Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
Saint John 8,31-42

« If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. ».

Not considering the binding and unavoidable factors, the Christian should live in the awareness that true freedom consists in not creating superfluous needs for oneself. Even if one has conspicuous means, he can be poor, poor in spirit, that is, be capable of voluntary renunciation, that is, of not locking himself up in cages that could imprison and limit him.

you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free

In this passage, Jesus reproaches the Jews for not understanding who he is and for not accepting the truth. In fact they often demonstrate, as we often read along the Gospel accounts, that they have not understood that the law is for man, not man for the law.
They observe it mechanically, to the letter, without exceptions and without understanding its 'ratio', i.e. the true reason for the existence of the law itself.
In addition, the religious power of the time saw in Jesus Christ a competitor who could demolish their structures of power, cause them to lose their privileges and perhaps take their place.
The Romans who governed Judea at the time (on the subject you can read this history article on Pontius Pilate) are relatively or very little interested in the religion of their subjects. Freedom of religion is complete and racism does not yet exist, what matters is the political stability of the Empire and the protection of freedom of trade and movement. A Christian must know that freedom is won by being disciples of Jesus Christ and making an effort to follow him, putting his teachings into practice, in the ordinary situation in which he finds himself because Christ is the way, the truth, the life.
We tend to this goal by constantly reading and meditating on his word, to create our own coherent model of general behavior that allows us to try to follow him in our ordinary life and work situation.
We need it to help free us from the constraints of today's relativism and indeed, to oppose them intelligently.
The most important thing is to try to avoid hypocrisy in what we do. Life must have its own uniqueness, and one should not have two or more faces depending on the environment and situation one is in.
Hypocrisy, vices and bad habits are bad because they create addictions. They are cages from which a person cannot free himself, or can do so at the cost of enormous efforts. To be free and be a disciple of Jesus Christ, one must try to understand and honestly follow his teachings.

End of the commentary

PHILOSOPHY APPENDIX:

FREEDOM
Cicero's quote. 'freedom (...) does not consist in having a good master, but in not having one at all' although it concerns the politics of his time and had a precise political purpose at the time, it is nonetheless valid as a principle of general reasoning.
The Christian knows that freedom consists in not creating needs, not being influenced by one's choices.
Even if one owns conspicuous means he can be poor, poor in spirit, that is, be capable of giving up and not locking himself up in cages that imprison and condition him. Vices and bad habits are such because they create addictions, from which a person cannot free himself or can do so at the cost of enormous efforts.
FREEDOM THEREFORE CONSISTS OF NOT HAVING MASTERS. We are not dealing with the 'master', that is, the one seen and demonized in Marxian terms as the owner of the means of production, or the one who owns more things than another. Or who has things that another can't get.
It is not a question of the lack of freedom deriving from the so-called 'alienation' of the work (read 'theft') carried out by the capitalist who exploits the poor workers, but of the individual freedom of the individual.
There may actually be objective situations of need which can condition the individual to the point of depriving him of the possibility of a life worthy of being called human.
But every Christian knows that it is necessary to make sure - through politics - that similar situations should not occur, because otherwise one does not follow the precepts of Christ, one isn't a true Christian.
In this regard it must be kept in mind that in the case of administration of a community one must unfortunately accept the principle of the 'lesser evil' avoiding greater damages for the collective activity. By the fruits you will judge them!
That is, the decisions that an individual takes for himself are a moral choice of him conditioned only by the good of his neighbor, those that concern a community instead are not, although subject to the same moral principles.

RELATIVISM
Relativism maintains that an absolute truth does not exist, or, even if it exists, it is not knowable or expressible or, alternatively, it is knowable or expressible only partially (precisely, relatively); individuals can therefore only obtain relative knowledge, since each statement refers to particular factors and is true only in reference to them.
The first appearance of relativism takes place within Greek sophistry more than 2500 years ago; for the sophists, no cognitive act reaches the objective nature of things, nor does it represent an absolute truth valid for everyone.
The Christian, on the other hand, knows what the truth is, which is absolute and which is personified by Christ. He is the way, truth and life

TOPICS FOR REFLECTION

Freedom- Not having masters- Not being slaves of oneself
Freedom and the law - Good and evil: absolute concepts - Freedom is doing good

  Don't worry ! the mercy of Jesus
  is INFINITE

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8,31-42.

Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, 'You will become free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains.
So if a son frees you, then you will truly be free.
I know that you are descendants of Abraham. But you are trying to kill me, because my word has no room among you.
I tell you what I have seen in the Father's presence; then do what you have heard from the Father."
They answered and said to him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.
But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God; Abraham did not do this.
You are doing the works of your father!" (So) they said to him, "We are not illegitimate. We have one Father, God."
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.
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