Image by dhruvshelke1 from Pixabay.
By Sister Michele Morek
I was walking to a bus stop in upper Manhattan, when I was stopped in my tracks by a frantic, disheveled chicken with almost no feathers, running across the street in front of me. At first I was shocked to see something so out of place on a city street, but then I had to laugh, because the chicken seemed to have come from a fast-food restaurant on the corner. There was a big sign advertising “Fresh Chicken Salad Sandwiches,” which seemed appropriate! (The chicken was actually an escapee from the Korean grocery next door.)
Sister Michele Morek
This being New York City, all the patrons of the restaurant and grocery came out to line the street and cheer for the chicken, reveling with him in his bid for freedom. After all, Lady Liberty was just down in the harbor. And isn’t freedom part of our DNA as Americans?
This month we are celebrating 250 years of it: freedom of religion and of speech. Freedom from fear, want, and unjust laws. I was listening to a radio program featuring interviews with immigrants; they were asked what they hoped for from the United States. They all said, “Freedom!”
In Saint Angela Merici’s Third Legacy we can see how she valued freedom, as she instructs the leaders of her new Company how to lead “with a mild and kindly hand,” and says:
God has given free will to everyone, and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites, and counsels.
On this our 250th birthday, let us pray that we can keep our country true to the invitation of the Mother of Exiles in the New York Harbor, who “lifts her lamp beside the golden door.”
- What freedom is most important to you?
- Can you think of someone who models gentle but effective governing?
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