I spoke to a group of people this week about freedom. Freedom is an inevitable ingredient in healthy community. When we are free to be who we really are, we are open to be loved deeply. The opposite is true too. If we are not free to be authentic, our relationships are restricted; as is our growth.
This morning I read this about freedom from one of my favorite authors, Thomas Merton:
As long as you pretend to live in pure autonomy, as your own master, without even a god to rule you, you will inevitably live as the servant of another man or as the alienated member of an organization. Paradoxically, it is the acceptance of God that makes you free and delivers you from human tyranny, for when you serve him you are no longer permitted to alienate your spirit in human servitude. God did not invite the children of Israel to leave the slavery of Egypt. He commanded them to do so.
Merton is affirming that when we seek autonomy, we seek separation from our kind. To seek autonomy is to seek to be God for only God is entirely self-sufficient. And because that is true, he is holy, set-apart, different not only in degree but in kind. Jesus was not the best of our human kind; he was an entirely different kind. There can only be one God. When we seek to be him, we leave no room for others of our kind.
Autonomy leads assuredly to isolation. Isolation leads in turn to idolatry, pride, and slavery. The end of all these is destruction as our enemy designs. All of these work in opposition to mutual submission, community, obedience, humility and freedom.
If we wish to be free, we must submit to one another. If we wish to be God, we should seek isolation and independence.
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