Brian’s Reflection: Monday, January 19, 2009


Free yourself. Let yourself do what you know is right,
and it will be all right.....Don't think beyond the first
step; just take that one, and maybe the next one will be
a little easier. That's been my experience.

- Molly Rush, member of the Ploughshare Eight

Freedom is a matter of the heart, of the mind, of the spirit. No one, not even God, can free us. Freedom is an innate characteristic of being Human. We can be offered ways to reclaim our Freedom. But I believe that Molly is correct: we are never Free until we free ourselves. People or governments can take away our freedoms, but we remain free unless we cede or abdicate our Freedom ourselves.

This is true in every way, including “spiritually”. We can enslave ourselves by acting against our core capacity to love, to be just, to honour and value the dignity of every human being. God offers us our Freedom back, not by forgiving us unilaterally, but by calling us to reclaim our true nature. It is up to us.

I see the inauguration of Barack Obama as a choice by the majority of American people – and I pray that it will soon be recognized and embraced by all of us - to take the first step in doing what is right. The first corporate step of reclaiming our national Freedom. Of freeing ourselves, which is the only Way there.

May the next ones be easier! Until it is true that we are a land where all are indeed equal and so treated, and where liberty and justice is equal for all.

Brian+