Words on the Word
Chains
Leviticus 2.:1-17: You will proclaim the liberation of all the inhabitants of the land.
Matthew 14.1-12: Herod had chained John up and put him in prison because of Herodias.
We are halfway through a year of jubilee. Leviticus reminds us what it is about. A jubilee spells liberation: slaves are freed, debts are cancelled, even the soil is given respite. So constraints are lifted; at the same time, limitations are imposed. Freedom calls for both. Investors are reminded they don’t possess property. The only one with claims to ownership of land is God; human agents are but stewards for a while. It is good to bear this in mind, else we overrate or overstate our hold on things.
John the Baptist preached liberty to captives. At the same time he told people they could not just do as they pleased. He summoned the devout to righteousness, soldiers not to be extortionate. He told Herod, at great cost, he could not have his brother’s wife.
We celebrate this Mass in honour of Our Lady of Ransom. This devotion was born of one of the medieval Church’s chief works of mercy: the redemption of Christian captives seized by the Moors in Spain or on the seas.
I thought of this chapter of history recently when, visiting Toledo, I stood in front of the church of San Juan de los Reyes and saw the shackles of former slaves that adorn its western wall as votive offerings, recalling how concrete unfreedom can be, and how cruel.
Christ our Redeemer set us free for the sake of freedom. Let us thank him for this gift. Then let us frankly and humbly consider three important, complementary questions. First, do I do my bit to help the oppressed and enlighten those in darkness? Secondly, am I somehow still held by chains of possessiveness, envy, malice, or fear that ought to have been long since broken? Thirdly, do I embrace the freedom won for me graciously, or do I yield to presumption? All of us are prone, alas, to all three temptations.
May Mary, the knot-loosening, unproprietorial Mother of God, help us to steer clear of them, jubilee-minded. Amen.
