-   HUMAN  BEING  FREEDOM   -  

God created man/woman a rational being, conferring on him/her the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his/her own actions. "God willed that man/woman should be 'left in the hand of his/her own counsel,' so that he/she might of his/her own accord seek his/her Creator and freely attain his/her full and blessed perfection by cleaving to God." - CCC 1730, CCC 30 - GS 17; Sirach 15:14 - 

Man/Woman is rational and therefore like God; he/she is created with free will and is master over his/her acts. - St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres, 4, 4, 3,: PG 7/1, 983 -

Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so 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. - CCC 1731, CCC 1721 - 

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. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach. - CCC 1732, CCC 396, CCC 1849, CCC 2006 - 

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." - Cf. Romans 6:17 - CCC 1733, 1803 - 

Freedom makes man/woman responsible for his/her 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 act. - CCC 1734, 1036, 1804 -

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. - CCC 1735, CCC 597 -

Every act directly willed is imputable to its author: - CCC 1736, CCC 2568 - Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden: "What is this that you have done?" - Genesis 3:13 - God asked Cain the same question. - Cf. Genesis 4:10 - The prophet Nathan questioned David in the same way after he committed adultery with the wife of Uriah and had him murdered. - Cf. 2 Samuel 12:7-15 -

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, for example, 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. - CCC 1737, 2263 -

Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognised as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to 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. - CCC 1738, 2106 - Cf. DH 2&7 -

                 -  HUMAN  BEING  FREEDOM  IN  THE  ECONOMY  OF  SALVATION  -

Freedom and sin. Human being freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man/woman failed. He/She freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of love, he/she deceived himself/herself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence of the abuse of freedom. - CCC 1739, 387, 401 -

Threats to freedom. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man/woman, "the subject of this freedom," is "an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interest in the enjoyment of earthly goods." - CDF, Instr. Libertatis conscientia 13 - Moreover, the economic, social, political and cultural conditions that are needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated. Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the strong as well as the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. By deviating from the moral law man/woman violates his/her own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself/herself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth. - CCC 1740, 2108, 1887 -

Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men/women. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free." - Galatians 5:1 - In him we have communion with the "truth that makes us free." - Cf. John 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 Corinthians 3:17 - Already we glory in the "liberty of the children of God." - Romans 8:21 - CCC 1741, 782 -

Freedom and grace. The grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart. On the contrary, as Christian experience attests especially in prayer, the more docile we are to the promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence during trails, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer world. By the working of grace the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us free collaborators in his work in the Church and in the world:  - CCC 1742, 2002, 1784 - 

Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness take away from us all that is harmful, so that, made ready both in mind and body, we may freely accomplish your will. - Missale Romanum, 32nd Sunday, Opening Prayer: Omnipotens et misericors Deus, universa nobis adversantia propitiatus exclude, ut, mente et corpore pariter expediti, quae tua sunt liberis mentibus exsequamur.  

IN BRIEF

CCC 1743 - "God willed that man/woman should be left in the hand of his own counsel (cf. Sirach 15:14), so that he/she might of his/her own accord seek his/her creator and freely attain his/her full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him." (GS 17&1)

CCC 1744 - Freedom is the power to act or not to act, and so to perform deliberate acts of one's own. Freedom attains perfection in its acts when directed toward God, the sovereign Good.

CCC 1745 - Freedom characterizes properly human acts. It makes the human being responsible for acts of which he/she is the voluntary agent. His/Her deliberate acts properly  belong to him/her. 

CCC 1746 - The imputability or responsibility for an action can be diminished or nullified by ignorance, duress, fear and other psychological or social factors.

CCC 1747 - The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in religious and moral matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of man/woman. But the exercise of freedom does not entail the putative right to say or do anything.

CCC 1748 - "For freedom Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1). 

-     WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY     - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -