Dec 28 Sat
Can I follow Jesus, and still be free?
If man were purely matter, he would not be free. Choice would be merely the result of many complex, not-well-understood, material forces.
Freedom is not something inert like flour or sugar that one can place in a container. Freedom is always FOR something: To accomplish yourself. There is no authentic freedom if it is not at the service of goodness and justice.
To be free, you must know what you choose; ignorance is an obstacle to the capacity to choose. Thus, freedom depends on truth. Truth is not the same as “opinion” or “one’s own judgment,” but rather an objective reality.
Thus, freedom is for choosing goodness, and accomplishing yourself or failing to do so. Not wanting evil is not a limitation of freedom. Freedom does not consist in the possibility of choosing evil. This possibility is just a sign of weak freedom and a consequence of the creature’s imperfection. As man does good, he becomes freer.
Choosing disobedience to God and evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to the slavery of sin.
Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that he wants them. The way to acquire and develop one’s freedom is to make good use of responsibility.
Freedom is not only the choice of a particular action; it is also a decision about oneself fixing one’s life for or against the Good, for or against the Truth, and ultimately, for or against God.
A person who chooses an ultimate end that is different from God is choosing something that is only relatively good. It is bound to end in frustration and even hatred of oneself.
Choosing God entails choosing to follow the norms leading to God, and choosing to obey his will and his laws. These norms are not arbitrary decrees, but elements of God’s wise plan, the observance of which provides for our full and authentic happiness.
There is no incompatibility here between obedience to God and freedom, because one freely chooses to obey. The same can be said of one’s fidelity to freely acquired commitments; acquiring or being faithful to such commitments does not diminish freedom in the least.
God respects human freedom even when man refuses his plan of love and abuses the gift. God’s grace does not annul our freedom, but helps us to make better use of our freedom.
In choosing, a man both accomplishes and limits oneself. Choices make him to be the kind of person he is. Through the actions that a person freely chooses to do, he gives himself an identity, for weal or woe. This is how we shape our lives. By choosing, I make myself.
Thus, if a person chooses to commit adultery, he makes himself an adulterer. Furthermore, choices last. He will remain what—or who—he has made himself by an act of self-determination (an adulterer) until he determines himself otherwise by another, radically contrary choice. Even if he repents, he will remain an adulterer, but now a repentant adulterer, one who has given to himself a newer identity, one who repudiates his former choice and wants—with God’s grace—to amend his life, and be a faithful spouse.
The shepherds and the Magi used their freedom to seek Jesus. What about you? In what project are you to invest your freedom?
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