Category Archives: Free Will

Free Will

The Path of Obedience

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 22, 2015

On March 20, which was Friday of last week, I celebrated my fifth anniversary of ordination as a Catholic priest. And so I stand before you today, a priest, but not because I wanted to be, but because I was called by God to do so. You see, no one becomes a priest because they want to, but because they are called into it by God. Now, it is not that I don’t want to be a priest, I do, and I am very happy to be a Catholic priest serving here at Our Lady of the Atonement. (And may it please God to let me stay here for the rest of my life.) But this does not change the fact that I am here as a priest not because I decided to become one, but because God called me to do it – and I, in obedience, followed His calling. And it is this idea of obedience about which I want to speak with you today.

We tend to think of obedience as something negative – like it is an intrusion upon our freedom to do what we want to do. “Oh man, Mom told me to clean my room, so that means I can’t play video games.” This kind of thinking, though, betrays a wrong understanding of freedom. We tend to think in this country that we are free to do whatever we want, but that is not true, because to deliberately choose to do something that is wrong is to misuse our freedom. That is not the reason God gave us freedom. He gave us freedom in order to choose to do that which is good and morally right. In fact, it is necessary for us to be free in order to choose our ultimate good, which is God Himself. And it is in choosing God that obedience comes into play.

Before going on with our reflection on the positive nature of obedience, let us first reflect on its opposite: disobedience. It would be good for us to call to mind the first person that disobeyed God and that would be Lucifer. It was he who was the first to refuse to recognize God as his Creator. It was he who was first to refuse to return God’s love for him. It was he who was first to fail to be grateful to God for all the gifts he had been given. As a result, every act of disobedience thereafter is an emulation of Lucifer’s disobedience of God. And if his is the path that we choose by being disobedient to God in this life then God will let us have what we have chosen – eternal separation from Him as the only source of anything good.

In considering this hopefully obedience no longer sounds like such a bad thing. After all, the path of obedience is the path that Christ walked before us and it is the only path that leads us to Him. We are told today that Christ “learned obedience through what He suffered; and being made perfect He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Christ was obedient to the will of His Father by accepting the Cross and dying for us. And we must follow His example if we want to obtain the salvation that He won for us. Emulating Christ’s obedience is the only way to be saved. And He tells us this plainly in the Gospel today, “If any one serves me, he must follow me.” There is no other path open to us if we want reach our ultimate Goal.

Now certainly, by being obedient, we will have to give up certain things that we desire because they are in fact bad for us. And that can be hard to do. But, shouldn’t we want to give up things that are bad for us? Is the momentary pleasure we receive from such things really worth the price of our eternal soul? If we think critically and honestly about that question then the only reasonable answer would be no. We know that God made us and that the happiness that He wants for us is more important than any other thing we could possibly want or desire. All too often, though, we settle for something much less.

But, if we want to reach that which we truly desire, then we must follow the path of obedience that Christ walked before us. Yes, we know that such a path will lead us to suffering on this earth, but it does not end there. Christ was abused, beaten, and killed but that is not the end of the story. It is through the suffering and death of Jesus that the Resurrection came about and that the gates of Heaven were opened to all who truly believe in Him.

And so, we have two paths that are set before us: the path of obedience and the path of disobedience. We know who established each of these paths and we know where each path leads. But there is one thing that no one knows except you and that is this: which path will you choose?

Virtue and Grace

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in Free Will, Theosis, Virtue

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The virtuous agent (person) shows the excellence that is possible in human behavior, just as a superior athlete shows what can be done in a particular game. Virtuous behavior shows how human nature is capable of acting, and it shows thereby what human nature is, since the nature of a thing is most truly displayed when the thing is working at its best.

