Freedom Is One's Faculty to Move Beyond Clutches

Independence Day opens our eyes to the idea of freedom. Every human being, individually and collectively, lives toward his or her freedom. our conscious self makes all efforts to navigate towards freedom. Anthony de Mello, an Indian Jesuit priest and an outstanding spiritual master of 20th century was once asked what would he prefer to be remembered as after his death. De Mellow replayed, if you had asked me this question early on in my life I would have preferred to be known as a learned man, a bit later perhaps as a spiritual master, but today I would like people to remember me as a free man.

Freedom is an abstract faculty, and it is multifaceted. As India's Independence Day coincides with the Marian feast of the Assumption of Mary—a person who is a model of Christian perfection—it made me reflect on what facet of freedom Mary lived.

Freedom is the capacity to respond to one's impulse to go beyond self and the compelling factors around us. After Mary said yes to the Lord, which itself was an act of freedom, Mary left the comfort of her home and went in haste to her cousin Elizabeth to greet, be with her, and serve her (Luke 1:39-56). Luke 2 discusses how Mary and Joseph showed generosity by going in search of their lost son. When years later Jesus would tell the stories of the lost son, lost sheep, and lost coin, we must understand that Jesus had already known what it means to be lost and found from the compassionate acts of his mother and father. In John 2, we find Mary going beyond her doubts and social constraints, approaching Jesus to plead for the family that had no wine at the wedding feast. Mary repeatedly showcased acts of freedom. She was never afraid to show compassion and concern for others. It is good to note that Jesus repeatedly asked his followers not to be afraid, for fear is the opposite of freedom. Freedom liberates us from ourselves.

I would like to bring to your notice two incidents that happened in recent India. On July 5, 2021, Fr. Stan Swamy died in Taloja jail in Maharashtra. The accusation against him was that he went beyond his comfort and preserving his life to help tribals fight for their forest, land, and rights. On July 25, 2025, two sisters, Preethi Mary and Vandana Francis, belonging to the Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate, were arrested at Durg railway station in Chhattisgarh. Going beyond the false accusations that were levelled against them, we learn that those sisters were caring for leprosy patients. I have heard people asking, "What was the need for them to go all the way to the North and face these atrocities? Could they not remain in the South?" The answer lies in their capacity to go beyond the clutches of self and respond to their inner impulse and inner calling. Freedom is not being afraid of those who kill the body. As a civil society, our concern during this Independence Day should be: why do some get angry when the poor are helped, educated, and provided for?

Our great freedom fighters whom we remember today—Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh, etc.—were primarily people who moved beyond the clutches of self-interest and personal business. They were concerned with their fellow men and women. For example, after Gandhi returned to India in 1915, his early satyagrahas and civil disobediences were not aimed at forcing the British to leave India; rather, they were for getting fair prices for farmers' produce, allowing common people to have salt, and securing Harijans' rights to draw water from the common well. He could see the needs of others and was able to sacrifice his time and energy for them; that possibility is called freedom.

Dr. Che Guevara used to cross the dangerous Amazon River to go to the other side to treat the lepers. In spite of his asthma, in spite of the impeding danger to his life, what made him do this is freedom. When I am able to use my ability to make sure that the others live happily I am truly free. The other is the beneficiary of one's freedom. In the preamble of our Constitution, there are many significant words like justice, liberty, equality, and we must not forget the word fraternity. The basis of fraternity is concern for the other—thinking and living with and for the other—and fraternity is made possible by the faculty of freedom.

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