Raskolnikov, Ezra, and the Freedom of the Gospel

Last updated on: February 6, 2025 at 11:51 am by Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Raskolnikov, Ezra, and the Freedom of the Gospel 2025-02-06T11:51:56-08:00 Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Raskolnikov, the main character from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, wants to experience freedom. He is arrogant, indecisive, and young. The young man feels trapped by his circumstances and decides to take action to improve his situation. The indecisive young man kills his landlady and her sister and spends the rest of the novel trying to justify his actions to himself. Although he is seeking freedom from poverty and oppression, his unfettered actions bring him anguish instead. He lets the spirit of the world work within him instead of the spirit of the world, bringing him only misery and despair.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks of “three consequences in the Christian life when we let work within us not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of Christ as the interior principle of our entire action” (Pope Benedict XVI, 16 May 2012). Friedrich Nietzsche wanted to achieve freedom by rejecting traditional forms of morality and preferring to create his own reality. His philosophy leads to a self-centered approach to dealing with the world, as incarnated in the young man, Raskolnikov.

Freedom

Decontamination | Courtesy: Freepik.com

We risk being overcome by every form of fear and slavery when we do not have a life of prayer. Raskolnikov lives in deep fear and slavery to a poorly formed conscience.

Without prayer which every day nourishes our being in Christ, in an intimacy that progressively grows, we find ourselves in the state described by St Paul in his Letter to the Romans: we do not do the good we want, but the evil we do not want (cf. Rom 7:19)” (Pope Benedict XVI, 16 May 2012).

Do you ever find yourself doing the evil you hate? The protagonist of the novel experiences this, and it tortures his soul. On the other hand, when we pray faithfully, we live the authentic freedom of the children of God. Instead of licentiousness, we choose the Law of God, as St. Paul has done before us. “The Apostle wants to make us understand that it is not primarily our will that frees us from these conditions, nor even the law, but the Holy Spirit” (Pope Benedict XVI, 16 May 2012).

Too often, people think that the Law inhibits our freedom. We focus on suffering and suspect that spiritual and physical evil mean that God is absent from our lives. Perhaps we will learn a different lesson through prayer.

Prayer does not exempt us from trial and suffering, indeed — St Paul says — we “groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:23) (Pope Benedict XVI, 16 May 2012).

In the first reading, (Nehemiah 8:2-10), Ezra celebrates the recovery of the Law in Jewish society. We can feel that an external Law takes away from our authenticity. Rather, prayer and following God’s Law open us up to the true needs of those around us. Ezra knew that the re-discovery of the Law was not something oppressive for the people of Israel, but rather something that could inspire new hope as they would be living within his guidelines for happiness and holiness. Fidelity leads to integrity, which gives a sense of peace.

It is never just prayer for me but opens itself to sharing the suffering of our time, and others. It becomes intercession for others, and like this deliverance from me, a channel of hope for all creation, the expression of that love of God that is poured into our hearts through the Spirit whom he has given to us (Pope Benedict XVI, 16 May 2012).

In today’s Gospel (Luke 4:14-21), we see how Jesus experiences his mission in life as invigorating, especially within the context of God’s Law. He unrolls the scroll and reads the text of Isaiah to speak about himself. It must have been a majestic and mysterious moment. He unrolls the scroll, proclaims the passage, then declares “This has been fulfilled in your midst.” Imagine picking up a piece of literature from the time of Chaucer or Shakespeare and declaring that you are the fulfillment of what is written there. There is power in the words of Jesus. This is the power of the Law that gives life.

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About Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

Fr. Nicholas Sheehy is Assistant Chaplain at the Duke Catholic Center. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2013 for the Legionaries of Christ. You can read more about the author here.

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