The God of Faith & Reason, by Robert Sokolowski, p. 64

The Catechism tells us that virtue “is a habitual and firm disposition to do good.” (CCC §1833) In addition it says the “moral virtues grow through education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace purifies and elevates them.” (CCC §1839) The quote above gives us an excellent analogy to help us understand even better what virtue is. Comparing the virtuous person to a superior athlete we see first of all that we ‘learn the game’ of being virtuous through ‘education’ – by being taught by someone who already knows how the game is played. You may have all the talent in the world, but if you don’t know the rules of the game then you will never succeed. Likewise, we should all learn how to be virtuous.

Next, there must be the ‘deliberate acts’ of practicing what you have learned. Just because you have the talent and have been taught the rules does not mean you will succeed. If you stay in the bleachers and watch everyone else practice you will never become great. Likewise, we should all put into practice what we have learned about virtuous behavior.

Lastly, there must be ‘perseverance in struggle’. Even if defeat seems imminent you can never give up. Although I am not happy about the outcome of the game, the latest Super Bowl is wonderful example of this point. Let’s be honest: Seattle should have won that game on the final drive; but, that one player for the Patriots did not give up, caught an interception, and saved the game for his team. Likewise, we should never give up in our struggle against sin. Even if we have fallen into a particular sin a million times before that does not mean it will continue. Therefore, we must struggle against it.

But this is where the analogy breaks down because, unlike the world of professional sports, we have God’s grace on our side. We must remember that we are called not just to be virtuous; as Christians we are called to become like Christ. It is primarily through the Sacraments of the Church that we receive the grace that we need in order to become like Christ. In fact, without grace, becoming like Christ is not even possible because we, as creatures, cannot participate in the life of God unless He gives it to us. And thanks be to God He does give it to us. But there is a catch; even though He freely gives us His grace to help us become more like Christ, He does not force us to use it. Instead, we must decide to cooperate with God’s grace if it is to do us any good.

The Difference between Need and Want

05 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by in Eternal Life, Free Will, God's Will, Pope Francis, Salvation, Submission to God, Thought for the Day

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People…have become used to an image of God handed down to them as very conerned, even jealous, about receiving the honor and glory due him, as though he somehow needed this for his own sake. But this is a serious misunderstanding, both philosophically and religiously. God does not need anything from us to maintain his own happiness. His only wish is to share his own happiness with us as richly as possible. But on our part, for our own sake, we must honor and glorify him as the best way to turn ourselves toward him and render us open and attentive to receive his gifts.

The One and the Many, W. Norris Clarke, S.J. (p.238)

I will write only briefly in order to explain my title. As Fr. Clarke expresses so well above, God does not need us for His own happiness. But, out of His infinite love, He sincerely wants us to be with Him. And of course to be with God is what we were created for – it is our end, our goal. But in order to reach that goal we must turn away from our selves and turn towards Him. “We must honor and glorify him” and the only way to do that is by willingly doing as He has asked us to do. And what is that ultimately? We see the answer in the words spoken by God’s own Son, “not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42)

The Finite leads to the Infinite

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Free Will, God's Will, Philosophy, Submission to God

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I am still attempting to finish my series of posts on ‘chance’ – if there is such a thing – but I am still thinking about how to end it. In the meantime, here is something I just read that is very thought provoking. Also, as we have just started Advent, the following can be subject good to consider. We should be at this time asking ourselves whether or not we live our lives according to the Truth or do we remain within a world of illusion and contradiction. If we do not ask ourselves these questions then we will not be ready when our Lord returns.

First a little background: he is here talking about mankind’s search for the infinite. In examining our own lives we can see this desire at work. We desire the infinite, but if we do not know where to find it then we try fulfill that desire with finite things of this world. What happens when we do this? We enjoy the novelty for a while and then tire of it, put it down, and move onto the next thing that catches our interest. But if we step back from this never ending process, instead of moving on to the next thing, we will see that there is no finite thing that will ever fulfill us. Only the infinite can do that. If we are honest then we have to admit the truth of this experience in our lives and can then recognize that it holds true for all mankind. But when we are confronted with the infinite – God – we can feel threatened because we want to be the masters of our own domain. (And this is connected to the fact that we are born into Original Sin.) Therefore, many people reject God because they want to be ‘free’ to pursue their own idea of happiness, thinking of God as nothing but the ‘fun police’ – only there to squash mankind’s happiness. As a result, those who reject God end up living their lives in a contradiction because they deny the very thing that they are seeking. With this result the following question must be asked: if there is no God then why do we have within us this desire for the infinite? If the finite is all there is and at the same time we desire the infinite, then we are find ourselves in an unintelligible universe. To this Fr. Clarke responds in the following manner.

