by Father Robert Lauder
In a number of philosophy courses that I teach at St. John’s University, I deal with thinkers who place a great deal of emphasis on human freedom. I am certain that these philosophers have greatly influenced me, even if I don’t accept parts of their philosophy. Their thinking has even influenced my religious faith.
I believe that freedom is one of God’s wonderful gifts to us. Because of freedom, life is an adventure and a risk. By granting us freedom, God has taken a chance on us. That we are free means that we are called to be responsible.
In his book, “Personalism” (Notre Dame; University of Notre Dame Press, 1952, pp. 132, $2.25) Emmanuel Mounier writes the following about freedom:
“There are not, then, stones, trees, animals – and persons, the last being like mobile trees or a more astute kind of animals. The person is not the most marvelous object in the world, nor anything else that we can know from the outside. It is the one reality that we know, and that we are at the same time fashioning, from within. Present everywhere it is given nowhere.
“We do not, however, relegate it to the ineffable. A fount of experience, springing into the world, it expresses itself by an incessant creation of situations, life-patterns and institutions. … It is the living activity of self-creation, of communication and attachment, … To this experience no one can be conditioned or compelled.
“Those who carry it to the heights call thence to all those around and below them. Their call awakens the sleepers, and as one responds to another, all mankind is stirred out of its drowsy, vegetative slumber. Whoever refuses to hear that call and will not enter into the experience of the personal life loses the feeling for it, … He will then dismiss the idea as a mere complication of the mind, or as the mania of a sect.” (pp. xv11-xv111)
Mounier is calling our attention to the uniqueness of the human person. We are not merely animals who have a different kind of brain. Our consciousness pervades our entire being, not just our brain. If someone thought of freedom as a hopeless burden, he or she might echo Sartre’s sentiment: “We are condemned to be free.”
In a godless world, Sartre, the atheistic existentialist, thought that freedom was a hopeless burden. Even love was not a victory for freedom. Sartre believed that there were two possibilities for an interpersonal relation. One was that the lover dominated and tried to control the beloved – in effect tried to take away the beloved’s freedom. This Sartre referred to as sadism. The other possibility was that the lover surrendered and submitted to the beloved’s control and domination. Sartre called this masochism.
The Christian view of freedom and love is challenging and exceptionally beautiful. Rather than being condemned to be free, we are called to be free. Our journey through life should be a journey through which we become more free by growing in our love relationships and deepening our love for God. This is not merely a pleasant thought, but rather it should be the direction of our lives.
Never Without Love
We never want to forget that we believe in a God Who is not only loving but is Love itself. This God shares His life with us through grace, which means that our limited capacity to love can become stronger. Every religious truth that Catholics profess is a truth that can free us, liberate us and help us to become more loving. We believe in Divine Providence, that God is always present to us on our earthly journey. We are never without love.
When everything in our lives seems to be going perfectly, God is loving us, and when nothing in our lives seems to be going the way we wish, God is loving us. Our individual histories are products of our free choices and God’s loving presence. I believe that everyone is called to greatness. This does not mean that we are called to be celebrities but to an intimate relationship with God and to be gifts in the lives of others.
In Mounier’s words, God is calling us “out of our vegetative slumber.” We don’t know what lies ahead but being called by God – being summoned by Love – should convince us that we are involved in an adventure.[hr]
Father Robert Lauder, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, writes a weekly column for the Catholic Press.