SUDARIO, 2020 What is Freedom? - a state of being free of constraints (Webster Dictionary) According to Oxford, Freedom is the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. SUDARIO, 2020 What is Freedom? It is a gift from God, an autonomy over his creation. SUDARIO, 2020 Responsible Stewardship Able to exercise human freedom properly over God’s creation. SUDARIO, 2020 Doing what is right and in accordance to God’s will. SUDARIO, 2020 Throughout the world today, there is an unprecedented drive for freedom, for breaking out all the old structures of political oppression, racial prejudice, economic injustice, and constricting cultural mores. CFC # 693 SUDARIO, 2020 Misuse of Freedom Adam and Eve misused their freedom by disobeying Gods’ will. SUDARIO, 2020 Freedom today is “doing what I want” rather than doing what is right and what is good. Saying or expressing bad words is a misuse of human freedom. SUDARIO, 2020 We misused our freedom in many ways. SUDARIO, 2020 Distorted View of Human Freedom Freedom is a license to do anything we want even if it is evil. SUDARIO, 2020 What Freedom is NOT: Freedom is not simply doing what I want. SUDARIO, 2020 But it is so easy to confuse human freedom with simply “doing what I want.” Authentic freedom is NOT “the right to say and do anything,” but to “do the good”. CFC # 694; cf. CCC 1740 SUDARIO, 2020 Freedom is not the right to say and do anything anytime I like to do it. SUDARIO, 2020 Freedom is not without authority, law or norm. SUDARIO, 2020 Freedom is not my own private individual possession. SUDARIO, 2020 Freedom is not found in prejudice, deceit, or ignorance. SUDARIO, 2020 It is NOT my individual private possession, but a shared freedom with others in community. It is NOT found in prejudice, deceit, or ignorance, but in truth. CFC # 694; cf. Jn 8:32 SUDARIO, 2020 SUDARIO, 2020 Authentic freedom is freedom from everything that opposes our true self-becoming. Freedom from is a deliverance from anything and everything that hinders us from doing what is good and in developing our true self. SUDARIO, 2020 We become sharply aware of the value of our freedom only when we are forced to do something against our will. Then we realize how much we long to be free from things imposed to us. CFC # 695 SUDARIO, 2020 But this “freedom from” all restraints can often result in following selfish inclinations or blind prejudices rather than seeking what is truly good. CFC # 695; cf. Gal 5:1,13,16; 1 Pt 2:16 SUDARIO, 2020 Authentic freedom, involves first of all freedom from everything that opposes our true selfbecoming with others in community. CFC # 696 SUDARIO, 2020 Interior obstacles – ignorance, disordered passions, fears, personality defects, bad habits, prejudices or psychological disturbances. Exterior forces – violent force or even the threat of violence. CFC # 696 SUDARIO, 2020 These impediments are commonly traced to three sources: 1. biological – inherited handicaps and defects as well as external substances like drugs; 2. psychological – interior compulsions, including those from the unconscious; 3. Social pressures – economic, political, and cultural obstacles which impede the right to freedom. But the greatest single obstacle to authentic freedom is SIN. CFC # 696, cf. CCC 1740 Authentic Freedom is freedom for growing as full persons and children of God. Freedom for is the power to work towards the fulfillment to which our nature is ordered and to which Christ invites us to a full life in the Kingdom. SUDARIO, 2020 This freedom from is obviously directed towards a second freedom, the more important “freedom for”. Beyond being liberated from all the obstacles, authentic freedom is the freedom for growing as full persons and children of God...in authentic love. (personal dimension) CFC # 697 SUDARIO, 2020 Two levels of the individual person’s “freedom for”: 1. freedom of choice – my moral acts, 2. fundamental freedom – my very self. CFC # 697 SUDARIO, 2020 In the first level, we have the freedom to choose to act in this or that way, to do good or evil. But by consistently choosing to do the good, we gradually become free loving persons, the second level. CFC # 697; cf. VS 65-68 SUDARIO, 2020 Our personal “freedom for” is both a process – gradual growth, and a task – striving to overcome the obstacles from within and without, towards authentic, mature fundamental (self) freedom. CFC # 697 SUDARIO, 2020 The goal of this process and task of personal freedom is “to be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. ” Freedom “to attain the good” simply means to “act as Jesus did.” CFC # 698, cf. Rom 8:21; CCC 1742 SUDARIO, 2020 It is the power of Christ’s Spirit within us that liberates us from sin, the law and death, for a life of loving service wherein we find our true selves by imitating Christ Jesus, our Lord. CFC # 699, cf. Rom Chapter 5; Gal 5:22 SUDARIO, 2020 We come to know what is moral good in the light of the Gospel and human experience. Our moral life works through our conscience, “the most secret core and sanctuary of a man, where he is alone with God... CFC # 700; cf. GS 16 SUDARIO, 2020 Moral conscience is the expression of the divine law, defining what is good and what is evil. It is our conscience that indicates for us how we are to love God and our neighbor. CFC # 700; cf. Rom 1:32; CCC 1778 SUDARIO, 2020 The pillars of this freedom are “the truth about Jesus the Savior, the truths about the Church, and the truth about man and his dignity.” CFC # 694; cf. ITL, XI, 5 SUDARIO, 2020 Church Teachings Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly so, to be sure. Often, however, they foster it perversely as a license for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man. For God has willed that man be left “ in the hand of his own counsel” so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to him. SUDARIO, 2020 Freedom and Responsibility 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. As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. http://www.vatican.va/archive SUDARIO, 2020 This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach. 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." Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts. http://www.vatican.va/archive SUDARIO, 2020 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors. Every act directly willed is imputable to its author: Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden: "What is this that you have done?“ `He asked Cain the same question. The prophet Nathan questioned David in the same way after he committed adultery with the wife of Uriah and had him murdered. http://www.vatican.va/archive SUDARIO, 2020 An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from negligence regarding something one should have known or done: for example, an accident arising from ignorance of traffic laws. An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent; for instance, a mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is not imputable if it was not willed either as an end or as a means of an action, e.g., a death a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a bad effect to be imputable it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the possibility of avoiding it, as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken driver. http://www.vatican.va/archive SUDARIO, 2020 Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. the right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order. http://www.vatican.va/archive SUDARIO, 2020 SUDARIO, 2020
