Ordinary Time 23
September 7, 2025
Modern-Day Slavery
Today’s
second reading is from one of the shortest books in the Bible: Paul’s letter to
Philemon. Philemon was a Christian man who had a slave named Onesimus. Onesimus
ran away and encountered Paul, and through him became a baptized Christian.
Paul is then sending Onesimus back to Philemon, but this time asking that
Onesimus be treated like a brother, not a slave.
The
Church has always been against slavery. Yes, it’s true that at times churchmen
held slaves (such as the Jesuit priests in southern Maryland, who held 300
slaves on their tobacco plantation), but that was against the direct
prohibition of the Vatican. In fact, all the way back in 1537, Pope Paul III
declared that it was immoral to enslave another human being. There are even two
religious orders whose entire mission was to rescue slaves: the Trinitarians
and Mercedarians. They would beg to raise money to purchase slaves and then set
them free, and there were even occasions where these brothers and priests would
actually exchange places with the slaves!
Sadly,
slavery still exists in today’s world – and quite often, we enable it without
even knowing it. First, physical slavery still exists. All of us purchase
goods made in sweatshops and through slavery. The US Department of Labor puts
out a document annually detailing which countries and products are made as a
result of slavery – it’s worth a read, and sobering in its content. We know
about companies such as Forever 21 and Adidas which use garments made in
sweatshops, but a lot of the food we eat too: some coffees from Brazil, rice
from India, or sugar from the Dominican Republic. It’s hard in today’s world to
avoid these things, as everything is so global, but as far as we are able we
should be aware, make our voices heard in objection to these things, and put
our dollars where our beliefs are.
More
concerning is the reality of human trafficking, which is still immensely
prevalent. The UN detects, on average, about 51,000 victims of human
trafficking worldwide each year, the majority of which are used for sins of
lust. It’s a tragedy that we must pray to end.
But
there is one major way that we might actually participate in human trafficking.
If someone regularly views lustful content on the internet, there is a very
good chance that they might be seeing someone who is a victim of trafficking.
My friends, the sin of lustful content must stop among Christians. Every human
being has dignity and deserves to be treated with love, not used for pleasure.
John Paul II had a brilliant insight when he said that the problem with lustful
content is not that it shows too much, but that it shows too little, since it
shows only the body but not the person. It reduces a person to nothing more
than a body, thereby making them an object.
But of
course lustful content also leads to another kind of slavery: spiritual
slavery, which is far more common than physical slavery in today’s world.
Oh how many of us struggle with real addictions! Whether it be to lust, or to
our phones, or to drugs or alcohol, or to online gaming, or anything else that
hampers our freedom in Christ! This is why in today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us
to give up anything that hinders us from following Him in freedom: whether it
be possessions that consume our time and energy, family members or friends who
lead us into sin, any hobby that prevents us from giving time to Christ,
anything. We can only truly follow Him in complete freedom – using the
things of this earth rightly and in their proper context.
So how
can we find this complete freedom in Christ? Again, the tools are simple:
Confession (which is available after Mass today), the Eucharist, the Rosary,
the Scriptures. But the first step is that we have to want it – not just, “Oh,
yes, I’d like to be free of my addiction if it’s not too hard.” No,
rather we should say, “I will do whatever it takes to have freedom in
Christ.” Jesus Christ is stronger than any spiritual slavery. His Cross is the
key that unlocks our chains. We might want to even meet with a priest to pray
some prayers called Deliverance Prayers, which are powerful prayers that
any priest can pray, which ask God to deliver you from any chains of Satan that
may hold you bound. A layperson can pray certain deliverance prayers yourself –
just Google “Catholic Deliverance Prayers” or “The St. Michael Center for
Spiritual Renewal” to find some excellent ones that you can pray on your own.
But if
you find yourself in spiritual slavery, do not despair – God can even make you
a saint. There was a wonderful story of St. Mark Tianxiang – I’ve told it
before, but it was several years ago, so please forgive it if you’ve heard it
before. He was a devout Catholic doctor in China before the Communist
revolution. He had a reputation as a compassionate man, always ready to offer
his services for free to the poor. But he began to have a stomach ailment, so
he prescribed himself opium…and quickly became an addict.
He would
go to Confession weekly, but kept falling back into the addiction again and
again. Eventually his parish priest refused him Absolution because he thought
that Mark wasn’t truly sorry. Rather than leave the Church in a huff, he
attended Mass for thirty years without receiving Communion, praying all the
while that God would make him a saint.
When the
anti-Catholic Boxer Rebellion occurred in China, Mark was arrested with his
whole family for their Catholic Faith. While in prison, he had no chance to
obtain the drugs – so he began to experience a great freedom! He was finally
martyred for his faith, giving the ultimate witness. It’s comforting to know
that someone who struggled for thirty years as a drug addict can become a
saint!
My
friends, St. Paul tells us that “it is for freedom that Christ set us free.”
Our Lord created men and women to be free – so let us do our part to help end
the physical slavery in today’s world, and also overcome spiritual slaveries
through the power of God’s grace.
