How can I, on this Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent, reconcile the Gospel’s challenge—”How can you say, You will become ‘#free‘“—with the reality that the creating word reveals our freedom as seen in the natural order, like the lilac bush at The Glenn that blooms freely after all these years, while I remain free to pray for a miracle for my son Daniel through the intercession of the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, who reminds me that nothing is so free to blessings and trials as the secret of contentment in working out His purpose for us❓
Gospel
Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him,
“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham
and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How can you say, ‘You will become free‘❓”
Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
A slave does not remain in a household forever,
but a son always remains.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.
I know that you are descendants of Abraham.
But you are trying to kill me,
because my word has no room among you.
I tell you what I have seen in the Father’s presence;
then do what you have heard from the Father.”They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children,
you would be doing the works of Abraham.
But now you are trying to kill me,
a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God;
Abraham did not do this.
You are doing the works of your father!”
So they said to him, “We were not born of fornication.
We have one Father, God.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me,
for I came from God and am here;
I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”
Lent Day 31 Lectio Divina on the word “free“
I stood near the lilac bush at The Glenn, watching and smelling as its blooms begin to open. I thought about how this bush—grown from a clipping of my great-grandparents’ plant—is free to bloom in its season, rooted in memory and legacy. Its quiet persistence reminds me that life finds a way to express itself, freely and faithfully, year after year.
I am struck by the thought from Laudato si’ that creation itself was a free act of love—not power, not dominance, not vanity. God’s freedom expressed itself in beauty, balance, and harmony. I wonder if I honor that freedom by the way I treat creation, or if I sometimes impose my will rather than live in grateful stewardship of the earth.
In praying for a miracle for our son Daniel, now in hospice care, I feel both the weight of helplessness and the lift of spiritual freedom. I am free to ask, free to hope, free to believe that God still works wonders in His own time and way. As Fulton Sheen wrote, the soul is most free when it is content to work out God’s purpose with faith and humility.
But when I turn to the Gospel, I hear a challenge. It echoes not as doubt but as invitation—to consider whether I truly understand the freedom offered by Christ, a freedom not just from, but for: for love, for truth, for life eternal. Therefore…
The creating word expresses a free choice. The universe did not emerge as the result of arbitrary omnipotence, a show of force or a desire for self-assertion. Creation is of the order of love.
FROM PARAGRAPH 77 OF THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME