Transcript

Edmund: So freedom’s kind of a hot word, right? Like, people are trying to find financial freedom or freedom from anxiety and depression. Things in current events and news even revolve around this debate around “What do I have the freedom to do or say?” Here in the United States, it’s also kind of our thing; we’re the “land of the free.” What always frustrates me about terms is we use these terms in conversation, and then never actually define them or understand them fully, and we talk about freedom as if everyone has the same concept of freedom. 

But this is what gets frustrating to me is a lot of the times when people are talking about freedom or the ability to do whatever you want, it just sounds like a kid that doesn’t want to be told “No. And is that really what freedom is? Is it just like “I just want to do whatever I want, when I want. I want to do it my way.” I mean, heck, Frank Sinatra even sang about that. As I was saying, freedom actually is a distinct power we have as humans and persons given to us when we were created by God. The Catechism actually says in paragraph 1731 “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. By free will one shapes one’s own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude. 

So God created us with this ability to choose how we act that’s different from any other creature that God made. So when someone is more or less free, what does that really mean? I mean, part of that is being more or less free to choose how you act, right? Okay, but then get this. The catechism reminds us in paragraph 1740, “The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man, “the subject of this freedom,” is “an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interests in the enjoyment of earthly goods.” It then goes on  to say this: “By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth” (CCC 1740). 

So what does this mean down to brass tacks? It means that freedom isn’t just about being able to choose to act however you want to act, right? Like you’d get kicked out of a lot of Olive Gardens that way. Freedom doesn’t mean that it comes without rules or limits. The Church describes freedom as a gift we’ve been given, and we have to use it appropriately. Also, because we have freedom and because you choose how you act and no one else chooses it for you, that means that you are solely responsible for your actions. The Catechism also reminds us in paragraph 1733, “The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to “the slavery of sin.”’

So, get this. This is so important but the way we use our freedom can make us more or less free. So if we use our freedom to pursue the good, we make ourselves, train ourselves to be more free, and we have more of an ability to choose the good. But if we use our freedom to follow evil or do evil actions we can become enslaved and imprisoned by these evil actions and they limit our freedom. We can choose to act differently than we are created. A dog can’t choose to not act like a dog but we can choose to act less human. And when we sin or disobey God or decide to commit an evil act, we are, in a way, being less human and less than we were created to be. 

So freedom isn’t just freedom from any restrictions or rules or limitations. When we actually follow a life in Christ it first it might seem like there’s lots of things we can’t do but in actuality, Jesus is training us to fully use our gift of freedom. So when you’re hearing people talking about wanting to do what they want, or when you hear these conversations around freedom, really we can ask ourselves like not “What are we free from?” but “What are we free for? We grow in true freedom as we learn to choose the good. 

God created us for true and lasting happiness; He created us in His image and likeness, which means that He’s on our side; He wants us to learn to choose what is good and what will bring us true happiness. Jesus offers us a life of true freedom free from the slavery of sin and free for choosing love and truth and goodness. And this is why the human person is created in the image and likeness of God: to share in God’s own beatitude through a life in Christ.