Freedom

“We might imagine that life becomes extremely tedious when we are always bound to God’s will, particularly when that will extends to all the details of life. Never again to be able to do what we want! But listening to God and obeying him is precisely what we want. This becomes clearer if we distinguish between a superficial and a deep will in the human person. We often identify a person’s will with what is merely his superficial will. The superficial will is usually at the service of egoism. It listens to all its conflicting impulses and lets itself be led by the notorious couple: ‘I like—I don’t like.’ It also obeys reason, to the extent that it egotistically seeks profit and gain. The deep will, on the other hand, is at the service of love; it coincides with our innate desire for God. The deep will ‘wants’ God, moves toward him, and finds its satisfaction in him.

When the superficial will is allowed to express itself and do what it wants, one can certainly get the impression of being free. But this freedom shares in the superficiality of the will and should in reality be called ‘slavery’, since it stifles the deep freedom. The superficial and the deep will struggle against each other. ‘The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other’ (Gal 5:17). We realize we have become free only when we strive to live on the level of our deep will, and we discover how much we would lose if we continued living on the level of our superficial will.

Thus freedom and obedience are not opposed to each other. Freedom is genuine when it enables us to listen to God and assent to his will. ‘Freedom is that state in which the heart is no longer attached to anything, but can follow God’s will’ (Saint Francis de Sales). Freedom is finally being able to do what we were created for, to be united with our true nature and take root there…”

~Wilfrid Stinissen