July is a time of honoring the bonds of friends and family with gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy in this nation. In the Church, the July calendar invites us to appreciate a different kind of freedom, one that’s not merely the absence of external restraints from worldly authorities. It’s not about the right to do whatever we want. It’s not about “radical autonomy, to act as gods and self-creators.” The freedom the Church offers us is freedom in Christ—the liberation from the tyranny of sin, fear, and death. It’s the freedom to become who God created us to be.
The Church’s feasts and observances of July offer insightful lessons about what it means to be truly free. On July 1 we celebrate the Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian. These brothers were physicians and offered their medical skills without accepting payment, showing us the power of the profound freedom experienced when one is liberated from greed and materialism. On July 2, St. John (Maximovich) of San Francisco, the wonderworker, is honored. Knowing both physical exile and great responsibility for the souls under his charge as a hierarch, he served Christ and his people tirelessly. Grateful for the freedom that the United States offered him, he received critical congressional support to open the way for the acceptance of thousands of refugees from Communist Chinese oppression. He understood freedom as that being won in a battle within himself rather than with external forces, explaining, “Such freedom is attained only through a long and difficult process of self-knowledge, working on oneself and being vigilant towards one’s inner life, in other words, the soul.” “Be careful,” he warns, “Watch out for your soul! Turn your thoughts away from what will soon pass away and turn them towards what is eternal.” Living in extreme poverty by choice, even giving away the shoes he was wearing to a homeless person on more than one occasion, his life revealed the paradox of inner freedom that was born of his extreme personal self-denial.
On July 19 we remember the 4th Ecumenical Council. If we set aside extreme positions regarding the sacred canons of these and other councils, on the one hand rigid literalism and on the other hand impious negligence, we can affirm that ultimately what arose in the canons was facilitated by a freedom of conscience in the hierarchs who on the whole were moved by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the most prominent figure in July is the Prophet Elias, commemorated on July 20. Amidst a politically engineered religious crisis in ancient Israel, he stood as the sole public dissenter, fiercely independent of societal pressure, political corruption, and popular opinion. His freedom was rooted in his absolute allegiance to the Living God. When we look at our modern world—often enslaved to trends, anxiety, and digital noise—Elijah’s fiery zeal calls us to a spiritual independence that refuses to bow to the idols of our age.
Finally, on July 27, we celebrate St. Panteleimon the Great Martyr and Unmercenary Healer. A young physician who gave up wealth, social position and eventually his life for Christ, he showed that even in the face of physical captivity and martyrdom, a soul united to Christ remains ultimately free. As we immerse ourselves in the celebration of freedom, may we learn from the examples of July’s saints the greater freedom that God offers us.