Director of Marriage, Family Life, Faith Formation and Youth Ministry
As we enter the month of July, we prepare for Independence Day, July 4th, when we celebrate the founding of our country and our hard-won freedom from tyranny at the hands of a foreign monarch. That hard-won fight enshrines not only our national freedom, our right to self-determination as an independent nation, but also our individual civil and religious freedoms.
Freedom is an alluring concept, but what is it exactly? A common dictionary definition asserts that freedom is “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” Ask the average person on the street “what is freedom?” and the likely response is “to do whatever I want.” But is this really what true freedom is all about?
As Catholics, we know better…or rather, we should know better. We are told that true freedom is the freedom to choose the good, but how are we to understand that notion? If it is true freedom, how can there be supposed limits? Doesn’t freedom mean to choose what I want, regardless of the implications?
Let us look at what the Catholic Church has to say about true freedom. The Church teaches in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that freedom “is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility” (CCC 1731). So far, so good. The Catechism continues: “Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.” (CCC 1731). There lays the “catch.” While we might like to think that true freedom is the ability to choose whatever we want, good or bad, true freedom can only be perfected, that is to be truly free, when it is directed toward God. Otherwise, it becomes subjected to evil, enslaving us to sin, and is no longer free.
Thinking about our first parents, Adam and Eve, we remember that they fell into Original Sin when they were tempted by the devil in the Garden of Eden. They had a free choice to make: to follow God’s command to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:16) or to disobey God and succumb to the suggestions of the devil (Genesis 3:1-6). They were given the freedom to choose, they chose poorly, and now we all must live with the consequences of that decision.
When original man “preferred himself to God” (CCC 398) and “let his trust in his Creator die in his heart” (CCC 397), he abused his freedom, he “preferred himself to God” (CCC 398). By this free choice, man lost his original holiness and harmony and placed himself at odds with God, becoming a slave to sin, and plunging the world into the consequences of sin. This abuse of freedom is exactly what Jesus came to set aright through his suffering, death, and resurrection, to restore our relationship with God.
How can we respond appropriately to this great gift and once again attain true freedom? We were all created in the image of God, for friendship with Him, but we can only live this friendship in free submission to Him. As created beings, we are subject to the Creator and to the laws of His creation and “to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom” (CCC 396). Until we unite our will perfectly with God’s own will, we always have the possibility of choosing evil over good. Every time we choose evil, we diminish our freedom and enslave ourselves to sin.
Now, each of us faces many choices daily. As long as our actions are voluntary, our freedom makes us responsible for our actions. We do well to remember, according to the moral law, we do not have the right to say or do anything we desire. Our exercise of freedom must be just, exhibiting love of God firstly and secondly, charity to our neighbor who we are called to love as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). True freedom is only found in the service of what is good and just. The more we choose the good, the freer we become (CCC 1732-1733).
Let us remember that it is for “freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). That freedom comes at a great price and must be grounded in the One who set us free otherwise we succumb to an illusion that is in truth, no freedom at all.
Here’s what the Scriptures have to say:
John 3: 16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Galatians 5: 13 – For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.
Mark 12 :30 – 31 – …and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.