The Noble Challenge of Freedom

The Liberty Bell…proudly bears the words of the Bible: Proclaim liberty throughout the land (Lv 25:10). This tradition poses for all future generations of America a noble challenge: "One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."… As citizens, you must strive to preserve these human values, to understand them better and to define their consequences for the whole community, and as a worthy contribution to the world. As Christians, you must strengthen these human values and complement them by confronting them with the Gospel message, so that you may discover their deeper meaning, and thus assume more fully your duties and obligations toward your fellow human beings, with whom you are bound in a common destiny…. When the Liberty Bell rang for the first time in 1776, it was to announce the freedom of your nation, the beginning of the pursuit of a common destiny independent of any outside coercion. This principle of freedom is paramount in the political and social order…. However, man's life is also lived in another order of reality: in the order of his relationship to what is objectively true and morally good…. Christ himself linked freedom with the knowledge of truth: You will know the truth and the truth will make you free (Jn 8:32)…. Saint Peter, in his first letter, says, Live as free men, but do not use your freedom for malice (1 Pt 2:16). No freedom can exist when it goes against man in what he is, or against man in his relationship to others and to God. Freedom can therefore never be construed without relation to the truth as revealed by Jesus Christ, and proposed by his Church, nor can it be seen as a pretext for moral anarchy, for every moral order must remain linked to truth…. The cohesion of freedom and ethics has consequences for the pursuit of the common good in society and for the national independence which the Liberty Bell announced two centuries ago. SAINT JOHN PAUL II Saint John Paul II († 2005) reigned as pope from 1978 until 2005. This text is from his homily at Mass in Philadelphia on October 3, 1979, during his first visit to the United States. / Holy Mass at the Logan Circle, Homily of His Holiness, Philadelphia, October 3, 1979. Used with permission of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. www.vatican.va