During our celebrations of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July we reflect as a nation upon the gift of freedom and what that freedom means for our lives and our nation.  In the Declaration of Independence the founding fathers of our country declared their independence from tyranny and injustice.  They were breaking the yoke that tied them to the monarchy of England and they were setting our nation on a new path that they felt would lead to greater freedom.  This freedom that they would be willing to fight and die for was not merely a declaration that people should be able to do whatever they want to do and follow their every desire, something that we would call “license”.  They were not proposing that human persons should live without a “yoke” to guide them, rather, they were asserting that as a people we must be yoked to certain first principles that would guarantee the life and freedom of all people.  The yoke that our founding fathers proposed as the guiding principle of our nation was the yoke of natural rights and duties that should be recognized in the conscience of a nation.  These rights and duties arose from the principle that all people are created equal and are granted a freedom by our Creator to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness or the good life, a common good that would assure the freedom of all people.  As our country developed we would not be yoked to a monarch that dictated the direction of our growth but instead we would be yoked to one another in service to the common good of all people.  Our nation has grown strong through the guidance of the yoke of natural law that recognizes the natural rights and duties of all people working together to serve the common good.  If freedom is mistaken for license or a capricious insistence to follow selfish desires regardless of consequences to others, we run the danger of destroying the “yoke of freedom” and fall once again under the “yoke of slavery”, slavery to sin, to our selfish impulses, to the flesh.

     Our readings this Sunday invite us to reflect upon the proper use of our freedom.  Freedom is a gift that is given to us by God our Creator and we must exercise responsibility in using this gift of freedom properly.  In freedom we respond to a call to a life of service that leads us to a true and life-giving love.  We are not created to be alone and pursue our selfish desires and aims, rather, we are created by God for community and to take upon ourselves the “yoke of love” which binds us to one another in freedom and calls us to lay down our lives for one another.  There can be no true life, freedom or love without personal sacrifice. 

     In our first reading we encounter Elijah who after his slaughter of the prophets of Baal felt that he was indispensable and the only true prophet in Israel.  Elijah felt that he alone knew what was right and that he should dictate the proper course of his future.  He escapes to the desert and undergoes a period of crisis that leads him to a theophany, an experience of God’s presence, that reveals to him how small he is and yet allows him to experience God’s love that bends down to his level and whispers to him the direction of his future.  He is not indispensable, rather, Elisha is to be anointed to take his place and continue his ministry.  How often are we tempted to think of ourselves as irreplaceable?  The prophetic power of Elijah is transferred to Elisha when Elisha uses his gift of freedom to leave behind his former way of life and chooses to follow the Lord in service to God’s chosen people.  Elisha places his life freely in the hands of God.

     St. Paul reminds the Galatians that Christ has set us free and that this freedom is not to be used to satisfy selfish desires of the flesh but rather to serve one another in love.  Only this way will we remain free and not fall again under the yoke of slavery (to sin and the flesh).

     In the gospel we see Jesus calling people to discipleship and to freely choose to leave behind a former way of life and give themselves freely to the Lord and his work of love and salvation.  Jesus is offering a yoke that is easy and light and that will lead to a life of true freedom and love.  To accept this yoke of freedom and love one must be truly detached from the world, from the demands of worldly affairs and from selfish desires.  One must be detached from the past and the future and resolutely meet the demands of love in the present.  There are no guarantees of an easy life, there is no personal leave time and there is no turning back from the life of discipleship.  Jesus himself is yoked to the Father and to the will of God.  He is resolute in his determination to lay down his life in love in Jerusalem, no matter the personal cost.  In this he gives us the model of true freedom.