THE QUEST FOR FREEDOM

JULY 5, 2008

Human freedom is the main preoccupation of the modern era.

Atheism is wholly preoccupied with this theme: the freeing of reason from the fetters of faith; the freeing of the economically enslaved for humanly worthy work (Marx); the freeing of the individual from the chains of an unmastered past (Freud); the freeing of all humanity from the nightmare of a concept, namely God, which is supposedly no longer believed and which has been dragged like a corpse through world history (Nietzsche).

Having arrived at the portals of freedom, however, the human being seems to be chained to some past, to a traditional custom, to a moment in history made absolute. The modern age therefore believes the past must be obliterated in order to set people free.

As a result, so long as Christianity is viewed principally as a matter of traditions and institutions, the emancipatory movements of modernity will have an easy time gaining people's allegiance, and making Christianity appear to be part of an imperial establishment or ancient regime that has become the enemy of human's freedom.

But this is exactly what the modern era has confused. Christianity is not primarily a matter of traditions and institutions, but of the faith‑filled experience of Jesus Christ as risen Lord, savior, and liberator; as the Way, the Truth, and the Life; as beauty ever ancient, ever new. That is why the Church has not died out, because Jesus lives! And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are opened through faith to knowledge and love of him.

Moreover, the Church thrives because the message of Jesus Christ is a message of life and of freedom greater than any the modern age has dared to hope or work for. Jesus said at the beginning of his public ministry that he had been anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit to "bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners" (Lk 4:18).

The Church ardently desires all persons to be free in every way that enables them to be authentically human and happy. She celebrates all that is good and noble in the modern age, and seeks to be at the service of humanity's quest for freedom. The Church recognizes that economic, social, political, and cultural conditions influence the exercise of freedom, and can unjustly impede it. Therefore, the Church affirms, it is everyone's duty to work conscientiously and cooperatively toward a just ordering of society.

Where the Church and the modern world part company is in their very distinct vision, of the meaning of freedom and what it promises.  The Church does not stand against the modern age's quest for freedom, but she goes deeper in analyzing the roots of humanity's lack of freedom, and she goes far beyond the modern age in the kind of freedom she promises.

Why are people not free? Christianity says the root causes are not found in social, political, economic, or cultural structures. These structures, when they obstruct authentic freedom, are rather the manifestations of humanity's lack of freedom. To seek a solution to humanity's woes by changing external structures is to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.

The message of Christianity is that any lack of freedom, external or internal, is rooted in the mystery of sin. Sin leads to a false vision of freedom and corrupt methods for attaining it.

The Church holds that the exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. No one is legitimately free to do what is morally wrong. It is false to maintain that man is a fully self‑sufficient being whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interests in the enjoyment of earthly goods. Man is limited and so are the earth's goods, so the freedom man can enjoy on this plane is limited indeed.

The freedom the Church desires for the human person includes all the legitimate freedoms the modern age desires and goes beyond.  Because sin is the root cause of our loss of freedom, the Church desires humanity to be free of sin and its consequences, the most terrible of which is death.

The Christian message is that God has freely opened himself to us in Jesus Christ, and has invited us into the realm of an absolute and divine freedom by offering us a participation in his own divine life. God alone offers us, then, a freedom that is truly without limit or end. This infinite freedom is the only one worthy of us, and the only one that will satisfy us.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1741, states that:

By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all...  He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free" (Gal 5:1). In him we have communion with the truth that makes us free (cf. Jn 8:32). The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle teaches, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Cor 3:17). Already we glory in the "liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8:21).

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 19-Sep-2008 13:30 sitemap