Human Freedom and Responsibility

What Freedom is NOT:

Freedom is not simply doing what I want.
Freedom is not the right to say and do
anything anytime I like to do it.
Freedom is not my own private individual
possession.
Freedom is not found in prejudice, deceit or
ignorance.
Freedom is not without authority

Freedom in the Old Testament

Man originally enjoyed intimacy and
freedom in his relationship with his creator.
With sin comes the loss of intimacy and
expulsion from the place where a free
interchange with God has been possible.

Consequences of sin in Old Testament:

Fraternal conflict
Inability to enter into
cooperative
community efforts
Increasing dominance
of sin in life situation
of the people

 This progressive movement away from God

making it and more difficult to regain the
lost of Paradise is summarized as mankinds
entering into a condition of SLAVERY.
Sin appears as a form of slavery from which
man cannot free himself except through the
intervention of God.
This is seen most clearly in the enslavement
that the people of Israel suffered in Egypt
the place of slavery.

The freedom promised to the Israelites by God

was symbolized by their being brought out of
the land of Egypt

God led them ultimately to a place of freedom where they

must surrender all that stood in the way to God, so that
they may regain all that had been lost through sin.

 Freedom is central in the

teaching of St. Paul. He
asserts that Christian
vocation is a vocation to
freedom. The Christian is
a CHILD OF GOD, not a
slave.
For freedom Christ set us
free; so stand firm and do
not submit again to the
yoke of slavery. Gal. 5:1)
For you were called for
freedom brothers. (Gal
5:13)

Characteristic of freedom in the

teaching of St. Paul
1.Freedom from
Is a deliverance from anything and
everything that hinders us from becoming
the true self that we are as we grow with
others in the community.
It is not freedom from which results in
following our selfish inclinations or blind
prejudices.

 Interior obstacles-ignorance, disordered

passions, fears, anxiety, guilt, personal
defects, prejudices, emotional disturbances
etc.
Exterior obstacles-violence or threats of
violence, economic instability, social
pressures, political or cultural influences

2. Freedom for
Is a fulfillment within us that which Christ invites
us to be and to become in the Kingdom.
After freeing us from anything and everything that
hinders our growth towards maturity in our faith
we are directed towards maturity in our faith we
are directed the freedom for growing as full
persons and children of God sharing the Divine
life with Christ through the Spirit. It is both task
and a process. (CFC, 697)

Two Levels of Freedom for on

the personal level:

a. Freedom of choice--- directs our moral acts.

-animals have instincts, man conscious
election.
-we have the liberty to act.
-our consistent choices will gradually make
us.
b. Fundamental Freedomlies at the resource of
all our individual acts.
-Our daily moral choices and our habitual
way of acting will gradually form us.
-Holding on firmly to what is good, and
consistently choosing good in spite obstacles
will make us achieve that which we are
striving for: becoming morally loving
persons.

 The perfection of freedom is a task we need to

undergo at the same time a life-long process that
challenges our creativity. The goal of this process
is to be free from slavery to corruption and share
in the religious freedom of the children of God.
(Rom 8:21)