It can be shown…that there is a lived contradiction between affirming theoretically that the universe or myself is unintelligible and continuing to live and use my mind as though it were intelligible–which we cannot help but do. Thus it is finally up to each one of us either to accept his or her infinite-oriented nature as meaningful and revelatory of the real or as an opaque, illusory surd. But what good reason can one have for choosing darkness over light, illusion over meaning, for not choosing the light? Only if the darkness is more intelligible? But this does not make sense! Why not then accept my nature as a meaningful gift, pointing the way to what is, rather than what is not?

The One and the Many, W. Norris Clarke, S.J., p. 228

You cannot have it both ways: either there is a God, which gives sense to our desire for the infinite; or there is not a God, which makes the desire we find within us into non-sense.

God’s Will and Man’s Prayer

30 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by in Definitions, Free Will, God's Will, Liturgy of the Hours, Prayer, Submission to God, The Fall

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The quote below is from the Office of Readings appointed for Friday, November 28, 2014. The first line and how he connects it to prayer is what really caught my attention.

Our obligation is to do God’s will, and not our own. We must remember this if the prayer that our Lord commanded us to say daily is to have any meaning on our lips. How unreasonable it is to pray that God’s will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world! Instead we struggle and resist like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord’s presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity. And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honours by him to whom we come against our will! Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we would rather serve the devil here than reign with Christ.

From the Treatise of St Cyprian on Mortality

Specifically, St. Cyprian is here referring to the Lord’s Prayer and the petition within it that states, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” He is trying to show how absurd it is to pray this prayer daily and yet to try to resist God who is constantly calling us to Himself. But this passage has much broader implications.

First of all, let us consider mankind’s obligation of doing God’s will and not our own. Let us go back to the beginning before Adam and Eve turned against God. At the moment of their creation Adam and Eve were absolutely perfect, they were in a state of Original Justice. The Catechism describes Original Justice in the following way:

As long as (mankind) remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. The inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman, and finally the harmony between the first couple and all creation comprised the state called ‘original justice.’

CCC §376 (for more information see CCC §374-384)

In addition, in §377 it goes on to say that mankind’s mastery over the world was most importantly his mastery of self.

The first man was unimpaired and ordered in his whole being because he was free from the triple concupiscence that subjugates him to the pleasures of the senses, covetousness for earthly goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the dictates of reason.

In short, this means that man’s will was perfectly aligned to the will of God who had created him. This is how God had designed it to be and intended it to stay. But then, sin entered into God’s perfect creation through the disobedience of Adam and Eve. What the sin was does not matter as much as the fact that Adam and Eve, who had been made in God’s image, did sin. What this means is that instead of keeping their wills in alignment with the will of God, they choose to go their own way, trying to assert their own wills above the will of the One who had created them. They, being finite, were trying to tell the infinite where to get off, which is an absolute absurdity.

Now, how does this fit with our prayer to God? When considering our prayers, and that maybe we are not ‘getting what we ask for’, we must remember that prayer is not primarily about getting what we want. Perhaps this is the reason that people do not pray as they ought to, because they don’t see the results they want and, therefore, think that it doesn’t work. But we need to remember that prayer is not about imposing our will on God but about submitting our will to His. As St. James tells us, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.” (James 4:3a, RSV-CE)

What it all really comes down to is this: for anything to work properly in our lives, whether it be prayer or anything else, then our lives must be properly ordered. And what is the proper order for our lives? It begins by realizing that our wills are subordinate to the will of God and then, through the grace of Christ, fulfilling our obligation to God by subordinating our wills to His.

