{"id":2465,"date":"2018-03-21T09:41:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T13:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2465"},"modified":"2018-03-21T09:43:29","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T13:43:29","slug":"the-truth-will-set-you-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/the-truth-will-set-you-free\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth Will Set You Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the gospel reading for today (3\/21\/18, Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent)<\/a>, Jesus says, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and\u00a0the truth will set you free<\/strong><\/em>.”<\/p>\n

People think freedom means being able to do whatever we want.\u00a0 We do have free will and we can choose to do whatever we want.\u00a0 However, do our choices really leave us free?<\/p>\n

For instance, look at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the first reading today<\/a> from the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 King Nebuchadnezzar tells them to worship the golden statue he has set up or he will have them thrown into the fiery furnace.\u00a0 They will not worship the golden statue (it would break the commandment against idolatry\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>false gods).\u00a0 They know this might mean death but they also know that they are not making a choice for one day.\u00a0 If they bow down and worship this golden statue, it will be a sin not for just that one day but something that they will probably be forced to do for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

Sin makes us slaves.\u00a0 Even when our sin is hidden, it can make slaves of us.\u00a0 To cover up the first sin, we begin to lie, thus adding to our sins, to cover up our first sin.<\/p>\n

What about the seven deadly sins<\/a>?\u00a0 How do they make us slaves?\u00a0 The sin of lust<\/a> (Sixth Commandment – adultery) can make us slaves in covering up our behavior.\u00a0 Anger<\/a> can consume us and keep us from loving others or feeling loved ourselves.\u00a0 Gluttony<\/a> can lead us to wanting more which can lead us to greed and envy<\/a>, or stealing (Seventh Commandment).\u00a0 One sin can lead to another and so we become a slave to our sins.<\/p>\n

Some of the people who argue for absolute freedom also believe there is no absolute truth (we call this “relativism”).\u00a0 As Christians, we know there is a truth.\u00a0 It comes to us from God.\u00a0 We find it in the Bible<\/a>.\u00a0 The\u00a0Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em><\/a> helps us understand God’s truth as it applies to do.\u00a0 As individuals, we receive the Holy Spirit at Baptism with the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to guide us in God’s way.\u00a0 Our Church has been guided for 2,000 years by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

God does not give us commandments to suit his needs.\u00a0 God is all-knowing and the commandments are what is good for us.\u00a0 What God teaches us is “Truth.”\u00a0 Let us always listen to the Holy Spirit to know this Truth and pray that all come to do the same.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the gospel reading for today (3\/21\/18, Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent), Jesus says, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and\u00a0the truth will set you free.” People think freedom means being able to do whatever we want.\u00a0 We do have free …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[414,421,420],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-DL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2468,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}