7 Genuine Freedom The Pursuit of the Good PDF

UNIT III. CALLED TO THE FULLNESS OF LIFE LESSON A: GENUINE FREEDOM: THE PURSUIT OF THE GOOD Trisha never really liked Benjamin from the moment they met at class. She feels that Benjamin in annoying in every sort of way and so she doesn’t want to be around her even if Benjamin is just minding his ow...

UNIT III. CALLED TO THE FULLNESS OF LIFE LESSON A: GENUINE FREEDOM: THE PURSUIT OF THE GOOD Trisha never really liked Benjamin from the moment they met at class. She feels that Benjamin in annoying in every sort of way and so she doesn’t want to be around her even if Benjamin is just minding his own business. Feeding on her antipathy towards her unsuspecting classmate, Trisha thought about creating a fake social media account where she can spread untrue and mean rumors about Benjamin in order embarrass the latter. Trisha knows that this is something that is doable but she feels distressed thinking that just because she can doesn’t mean she should, no matter how badly she wants it to happen. How do the people of your age concretely express their freedom? Can you identify these forms of expression (Whether these are positive or negative)? 1. Freedom as Expression of Dignity: God’s Image and Likeness in Man Freedom is anchored on man’s dignity, i.e., being made in the image and likeness of God. Freedom towards the good can only be achieved and perfected in God while being totally aware of the call to be always faithful to one’s dignity.  True freedom is a freedom only for the good. Human person as the perfect and the crowning glory of God’s creation must participate in Gods creative works which are good. Thus, man is always expected to choose the good in all his/her undertakings. Genuine freedom must be given emphasis in order to straighten man’s path toward the awareness of one’s fidelity to the dignity which was lost to sin.  As man strives to become ‘like-God’, he/she is called to always be reminded that the more we become like God, the more we become human and the more we become humans, the more we should be like God. E.g. Mother Teresa has become an icon of holiness because she exercised the genuine freedom that Christians are all called to do: the works of God. 2. Dignity and Freedom: The Fulfillment and Manifestation of God’s Presence in Man Man’s life is from God and God alone has the sole right to take it away. Washing man’s inequities through the blood of Christ makes man acceptable before God. By virtue of baptism, as adopted sons and daughters of God, man’s body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. God’s presence in man makes him/her holy, sacred.  Now freedom enters here when man treats the other with outmost respect and high regard for the presence of God in each person. It is by virtue of our dignity that we are equal before the eyes of God.  Creation happened because of the unconditional, undying and unending love of God. Man’s response to that overflowing love is faithfulness. Cognition of one’s and other’s dignity must be the basis of a person’s genuine exercise of genuine freedom.  As man navigates the ins and outs of genuine freedom, ideally, the good must always take precedence. The responsibility in exercising freedom entails that a person must always bear consciously and unconsciously that he/she is the only one answerable and accountable for all the actions he/she committed.  The intrinsic goodness of man is exercised through the aid his/her freewill and intellect. The election toward the good is only achieved if the person is definitively bound to God and is totally aware of the call to be always faithful to one’s dignity. Through this, man is able to perfect himself/herself and is capable of arriving at the promised salvation of Christ.  Freedom is our ability to be faithful to our dignity. Doing God-like actions: loving, showing mercy, extending compassion, forgiving, etc. Therefore, freedom is the ability to choose the good. “The more we choose the good, the freer we become.”  The beginning of freedom, Saint Augustine writes, is: ”To be free from crimes...such as murder, adultery, fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege and so forth. When once one is without these crimes (and every Christian should be without them), one begins to lift up one's head towards freedom. But this is only the beginning of freedom, not perfect freedom..." VS, 13 3. FREEDOM AND LAW "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat" (Gen 2:17) In the Book of Genesis we read: "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die' " (Gen 2:16-17). VS, 35. a. The Imagery of Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: Revelation teaches that the power to decide what is good and what is evil does not belong to man, but to God alone. Man is certainly free, inasmuch as he can understand and accept God's commands. And he possesses an extremely far- reaching freedom, since he can eat "of every tree of the garden".  But his freedom is not unlimited: it must halt before the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", for it is called to accept the moral law given by God. In fact, human freedom finds its authentic and complete fulfilment precisely in the acceptance of that law. God, who alone is good, knows perfectly what is good for man, and by virtue of his very love proposes this good to man in the commandments. VS, 35  God's law does not reduce, much less do away with human freedom; rather, it protects and promotes that freedom. In contrast, however, some present-day cultural tendencies have given rise to several currents of thought in ethics which center upon an alleged conflict between freedom and law.  