What is Freedom?
I introduce my homily with a personal experience. On April 29th of 1971, I sat for my oral defense of my master’s thesis, Natural Law, Morality and the American Revolution. I had been a college student for 7 years and working on my thesis for the past 2 years. Three professors, having guided me through this process were free to ask me any question touching my research, writing and conclusions. Two hours into the oral exam all was going well until Prof. Jon Sutherland asked me, ‘What is freedom in the Natural Law writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.’ I remained silent; I did not have an answer. Dr. Minos Generales, my master teacher rescued me; Informing Professor Sutherland that I could not be questioned in an area not covered by my thesis. My thesis was approved, and I became a teacher and would learn more about Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) the greatest theologian of the Middle Ages taught that, Natural Law is the eternal law planted in the very design or nature of any particular creature, manifested in inclinations towards what is good. Aquinas taught Freedom is only found in fulfilling God’s designs for His creatures. Non-rational creatures strive towards their perfection automatically. Creatures with intellect and will, such as humans, achieve their perfection through free, informed cooperation with God’s plan for them. They therefore need natural law if they are to direct their actions well. Much of this knowledge is inborn morality, a 6th sense; but some must be learned through divine revelation, and some through man-made laws and rights. And man-made laws must agree with the precepts of Natural Law.
The US Constitution is a document based on natural law principles. However, freedom can lead to conflicts. Much of our laws today are in doubt. This decade has witnessed the dramatic growth of political schism among Americans as a result of something President Washington called ‘the spirit of factions.’ Party loyalties divided Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton and Democratic Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson. In Washingtons departing address to the Congress (September 17, 1796), he warned:
“The spirit of party serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of part against another, fomenting occasionally riot and insurrection.”
President Abraham Lincoln in the aftermath of the bloodiest War in our nation’s history called for all Americans to follow “the better angels of our nature and bind up the nation’s wounds”. At the time the population in the north was 20 million and 9 million in the South. A war that was expected to end by Christmas lasted from April of 1861 to April of 1865. The casualties were 620,000 soldiers killed, 476,000 wounded and 50,000 civilians killed (battlefields.org.). If a comparable percentage were killed in war today the number of soldier deaths alone would be 6 million. Lincoln, possibly the only man who could have calmed the country was assassinated leading to 100 years of Jim Crow segregation in the South. This meant that millions of Americans, Christian people, were denied basic freedoms for three generations.
There are always voices calling for violence to save traditions or freedoms. But Christians must not be among them. The 6th Commandment is “Thou shalt not murder,” (exodus 20:13) because we are made in God’s image and violence only leads to more violence. The 9th Commandment (20:16) prohibits “false witness against thy neighbor,” because lying about other people kills honest discourse and increases divisions. How many times in this election cycle have you received a text or heard a candidate or partisan express opinions that to the best of your knowledge is false?
Each of us have hopes and aspirations. What we wish for, might be better voiced or written about calmly, rather than shouting at rallies. There is peace, power and wisdom in prayer and bible reading. We do well if we lay our concerns before the Lord and seek answers from what He has told us in the Scriptures. In ages past God spoke through his prophets and Apostles. We can be certain that God is speaking to us when we read the Bible and follow what we learn there. Jesus alone has the wisdom to help us forge a future that is best for us and everyone else.
We hear political candidates promise us that they know how to fix everything, and they alone can. Rarely do the promises match the outcomes. Our leaders are fallible and mortal. From the very beginning of time the LORD has ruled the Earth and all its people, while granting us freedom of will. This freedom is wonderful and dangerous. It can lead to great acts of mercy or the impowering of the wicked. Why then does God allow the righteous to suffer or the guilty to prosper. C.S Lewis provides one answer:
“Why then did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata - of creatures that worked like machines would hardly be worth creating.” (The Case for Christianity)
The book of Job also helps us understand this divine riddle. The book is not about suffering in general but about Job, a righteous man’s suffering. Job is the first OT figure to ask about a life after death. He tells God, “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call, and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.” (Job 14:14,15)
Job is confident about a life after death, and he believes that God loves him. Then why, he shouts at God, am I suffering? In the very next lines Job declares that like a mountain can crumble, God destroys a man’s hope. Job has true friends, yet they believe in causal ontology: wicked deeds lead to punishment, and righteousness to blessing. Job, though suffering, defends his integrity throughout. In the opening chapter of the book God says to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (1:8)
And yet this righteous man will be subjected to distress, economic ruin and degradation. Sometimes we find out why, as did Job in the end, a revelation that led him to confess, “I had heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees thee; therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (42:5) But sometimes we do not. The Lord has His reasons, and He acts for our eventual good … even if we remain in the dark as to why.
