Freedom without price

If he had emphasized freedom instead of obedience, the life of the Church would have been different: this is what the Waldensian pastor Paolo Ricca, a bridge-man of ecumenism, said in a conference on the 10 Words that continues to make us reflect. «You have been called to freedom»: the first gift of God to man is freedom. The second is the law. It is freedom that dictates the law, not the opposite. The 10 Words improperly called “commandments” are not the leash of freedom, but the way to give it substance.

First Word, «You shall have no other Gods…». Freedom to say No to God. Freedom to say Yes to him. Freedom that God loves so much that he made man free to be “inhuman”, capable of ferocity like no other animal in the world. In this humanity God enters to tell us: You are not yet human but you can become one. In Jesus. God is the only one who can become man!

Second, «You shall not make an image for yourself…». Freedom to love God without imagining him. An imagined God is imaginary, a God who does not exist, a false image of God. To free oneself from him, in the Bible, sacrifices, blood, slaughter of animals are needed, up to the cry of Hosea: I desire mercy, and not sacrifices!

Third, «You shall not use the Name of God in vain…». The freedom to love God without sequestering him. In the Bible, the Name can be read but not pronounced. If I read it, God remains outside of me. If I pronounce it, the Name enters my brain, I take possession of it, I seize it. But there is no “my” God who is not “yours”, no “our” God who is not “your” God.

Fourth, «Remember to keep holy the feasts». The idea is not the party, it is the rest. Rest! It is the freedom to be with yourself, to ask yourself who you are, what you are doing in the world, where you are going. One day in seven think about why you live. Stop! You cannot answer this question that is constitutive of life by running, but only by standing still.

Fifth, "Honor your father and mother". Your parents precede you. Without them you would not exist. They are the condition of your history. It is the freedom from the barbarity of denying the past, not only that of your blood parents but of artists, of creators of culture, of all the history that precedes you, on which alone you can build the future.

Sixth, "You shall not kill". The freedom to let weapons fall from your hands, to not harm what is living, to creatures that you did not create. The freedom of respect for what is sacred.

Seventh, "You shall not commit adultery." God loves marriage, it is the first thing he invented. He protects it as an absolute miracle of two totally different beings who come together for a life project made to last. The freedom to love without betraying. The freedom to admit the need for the other.

Eighth, "You shall not steal." The freedom not to be possessed, to remain administrators without believing yourself to be owners.

Ninth, "You shall not lie against your neighbor." The freedom to tell the truth without being a snitch, that is, without speaking ill of your neighbor. The truth can kill: if it can hurt, it is better not to say it, even if it is true.

Tenth, "You shall not covet...". How can you not desire? We are full of desires, even beautiful ones. But lust is something else: it is robbery with thought. It is envy for the talents, health, wealth, family of the other. Rejoice for his gifts instead. It is the freedom to rejoice for the other.

Not a law, but 10 Words with a single purpose: the happiness that only freedom can give.


Flaminia Morandi
NP January 2025