These doctrines would grant to individuals or social groups the right to determine what is good or evil. Human freedom would thus be able to "create values" and would enjoy a primacy over truth, to the point that truth itself would be considered a creation of freedom. Freedom would thus lay claim to a moral autonomy which would actually amount to an absolute sovereignty. VS, 35  In response to the encouragement of the Second Vatican Council, there has been a desire to foster dialogue with modern culture, emphasizing the rational, and thus universally understandable and communicable, character of moral norms belonging to the sphere of the natural moral law. VS, 36  Some people, however, disregarding the dependence of human reason on Divine Wisdom and the need, given the present state of fallen nature, for Divine Revelation as an effective means for knowing moral truths, even those of the natural order, have actually posited a complete sovereignty of reason in the domain of moral norms regarding the right ordering of life in this world. Such norms would constitute the boundaries for a merely "human" morality; they would be the expression of a law which man in an autonomous manner lays down for himself and which has its source exclusively in human reason. In no way could God be considered the Author of this law, except in the sense that human reason exercises its autonomy in setting down laws by virtue of a primordial and total mandate given to man by God. These trends of thought have led to a denial, in opposition to Sacred Scripture (cf. Mt 15:3-6) and the Church's constant teaching, of the fact that the natural moral law has God as its author, and that man, by the use of reason, participates in the eternal law, which it is not for him to establish. b. God left man in the power of his own counsel" (Sir 15:14) The Second Vatican Council explains the meaning of that "genuine freedom" which is "an outstanding manifestation of the divine image" in man: "God willed to leave man in the power of his own counsel, so that he would seek his Creator of his own accord and would freely arrive at full and blessed perfection by cleaving to God". VS, 38 The exercise of dominion over the world represents a great and responsible task for man, one which involves his freedom in obedience to the Creator's command: "Fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28). In view of this, a rightful autonomy is due to every man, as well as to the human community. This is the autonomy of earthly realities, which means that "created things have their own laws and values which are to be gradually discovered, utilized and ordered by man".  Not only the world, however, but also man himself has been entrusted to his own care and responsibility. God left man "in the power of his own counsel" (Sir 15:14), that he might seek his Creator and freely attain perfection. Attaining such perfection means personally building up that perfection in himself. Indeed, just as man in exercising his dominion over the world shapes it in accordance with his own intelligence and will, so too in performing morally good acts, man strengthens, develops and consolidates within himself his likeness to God. VS, 39 At the heart of the moral life we thus find the principle of a "rightful autonomy" of man, the personal subject of his actions. The moral law has its origin in God and always finds its source in him: at the same time, by virtue of natural reason, which derives from divine wisdom, it is a properly human law. VS, 40. The rightful autonomy of the practical reason means that man possesses in himself his own law, received from the Creator. Nevertheless, the autonomy of reason cannot mean that reason itself creates values and moral norms. Were this autonomy to imply a denial of the participation of the practical reason in the wisdom of the divine Creator and Lawgiver, or were it to suggest a freedom which creates moral norms, on the basis of historical contingencies or the diversity of societies and cultures, this sort of alleged autonomy would contradict the Church's teaching on the truth about man. It would be the death of true freedom: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gen 2:17). Man's genuine moral autonomy in no way means the rejection but rather the acceptance of the moral law, of God's command: "The Lord God gave this command to the man..." (Gen 2:16). Human freedom and God's law meet and are called to intersect, in the sense of man's free obedience to God and of God's completely gratuitous benevolence towards man. Hence obedience to God is not, as some would believe, a heteronomy, as if the moral life were subject to the will of something all-powerful, absolute, extraneous to man and intolerant of his freedom. VS, 41 By forbidding man to "eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil", God makes it clear that man does not originally possess such "knowledge" as something properly his own, but only participates in it by the light of natural reason and of Divine Revelation, which manifest to him the requirements and the promptings of eternal wisdom. Using Canva. Infographic. 1. Describe the sense of freedom that the people of your age aspire for. 2. Download a picture that best represents or captures this sense of freedom. 3. Argue the positive aspects (in bullets) of this sense of freedom. 4. Point out the imperfections (in bullets) this sense of freedom. 5. Propose concrete ways (in bullets) on how this sense of freedom can be perfected using the Christian concept of freedom, just recently discussed.