A Man Unafraid to Tell the Truth

22 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by in C.S. Lewis, Free Will, God's Will, Salvation, The Great Divorce

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On this day 51 years ago C.S. Lewis died. I have had the pleasure of meeting a few men that actually met and talked with Lewis (one of them being my friend Thomas Howard) but I never had the pleasure of meeting the man himself. In fact, I was not even alive when he died. But even though I never met him he has greatly impacted my life. He was the first one that helped me to truly see what Christianity really is through his book Mere Christianity. Even though he never converted to the Catholic Faith, I count him as one of the influences that led me necessarily into the Catholic Church. I owe him a great deal. So much do I owe him that I even nicknamed my first son Jack (my wife wouldn’t let me name him Clive Staples, or so I jokingly tell people). Lewis is on my top 10 list of people I most want to meet when I get to Heaven (assuming that in the end I choose that instead of my own miserable desires.)

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis

Thank you St. Jack for everything you did in serving Christ and His Church.

 

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

21 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by in Free Will, God's Will, Saints, Submission to God

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No time to write anything original today. Therefore I commend to you a wonderful article from EWTN found here. The thing that really caught my attention was the following:

By the consecration which the Blessed Virgin made of herself to God in the first use which she made of her reason, we are admonished of the most important and strict obligation which all persons lie under, of an early dedication of themselves to the divine love and service.

 

The (God-)Man in the Mirror

11 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by in Free Will, God's Will, Saints, Theosis

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(Jesus Christ) is the brightness of eternal glory, the splendour of eternal light, the mirror without spot.

Look into that mirror daily, O queen and spouse of Jesus Christ, and ever study therein your countenance, that within and without you may adorn yourself with all manner of virtues, and clothe yourself with the flowers and garments that become the daughter and chaste spouse of the most high King. In that mirror are reflected poverty, holy humility and ineffable charity, as, with the grace of God, you may perceive.

From a letter of St. Clare to Blessed Agnes of Prague

In the above quote from St. Clare of Assisi we have an interesting analogy presented to us. Here she likens Christ to a mirror. I have seen analogies similar to this one, but only in reverse: that Christians are to be a mirror that reflects Christ back to the world. So, when I first read this from St. Clare I was a little puzzled at what she could mean. Then it occurred to me: what do we usually see in a mirror? The answer is ourselves. And yet to truly be a follower of Christ we cannot be turned in on ourselves in such a manner. And that is why she tells Blessed Agnes, as well as us, to “look into that mirror (that is Christ) daily.” It is through the daily acquiring of virtues that we must seek to become more conformed to the image of Christ.

But, we tend to fight against this idea of conforming to any image other than our own. In fact, too often we want the image of Christ to conform to our own idea of what He is supposed to look like. Sure, we want to become better people and be more Christ-like but we don't want it to be too hard and so we force Christ into the mold we have made for Him. We do this because we are scared that we will lose ourselves if we give ourselves over completely to Christ. And yet, that is what He has demanded of us. (“For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matt 16:25)

It is our own pride and willfulness that keeps us from conforming ourselves to Christ. But we must remember that God created our souls to be perfectly aligned with His own Divine Will and, therefore, if we hand our wills over to Him then it is impossible to lose ourselves. In fact, to hand ourselves over to God is the only way to become perfectly who we are and who God has always intended for us to be. It is only then that we will be able to look in the mirror and see ourselves transformed into the likeness of Christ.

 

Freedom and Happiness

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in Eternal Life, Free Will, God's Will, Salvation, Sermons

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Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

July 6, 2014

Two day ago we celebrated the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was on that day 238 years ago that the founders of this country declared their independence from a tyrannical government that tried to choke the air of freedom out of the people of this land. The founders of this country understood that mankind must be free and so they broke away from that oppressive government at the risk of their own lives. But, in considering this freedom that they won for us and that we now enjoy, we come up against a very important question – what does this freedom give us the “freedom” to do?

