Sr. Geri Rosinski, RSM
Freedom…what is it really?
When I was a college junior, our very challenging ethics professor introduced us to some life altering French novelists such as Leon Bloy and Albert Camus. Little did I realize then that my life would be forever changed and enriched.
I must admit that when I first read the opening line… "This place stinks of God!" spoken by Bloy's first character in "The Woman Who Was Poor" I was quite taken aback. After all, I was in my second year novitiate with the Pittsburgh Sisters of Mercy and I believed myself to be pious and idealistic and I didn't think that I would be asked to read such seemingly trashy literature. How wrong I was! I was totally unaware of what intellectual and spiritual treasures awaited me!
It was the first year of teaching for this brash young professor from Fordham University, a disciple of Dorothy Day and her Catholic Worker movement, and here he was throwing all kinds of new ideas at us! Exactly who did he think he was? Thus I pondered as I began to work my way though Bloy's novel.
In no time I was caught up in the real life dilemmas of its characters…people who were truly struggling to live their faith authentically in the most challenging of circumstances. Little did I know then that this novel of Bloy and Camus's "The Fall" would radically change my faith understanding forever.
A year or so after this course, one of the sisters gave me a holy card with a disarmingly simple quote from Leon Bloy on it. The quote, "Freedom…is the respect that God has for us," has radicalized me and become one of my core beliefs.
At first it seemed like a wonderfully unique understanding of God's love for us. But as I have lived with it, I see it as an incredibly challenging understanding to my personal relationship with God. God does not demand or coerce my love or acts of goodness. I am free to make whatever choices I wish to make…be they healthy or destructive…of self or others.
In other words, God loves us freely…and wants us to love freely in return. No "tit for tat" measures…this is a completely free love gift of God for us that I am talking about. God loves us so much and values our freedom even more than we could ever realize. So much is this so, that God will not even try to coerce our choices. God respects us and our freedom more than we can ever comprehend.
So it is that our world's history contains the lives of people making all kinds of free choices.…good ones that are life-giving for themselves and others, such as a Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa of Calcutta, rescue workers or fire fighters. These people freely choose to put themselves at risk in order to help others in greater need than themselves.
Then there are people who freely make bad choices…ones that are self-destructive or harmful to others…such as a Hitler, an alcoholic or drug addict, a thief, a liar, a dishonest retailer or landlord, or a selfish manufacturer who pollutes the environment putting people's health in jeopardy. All of these people made their bad choices freely. Yes, God respects their freedom to choose…even if their choices are harmful or unhealthy.
What amazes me is that God will not interfere with our choices…unless and until we freely and consciously invite God into our life. Such was the case with a pitifully addicted alcoholic by the name of Bill Smith, who found himself spiraling toward death from his addiction. At some point during his last night of a decades-long addiction, he prayed to God and asked for help…he freely invited God into his life of chaos to help him with his uncontrollable addiction. That night his life was transformed and he turned the corner on his addiction. He became in time one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Until that night, God did not intervene in Bill's self destructive choice-making, but once he freely invited God into his life…everything began to change.
Bloy's statement "Freedom…is the respect that God has for us" continues to humble, amaze and inspire me. To think that our powerful and loving Creator respects our creature freedom so much…that God will not enter our life unless we offer a consciously free invitation to enter! This is truly an amazing act of love and respect that our Creator God has for us! So, go ahead and invite God into your life daily …into your joys and your sorrows, your boredom and your chaos…and experience the peace that enfolds anyone who invites God into their life. Do I believe this? Absolutely!
About Sr. Geri Rosinski, RSM
Sr. Geri Rosinski, RSM, has served as Director of Campus Ministry for the nine years she has been affiliated with the college. When asked about her favorite aspect of Mercyhurst, she states: "Its people - students, and all its many dedicated employees - make this college so wonderful! My next favorite aspect would be its rich artistic cultural offerings."