Our Precious Gift of Freedom

The subject of freedom raises many challenging questions, even more so in our time. The 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau famously declared: “Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains.”

Yet the Creator, in his perfect justice, had to grant us free will, else we cannot be held responsible for our choices. Free will has an intrinsic moral value. The mind and our will are inseparably connected; we do not make moral judgments without the mind approving the direction of our choices. Every choice is free and is determined by the individual. Self-determination is the essence of freedom.

However, St Paul offers sound advice: We are called to freedom, but we have to be careful, for this freedom will provide an opening for self-indulgence (Galatians 5:13). He also reminds us that our actions may be legal in civic law, but we are never exempt from God’s Law.

Paul declares that from the dawn of creation, all of humanity has “only the hope of being freed from slavery to decadence”, groaning inwardly as we await the ultimate freedom of body and spirit (Romans 8). Today, we cry out for total freedom — physical, mental, and spiritual.

No freedom in a vacuum

The fundamental truth is that we cannot speak of human freedom in a vacuum. We do not exist in isolation but as part of a vast community of living human beings. Consequently, the freedom I seek demands that I accept the responsibility that comes with it. A person unwilling to bear the weight of responsibility has no future. Those who understand responsible freedom will reap its blessings and come to accept that true freedom is priceless.

However, this freedom must be pursued by all — or it will perish. The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw said: “Freedom means responsibility, and that is why so many dread it.”

The pages of history tell terrifying tales of man’s abuse of freedom. Rulers, kings, and world leaders have used their power to destroy the innocent — millions of lives lost, including women and children, even to this day. But we are free to do what is right — to respect and enhance the freedom of others.

Lessons from the martyrs

No law can buy true freedom, or indeed salvation; it must be born in the spirit. Look at the history of the martyrs in every age and culture. They were imprisoned, starved, chained, tortured, burned alive, beheaded, assassinated — yet they were totally free. They felt no captivity, no chains, no fear. In them, we witness an extraordinary gift of the Spirit, beyond words or explanation.

At the same time, many are chained by habit, mentally and physically. Too often, people fail to recognise the habits taking root within them until these become too strong to overcome.

Charles Dickens observed: “We forge the chains we wear in life.” Similarly, Voltaire remarked: “It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” No one should be held in servitude while remaining free in soul, heart, and spirit. Yet none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

The predestination fallacy

For many, a contradiction seems to arise: If God is all-knowing (omniscient) and knows our future choices, does his foreknowledge dictate those choices? The answer is no. God does not dictate our choices simply because he foresees them. He exists outside of time; he sees what man will freely choose, but he does not impose that choice. The idea of predestination is therefore rejected.

The Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ, as a healing physician to a world enslaved by sin, to show the way to true freedom. Jesus came to pay a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. He offered a freedom that even Moses could not justify — now made available to all believers (Acts 13:3). This, however, is not worldly liberty but freedom from the world and its powers.

Jesus proclaims: “As my disciples, you will learn the truth, and the truth will set you free… and if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free” (John 8). Paul affirms this: “Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). In his Letter to the Romans, he advises: “Free yourselves from slavery to sin only to become slaves of righteousness” (6:18).

One final enemy

But one final enemy remains — death itself. Our fragile humanity must inevitably face death. And again, the only answer lies in Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection.

We hear this from his own lips at the tomb of Lazarus in Bethany when he declares to Martha: “I am the resurrection. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies, he will live. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11). Jesus makes the same claim when he calls himself the Living Water and the Living Bread: “Anyone who eats of this bread, believing, shall not die but live forever” (John 6).

Death has been conquered! And that is total freedom.

Fr Ralph de Hahn is a retired priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.

Published in the August 2025 issue of The Southern Cross magazine