Freedom to be…what?

With Freedom Day coming up on April 27, the concept of freedom has lately been milling around in my head. Who, if anyone, is ever truly free? But then one has to ask: what is freedom?

“Were we free to gorge on Easter eggs while others didn’t have a crust of bread?”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “being unrestricted, having the power to act speak or think as one wants”. In the South African sense it could also be the “absence of subjection to a despotic government”.

The phrase “the freedom of the children of God” is another idea that was germinating, alongside the simple (churchy) definition of freedom that I have had in mind: ”Freedom is being able to choose to do what is right.”

However, this being the Year of Faith, I consulted the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I found the section on freedom (1730-8) helpful, but it is also quite difficult to understand and because of its style of language rather too difficult to share within a family. It needs to be teased out.

Article 1731 reads: “Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, 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.”

In simple language it says that freedom ultimately has to do with choosing what is good, and that choosing what is not good is sin. Clearly there is a very distinct difference between the world’s understanding and the Church’s teaching in the catechism.

The idea of choosing what is good might be implicit in the dictionary definition, but that would apply if society was geared towards the good. But is it?

Recently I came across a newspaper article reporting that pagans and/or satanists were claiming the right to have their say in the school environment as this is a free country and everyone has rights.

Applying all that in a family setting can be a very meaningful discussion with those who can reason it through. Tell youngsters that freedom does not mean you are free to do as you want, disobey family or school rules, waste money, smoke, drink, bully others, fight with siblings or your mother-in-law.

Ask them to debate if true freedom is really about having the conditions that make it possible to do what is good; in other words, to act in a morally acceptable way.

One might ask: “Is a very poor young girl who heads her family because her parents have died, and sees the possibility of earning money through sex work really free to make a choice? Is a family breadwinner who sees fraud being committed at work really free to do what is right and blow the whistle at the risk of losing his or her job and so not be able to support the family?”

In other words, is freedom relative, dependent on circumstances and personalities? One person with a passion for truth will behave differently to another who fears the consequences of actions.

Is there not an unwritten natural law, one which should apply to society in general, that underlying freedom is a need for order, for acknowledging the rights of others, and—the golden rule—to do to others what you want them to do to you?

But then “the freedom of the children of God” asks even a little more from us. Pope Francis is going to be a challenge to us in our families, with his preferential option for the poor. Were we free to gorge on chocolate Easter eggs while others didn’t even have a crust of bread to eat?

April’s family theme was “God in the Family” and May will be a special month for Family and Life so a good question to ask ourselves especially in the family at home, is, “What would Jesus do in all these situations facing us?”

Even more, acknowledging God’s presence in our home we can ask, “What is the life-giving thing to do so as to be truly free, free from oppression, doubt or guilt, free from restrictions or recriminations?”

My answer: Free to be me.