To Be Free Is to Be Religious
Simone Riva - The Gospel says we cannot serve two masters. Christ gathers and fulfills the unity inherent in our nature, bringing it to fruition, but this requires a path to follow.
In a person's life, some things enter into a dialogue with the needs of the heart, while others seek to silence them. Some relationships openly embrace these needs without fear, while others distract from them. Some faces rekindle the joy of the journey, while others suppress it. Some friendships are springboards; others are tombs.
Along the way, we come to understand what Jesus says to his disciples in this Sunday's Gospel: “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Luke 16:13).
The challenge posed by Christ is not insignificant and stems from the certainty of the intimate unity present in humanity: "The nature of man is so unified, the nature of reason is so ‘one,’ that it accepts no other alternative: either we depend on God—and in this dependence, we find our greatest satisfaction—or, whether we like it or not, we depend on everything else. With all the gestures we make, deep down, we are slaves to everything: in the way we relate to work, how we manage money, how we use our free time—everything.
This is why I say that it is difficult to find free men, which is the same as saying to find truly religious men, for whom God is not just a feeling or an ornament, but an experience in which dependence is the deepest expression of the self, which finds its greatest satisfaction there. St. Thomas emphasizes this: ‘The life of man consists in the affection that principally sustains him and in which he finds his greatest satisfaction’ (St. Thomas Aquinas, *Summa Theologiae*, II, IIae, q. 179, art. 1). If there is no relationship that gives us this satisfaction, we cannot base our whole life on this affection, and then we depend on everything else. This is why so often our criterion is not dependence, but success, which is the criterion of the *divo*—that is, of the non-religious man" (Julián Carrón, *An Encounter to Enter Reality*, Rho Fair, September 29, 2007).
On many occasions, we can recognize in ourselves this dynamic, which is capable of casting a veil of suspicion over even the most beautiful things and allowing performance to creep in as a measure of ourselves and others. Then comes the day when we realize that we cannot “serve two masters.” In an instant, our first love takes center stage again, reawakening in us a longing for which we will never cease to be amazed and grateful.
This moment, in order to happen again, sometimes works through the strangest details of reality—those that no one would pay attention to, such as our temperament. We are made in a certain way; we are excited by certain things and uninterested in others. We carry in our flesh the traces of how our first love decided to break into our lives. We are so marked by this initiative that, sooner or later, we will no longer accept “two masters.”
Some may take a lifetime to admit this to themselves, which is why it is always best to enjoy the journey of discovery and wait to savor the view. The goal itself is already present in every step we take, because it was She who reached us first—we who are not meant to be slaves, but free. And even if it is true that “the children of this world are more astute toward their own kind than the children of light” (Luke 16:8), we must recognize that the Light has never been without children. We are among them, but have we remained free?
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The following notes are provided for educational and informational purposes only. They have been transcribed, translated, and edited by the staff of Epochal Change. The author has not reviewed or approved this material. All rights to the original content remain with the respective copyright holders. This transcript is shared under the principles of fair use, with no commercial intent, and solely to foster study, discussion, and cultural exchange.