All this human freedom drama began at the very beginning of life. God placed in a paradise a man and a woman. Prior to the fall they lived like deities with each other and their Maker. They worked, walked and talked in Eden with the LORD, with each other, and with God’s creatures. We have no way of knowing how long the period of innocence lasted. It could have been centuries. During this time they willingly followed their Creator.
Among the creatures living in the Garden of Eden was a serpent, “who was more crafty than any of the wild animals that the LORD God had made.’’ Genesis declares that the Lord created all the creatures in the Garden and “God saw that it was good.” (1:25) The serpent in the garden was an actual snake who could talk. This is not an allegory. Eve is not surprised that the animal can speak with her, he may have spoken with Adam and Eve before.
This has led some to some speculate that before the fall animals had the ability to converse with humans. In the book of Numbers there is an event where we find God speaking to the prophet Balaam through a donkey. The donkey was trying to warn his master about an angel with a sword blocking the path the prophet was taking. (22:28) Balaam, like Eve is not surprised to hear his donkey speaking to him. Alex our beloved Lab for 15 years could tell us things just the way he looked at us. All very interesting. But what is important to note here is that the serpent could walk upright and had the ability to reason as well as converse like a human.
The serpent had already rebelled against the rule of God when it spoke to Eve one fateful day. And it would use the most ruthless tactic to ensnare Eve and her husband. “Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?” Eve responded honestly, ‘He forbad us to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden or even touch it least we die.’ The serpent answered, “You will not die …you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:1-4) To say, ‘you will not die,’ was a half-truth. They would not die that day. As was the claim that the forbidden fruit would give them knowledge. They already were learning all that was good. Such a direct contradiction of the purpose and will of God is a characteristic of those who wish to lead us astray to this day.
Eve took the forbidden fruit and ate it, as did Adam, who was present with her. (Genesis 3:6) Sin is an irrational form of rebellion. G.K. Chesterton, a 19th and 20th century author, Christian apologist, and literary critique opined,
“The moral point of the story is that to accept all the liberties and then refuse the one limitation is not merely in a legal sense rebellion, it is in every sense disloyalty and ingratitude and treason. (GK’s Weekly, 10-2-1926)”
Adam and Eve and all who come after them pay a price for rebellion, they must live in a world corrupted by sin and physical death. But for believers this is not the end of the story. Jesus promised, “I am the resurrection, and I am life. Whosoever believes in me, though he die, (emphasis mine) yet shall he live.” (John 11:25) And in a statement that would be utter folly if anyone else had made this promise, Jesus told the penitent thief on the cross “Truly, I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) And so the Paradise that was lost will be regained. Praise the Lord!
If God’s kingship was rejected first in the Garden of Eden, it is no surprise that it would be rejected by those born in a fallen world.
This desire of mankind to use his freedom to be independent of God was followed by most of their descendants and is commonplace today. Nonetheless, for many generations humans were blessed with long life spans. Adam lived 800 years and Methuselah 969. The natural world was largely untouched by man-made pollution. A man named Enoch lived 365 years and became the first to not experience physical death. “Enoch walked with God, then he was no more, because God took him away.” (Gen. 5:23)
Elijah would be the second.
But on the whole, people of the world forgot about God. They become proud, violent and corrupt. Earth was no longer the paradise the Lord had created. In language that is chilling we read “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Observing this state among those he had created caused God’s “heart to be filled with pain.” Only one man, Noah, “found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” He was a righteous man blameless among the people of his time. (Gen. 6:5-9) The Great Flood was a once in time judgement of the Lord which he promised not to repeat.
The world today is not what it was in the time of Noah. Billions of believers live in every part of the world and proclaim their faith in God and love of Jesus Christ our Lord, although some must do so cautiously or in hiding. The numerically largest country in the world is China and it has the fastest growing Christian population (44 million in 2018, according to the Chinese government. We and Christians all over the world live with faith in God. There are 8 billion souls living on this planet. Christians made up 2.4 billion of the world’s population in 2023, nearly 1/3 of the world’s population.
What is freedom? It is walking with the Lord like Enoch, Noah and Job. It is singing praises to the Lord for His creation, like the author of Psalm 104. It is not being presumptuous like James and John the sons of Zebedee, because they were loved and chosen by Jesus to be his disciples. It is dealing gently with the ignorant and wayward, since we too are subject to weakness. And most of all it is to follow the example of Jesus, obeying God our Heavenly Father and being led by the Holy Spirit. We can be strong in faith. As Jesus said to the father of an epileptic boy, “Everything is possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23)
God be Praised!
Christ the King Church in Quincy
Joseph J. Muñoz Professor Emeritus
Feather River College