Saint Pope John Paul II, in his 1995 Apostolic Journey to the United States, reminded Americans and the Faithful about what freedom truly means – having the right to do what we ought:
Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.
Homily of His Holiness John Paul II, Apostolic Journey to the United States of America Eucharistic Celebration, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Oct. 8, 1995
In some of his broader remarks, John Paul II observed that Christ “is the answer the question posed by every human life.” We are to be open to transformation by God, and motivated to share the Good News with all.
… Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: openness to the Lord – a willingness to let the Lord transform our lives – should produce a renewed spiritual and missionary vitality among American Catholics. Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every human life, and the love of Christ compels us to share that great good news with everyone. We believe that the Death and Resurrection of Christ reveal the true meaning of human existence; therefore nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in our hearts. Christ died for all, so we must be at the service of all. ‘The Spirit God has given us is no cowardly spirit… Therefore, never be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord’ (2 Tm. 1: 7-8).
Thus wrote Saint Paul to Timothy, almost two thousand years ago; thus speaks the Church to American Catholics today.
Challenging the Culture
There are times when Christian witness calls us to challenge a culture, including when that culture attacks the truth about the human person.
Christian witness takes different forms at different moments in the life of a nation. Sometimes, witnessing to Christ will mean drawing out of a culture the full meaning of its noblest intentions, a fullness that is revealed in Christ. At other times, witnessing to Christ means challenging that culture, especially when the truth about the human person is under assault.
Freedom and Truth
While the United States has aspired to be a land of the free, America is challenged “to find freedom’s fulfillment in truth.”
America has always wanted to be a land of the free. Today, the challenge facing America is to find freedom’s fulfillment in the truth: the truth that is intrinsic to human life created in God’s image and likeness, the truth that is written on the human heart, the truth that can be known by reason and can therefore form the basis of a profound and universal dialogue among people about the direction they must give to their lives and their activities.
Democracy and Moral Truths
Democracy itself is not a moral “free-for-all,” but rather, to be sustained, requires “a shared commitment to moral truths about the human person and human community.”
… Lincoln asked whether a nation ‘conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal’ could ‘long endure’. … Lincoln’s question is no less a question for the present generation of Americans. Democracy cannot be sustained without a shared commitment to certain moral truths about the human person and human community. The basic question before a democratic society is: ‘how ought we to live together?’ …
Christian Moral Teaching and America’s Founding
Indeed, moral values played a formative role in America’s founding. When America, as a democracy, asks how people are to live together, would it be realistic to exclude Biblican wisdom that was part of the nation’s founding.
The basic question before a democratic society is: ‘how ought we to live together?’ In seeking an answer to this question, can society exclude moral truth and moral reasoning? Can the Biblical wisdom which played such a formative part in the very founding of your country be excluded from that debate? Would not doing so mean that America’s founding documents no longer have any defining content, but are only the formal dressing of changing opinion?
Excluding Biblical Wisdom also would mean blocking the contributions of tens of millions of Americans of Christian belief and moral convictions.
Would not doing so mean that tens of millions of Americans could no longer offer the contribution of their deepest convictions to the formation of public policy?
Freedom Means the Right to do What We Ought
Rather than true freedom meaning to do whatever we like (i.e., at a given moment), it means having the right to do what we ought. This truth should be offered to every generation.
Surely it is important for America that the moral truths which make freedom possible should be passed on to each new generation. Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.
Click here for full text of Homily of His Holiness John Paul II, Apostolic Journey to the United States of America Eucharistic Celebration, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Oct. 8, 1995
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