woman sacramentally married and in their conjugal union
being open to the possibility of life, or procreation—that is to say, being
ready to collaborate with God in bringing forth new life into existence. Man
and woman provide the material reality; God infuses the immortal soul! Let us
now proceed to list three of the modern slaveries in the field of lust and the
abuse of human sexuality.
1.
SAME-SEX UNIONS. Even though the
Supreme Court has recently approved and legalized the union of the same sexes
and calling it marriage, it is not in the eyes of God. Even though you call a
banana an apple, still the banana is a banana. The Government might call
same-sex unions marriage, but it is not and it will never be. Why? God has told
us! Listen! “God created them male and
female and for this reason and man will leave his father and mother and be
united with his wife. What God has united let no man rent asunder.” Then God
gave the first order to the man and woman:
“Increase and multiply.”—in other words, have children! The acceptance, the promotion and practice of
sodomy is wrong and it always will be morally reprehensible!
2.
PLAGUE OF PORN. Honestly we must admit it: we live in a
pornographic society. On almost every corner we turn we are bumping into the crude
but all pervasive reality of pornography. In a certain sense, we can use this
powerful but so true image: we are being surrounded by a pack of ravenous
wolves (pornography) that is intent on devouring us. Indeed if we do not take
extreme measures this ravenous wolf can grip on to us, bite into us and rip us
apart—the way wolves do to their prey. It would be more than safe to say that
pornography is the number one addiction in the United States as well as in
other countries. Saint Elizabeth Anne Seton made an incredible prophecy more
than two hundred years ago. She said that a black box would enter into the
homes and families in the United States and ruin numberless families. Could it
be that this prophecy of the insidious and poisonous “Black box” is both the
television as well as the Internet connected to the “Black box” of the
Computer, what to do you think?
3.
TRIAL-MARRIAGES/FREE-UNIONS/COHABITATION.
It is all but a plague today among many so-called Catholics, Christians, to start
off their life together by simply living together, free-union, “Shacking out”
as they used to say in the 60’s! This expression of sexual promiscuity is
becoming so common, pervasive and relevant to the modern world that believers,
even practicing Catholics, are becoming desensitized to this immoral phenomena.
The reasons behind this are multiple, but all immoral! Many say that they have
to try it out to see if it works; others say that we have to see if we have
good chemistry; still others, say that they do not want to take such a serious
step of getting married in the Church and to make a wrong decision. In the mean
time they are more than willing to offend God, live in mortal sin on a
permanent basis, give bad example, better yet, give scandal to their children
and to pave their way to the loss of their immortal souls for all eternity.
In conclusion, let us lift up our
minds, hearts, souls and desires in prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to
the holy and chaste Saint Joseph. Let us beg them fervently for ourselves, our
family members as well as the whole world for the grace to be free from the
slaveries of the present world, especially the all-prevalent slavery of lust.
Let us beg both Our Lady through her most pure and Immaculate Heart and the
most pure heart of Saint Joseph for the grace to live out this challenging but
freeing Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure
of heart for they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8) If done we will not be slaves, but truly
free sons and daughters of our heavenly Father!
