Freedom

This isn't anything new or ground-breaking, but I wanted to organize my thoughts on the topic. I've always been bothered by people who reject religion or the Church because they don't want to be told what to do. Not only does it mean that they have the wrong idea of what the whole purpose of religion is, but they are assuming that they know better than God or anyone else what is best, not only for them, but for others. They are putting themselves above the law (which I recently learned is the root of the word hypocrisy--"above" the "law"). I'm not calling them all hypocrites, but I want to point out what I think is the main flaw in their logic. A logic that has pervaded our Western culture. Namely that the ultimate goal is freedom, and that freedom means license to do whatever one pleases. It's freedom from restrictions. If you subscribe to that, then of course you reject a Magisterium that comes and says you can't do whatever you want.

I would argue two things. Firstly, that freedom is not the goal in and of itself. People who stop at freedom are cheating themselves of a greater good. And secondly, that freedom is not license to be subject to our passions, but rather liberty from those passions to pursue that greater good.

The Christian understanding of freedom, expressed beautifully by Paul, is that we have been set free for a purpose. You have to start with an adequate understanding of the human person, as body and soul, subject to passions and sensations, but also with an intellect and a will to govern those. If I merely follow my passions--by eating whatever I want, ignoring difficult tasks, satisfying sexual urges, acting on anger--I am not free, but rather enslaved by those impulses. If my intellect and my will are able to choose the good, to choose to love, that is when I am truly free.

Christianity helps illuminate what that greater good looks like, gives us tools to tame our passions and to submit our will so that we are free to choose. I'm borrowing this example, but if I am angry at someone, the freedom is not that there is no law prohibiting my killing him, because then I am a slave to my anger. The freedom is when I can change to loving him so that I no longer desire to kill him. The commandment that prohibits killing is not what is preventing my freedom; it's merely a guide to help me until I can discover true freedom.