Facing various possibilities, it is good for us to choose among them. Yet perhaps the highest and most rewarding exercise of freedom is assenting to things we haven’t chosen, welcoming in trust realities that transcend us. Our real prison is ourselves: our limited perception of reality, our narrow-mindedness and narrow heartedness. Experience often shows that we break out of this prison and open new horizons in accepting situations we haven’t chosen and so come to perceive a deeper dimension of reality, more rich and more beautiful.<\/p>\n
Human freedom is not so much a power to transform as a capacity to welcome. The most rewarding act of freedom ever made by a human being was the Fiat of Mary, her trusting, loving Yes.<\/p>\n
We notice, too, that the fundamental question is not whether we have more or less freedom of choice-freedom that in the end doesn’t make much sense in isolation-but about the reasons that lead us to opt for one choice rather than another. What directs us towards our decisions? A simple impulse, a desire? Or is it convention, the desire to do what everyone one else does? Or even our fears, our faults, our defence mechanisms?<\/p>\n
One of the paradoxes of modern life is how often people pretend to be free (\u201cI\u2019m a free man, a free woman \u201c, we hear so often on television) when in fact they are only following fashions or whims. Many people think of themselves as original while merely conforming to trends.<\/p>\n
Let’s ask ourselves the real question: What values guide and drive my freedom? Are they phantoms, illusions, or lies\u2014or do they foster authentic fulfilment of my personality and my life?<\/p>\n
If freedom is not directed toward a real good, driven by objective values, it simply ceases to exist. There is no freedom except in relation to a truth that guides it and directs it. Father Jacques Philippe<\/p>\n
Father Philippe is a French priest, a member of the Community t of the Beatitudes, and a renowned spiritual director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Facing various possibilities, it is good for us to choose among them. Yet perhaps the highest and most rewarding exercise of freedom is assenting to things we haven’t chosen, welcoming in trust realities that transcend us. Our real prison is … Continue reading