The reason that we must ask this question is because our country now suffers from a very distorted view of what freedom is. For example, it is the rule of law in this land that women have the “freedom” to abort their children and it is increasingly becoming the law that people have the “freedom” to “marry” someone of the same gender. But are we ever really free to do such immoral acts, even it if is legal? Both of these wrong-headed notions of freedom – and others – come from the fact that the ‘idea of freedom’ in this country has become one of the freedom to do whatever we wish – that there are no universal moral standards by which to measure what we should or should not do. In other words, there is prevalent today a disordered way of thinking, which for many people is subconscious, that says there is no real way to determine right from wrong and that anyone who tries to do so is to be labeled a narrow-minded and archaic hate-monger. And it is this disordered thinking that leads even faithful churchgoers to say things like this, “Well, I do not believe that such and such is right; but if someone else wants to do it then who am I to say that they shouldn’t?” This attitude is – quite simply – wrong and, therefore, we must ask why this type of distorted thinking is so prevalent within our society?

To begin to answer this we must first acknowledge that mankind wants to be happy. And since I have made reference to the 4th of July we can of course remind ourselves that the Declaration of Independence says we have the right to pursue happiness. In addition, we should also remember that God Himself wants us to be happy. But, without a correct understanding of what will and what will not make us happy, many people fall into the trap of chasing this or that ‘thing’ thinking that it is the thing that will make them happy. It starts when we are children when we think to ourselves, “If only I could have that toy or that piece of candy, then I would be happy.” And then throughout the rest of our lives it really does not change that much. There are many adults that still pursue various things they think will make them happy – if only I could have that man or woman to be my spouse, if only I had that job, house, car, boat, home theater, vacation, etc., then I would be really and truly happy. But in the end none of these things can satisfy us because we were not created to pursue them as our ultimate goal. To be sure, God did create good things for us to enjoy but we can only really enjoy them if we are willing to be without them.

But why is it that these good things can make us so unhappy once we have obtained them? It is because we have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that we have been created by God and for God – He is our ultimate goal – and if we put anything He has created as the center and ultimate goal of our life then we can never be truly happy. To say it another way, we need to understand and live our lives in accordance with the fact that the primary reason for our existence is to know and love God. With this in mind we can now understand how it is that we should use the freedom that we enjoy in this country.

If it is God who has created us, then it is He who knows what is best for us. And He hasn’t left us without guidance in this matter. Our Lord Jesus Christ has revealed to us the Way to happiness with God. We heard Jesus say today, “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” We, as Catholics, know and believe that Jesus is the revelation of all that we need to know in order to be truly happy. The freedom that God Himself has given to us and that we enjoy in this country can only rightly be used in the pursuit of our ultimate end: to know and to love God. True, God gave us free will and we can, if we wish, choose to do that which is wrong. But if we misuse our freedom in such a way then we will not, and in fact, we cannot be happy. Our freedom and our happiness rests in God alone. And until we – as individuals and as a nation – understand and accept that fact then we can never truly be happy or free.

Freedom – but to do what?

04 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by in Eternal Life, Free Will, God's Will, Thought for the Day

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

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.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1731-1732

In this time when freedom means to most people the freedom to do whatever they want, we would do well to consider the Church's teaching on the matter. Yes, we have free will to choose between good and evil but we must never forget that there is good and evil to choose between. Many people in our society want to do away with any idea that there is sin – that there is good and evil – in order that they can pursure whatever sinful inclination they may have without remorse. But this is not possible. If we want to be truly free and to be happy then we must use our freedom to live in accordance with the will of God. After all, He made us, He knows and wants what is best for us, and if we follow Him then we will be happy for all of eternity.