290. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."(2 Corinthians 3:17)36

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 290

Ave Maria series

How does God help us to be free men?

Christ wants us to be “set free for freedom” (see Galatians 5:1)and to become capable of brotherly love.  That is why he sends us the Holy Spirit, who makes us free and independent of worldly powers and strengthens us for a life of love and responsibility.  [1739-1742, 1748]

In his farewell discourse to his apostles,  Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples after his departure.  Painting by Duccio, 1308–1311. …..290

The more we sin, the more we think only about ourselves and the less well we can develop freely.  In sinning we also become more inept at doing good and practicing charity.  The Holy Spirit, who has come down into our hearts, gives us a heart that is filled with love for God and mankind.  We avail ourselves of the Holy Spirit as the power that leads us to inner freedom, opens our hearts for love, and makes us better instruments for what is good and loving. 120, 310-311

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.  When we cry, ‘Abba Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”  Romans 8:15

[1739-1742, 1748]

HUMAN FREEDOM IN THE ECONOMY OF SALVATION

1739  Freedom and sin. Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence of the abuse of freedom. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

1740  Threats to freedom. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything. It is false to maintain that man, "the subject of this freedom," is "an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality is the satisfaction of his own interests in the enjoyment of earthly goods."(Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, instruction, Libertatis conscientia 13.)³³ Moreover, the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that are needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated. Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the strong as well as the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. By deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth. –CCC

1741  Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage. "For freedom Christ has set us free."(Galatians 5:1.)³⁴ In him we have communion with the "truth that makes us free." (Compare John 8:32.)³⁵ The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle teaches, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."(2 Corinthians 3:17)³⁶ Already we glory in the "liberty of the children of God."(Romans 8:21.)³⁷ –CCC

1742 Freedom and grace. The grace of Christ is not in the slightest way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true and the good that God has put in the human heart. On the contrary, as Christian experience attests especially in prayer, the more docile we are to the promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence during trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer world. By the working of grace the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us free collaborators in his work in the Church and in the world: --CCC

Almighty and merciful God, 
in your goodness take away from us all that is harmful, 
so that, made ready both in mind and body, 
we may freely accomplish your will.(Roman Missal, 32nd Sunday, Opening Prayer: Omnipotens et misericors Deus, universa nobis adversantia propitiatus exclude, ut, mente et corpore pariter expediti, quæ tua sunt liberis mentibus exsequamur.)³⁸ --CCC

IN BRIEF

 1748 "For freedom Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1).

JT Apostles Jesus saying