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Let Freedom Ring: Truth and the American Soul

Let Freedom Ring: Truth and the American Soul

Last updated on: June 29, 2026 at 10:12 am by Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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Let Freedom Ring: Truth and the American Soul 2026-06-29T10:12:14-07:00 Fr. Nicholas Sheehy, LC

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The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. It always brings me back to growing up and going somewhere to watch an official fireworks show. My mom would tell stories about lighting fireworks on her street growing up, an experience we lacked in wildfire-prone Southern California. This year, we are celebrating a quarter millennium. Two hundred and fifty years have passed since those brave men signed the Declaration of Independence and launched a new experiment in self-government, invoking God’s providence and guidance. Is there one word that characterizes the American spirit that accompanies our history of the last 250 years? I believe there is a word, and that word is freedom.

Fireworks

Fireworks for Freedom on the Fourth of July | Courtesy: Pexels.com

The ideal of freedom has always accompanied the American story. But there have been many misuses of liberty. We see this in the great stain on our national history: the evil of slavery. Freedom was proclaimed as a universal right while being denied to millions. The Declaration of Independence makes it clear that Americans see ourselves as a free people. It is always a struggle, however, to make sure that we are also a moral people.

The American experiment has always been animated by a love of liberty, but this value reaches its fullest meaning only when it is united to truth and directed toward God.

Pope John Paul II

Immediately, however, we have to clarify what we mean by freedom. It is not simply the lack of prohibition to do what we want. We see freedom as the capacity to do what is good and what is right. Pope John Paul II reflected richly on freedom. He thought about liberty in relation to human action. Only human beings possess the capacity for self-determination. Because our choices are free, they are also moral. Every human action, therefore, raises the question not only of what we can do, but of what we ought to do.

Truth and Freedom

Freedom must always be related to truth.

Truth enlightens man’s intelligence and shapes his freedom (Pope St. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor).

Because of the value we give to truth, we conclude that there are certain freedoms already enshrined in the United States in the Bill of Rights. We protect free speech not because every opinion is equally true, but because human beings possess the dignity and responsibility to seek truth. Genuine dialogue and rigorous inquiry allow truth to emerge more clearly. The same principle underlies religious liberty: every person must be free to seek God and respond to him according to conscience.

Freedom from Sin

Political freedom is a great good, but Christianity has always proposed an even deeper freedom. A nation may be free while its citizens remain enslaved by vice, addiction, greed, or fear. The Gospel, therefore, asks a deeper question: What does it mean for the human person to be truly free?

The greatest freedom is from sin. Pope John Paul II struggled against the communist system his entire life. When he finally watched the Soviet republics break away in 1991, he noticed a new flood of ideologies enter the East, and not all of them good. Western decadence entered in, and he saw how sin could come not merely from social structures used to prop up an atheistic ideology, but also from the age-old sources of greed and lust.

Long before the modern discussion of political liberty, St. Augustine identified the deepest form of freedom: freedom from sin.

“The beginning of freedom,” Saint Augustine writes, “is to be free from crimes… such as murder, adultery, fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege, and so forth… But this is only the beginning of freedom” (Pope St. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 13).

Maturity

Freedom from sin is not enough by itself. Mature freedom is always in relation to the divine law. St. Paul reminded the Galatians: “you were called to freedom, brethren” (Gal. 5:13). St. Paul recognizes the fullness of life that comes through Christ’s victory over sin and death: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).

Standing Up

The people of the United States have often stood up for freedom. The men and women who have served our country remind us that freedom requires sacrifice. Christians know this truth well. Every authentic freedom comes at a cost. The greatest liberty, won by Christ, was purchased on the Cross. It is part of their legacy, and to be worthy of the gift they have left to us, we have to make sure to live freedom worthily. As President John F. Kennedy declared in 1961, “We stand for freedom” (John F. Kennedy, 25 May 1961).

What, then, is the Christian’s task in a free society? An ancient Christian writer gave a striking answer in the Letter to Diognetus.

What the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world (Letter to Diognetus, 6).

We have the heavy responsibility to remind our nation of the values that guide it. When you light off fireworks, remember that you are called to be light (cf. Mt. 5:14). When you fire up the barbecue, remember that you are supposed to care for the hungry and the naked (cf. Mt. 25:35-36). When you thank God for our independence, remember that we all depend on God.

As we celebrate 250 years of American independence, we give thanks for the gift of liberty. Yet freedom is never merely something we possess; it is something we must continually learn to use well. When freedom is joined to truth and directed toward God, it becomes a force for human flourishing. When separated from truth, it quickly loses its way. The challenge before every generation of Americans is not simply to preserve freedom, but to live it well.

My country, ‘tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims’ pride,

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring!

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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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