The notion of “freedom” has become controversial in public discourse. Freedom is a good to which we all aspire; we rise up against anything that threatens to curtail or restrict it. As a result, the vocabulary of freedom has become an effective rhetorical tool.

Suggestions that the freedom of a particular group is in danger provoke immediate responses of outrage online. They can even mobilize people into public squares.

Various political movements in Europe today resort to the rhetoric of freedom. This gives rise to tensions. What one sector of society perceives as “liberating” is considered oppressive by others. Opposing fronts are rising, with the banner of “freedom” held high everywhere. Bitter conflicts are born from incompatible agendas of supposed liberation.

This state of affairs presents a challenge to Christians. It is essential to clarify what we mean when, in the context of faith, we speak of becoming free. This is what St. Bernard does when commenting on the verse: “For he has delivered me from the snare of the fowlers and from the bitter word.”

For Saint Bernard, it is evident that true freedom is not “natural” to fallen man. What seems natural to us is doing things our own way, satisfying our desires and carrying out our plans without interference, displaying our own brilliant lights and being praised for them. Bernard, addressing man in this state of delusion, is delightfully sarcastic: “What do you think you are, you presumptuous ignoramus? You have become a beast for whom traps are set!”

The fact that we stumble so easily, that we keep falling into the same old traps, even knowing perfectly well where they are, is for him proof enough that we are not free, incapable on our own of moving firmly towards the true goal of our life, instead surrendering to all kinds of obstacles and distractions.

By grounding his understanding of freedom in the Son’s “Yes!” to the Father’s will, Bernard brings about a revolution in our understanding of what it means to be free. Christian freedom does not consist in seizing the world by force; it consists in loving the world with a crucified love, magnanimous enough to make us freely desire, united to Christ, to give our lives for it, so that it may be set free.

Caution is required when freedom, seized by force, is manipulated as a means to legitimize the actions of impersonal entities such as “the Party,” “the Economy,” or even “History.” In the Christian way of thinking, no oppressive policy can be redeemed by invoking an ideological “freedom.” The only meaningful freedom is personal; and one person’s freedom cannot negate another’s.

Adhering to a Christian understanding of freedom implies accepting suffering. When Christ tells us, “Do not resist evil,” he is not asking us to tolerate injustice. He is showing us that the cause of justice is sometimes best served by suffering for it, by refusing to respond to force with force.

Our emblem of freedom remains the Son of God who “emptied himself.”

Erik Varden, Bishop of Trondheim, Norway, was invited to preach the 2026 Spiritual Exercises for Pope Leo XIV, the cardinals residing in Rome, and the heads of Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, which will be held from Sunday, February 22, to Friday, February 27.

1. First meditation
2. Second meditation
3. Third meditation
4. Fourth meditation