Today is Independence Day in my country.

Independence seems like an odd thing to celebrate at a time when we feel anything but independent, when so much of our independence is curtailed: The right to choose when and where we go, what people (and how many) we can be with, and whether or not to wear a mask when we are. Many Americans, in fact, have rebelled against these limitations in the name of the very independence first proclaimed on this date in 1776.

But true independence isn’t external. An addict whose drug is legal still depends upon it. A person who chooses ignorance over knowledge isn’t exercising their freedom, they’re limiting it.

St. Francis of Assisi was, in his youth (and by his own confession), a slave to sin and debauchery. It was only after his imprisonment that he found true independence. There in a prison cell he began…