The freedom to do as you wish

Letters

WHAT is freedom? Freedom is the power given by God to act or not to act, to do this or to do that, and to perform deliberate actions according to one’s wishes.
The more we do what is good, the freer we become.
Freedom attains its proper perfection when it is directed towards God, the highest good and beatitude.
Freedom implies also the
possibility of choosing good or evil.
The choice of evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to the slavery of sin.
Freedom makes us responsible for our own actions, even if the imputability and responsibility for an action is diminished or sometimes cancelled by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, inordinate attachments, or habit.
Each one of us has the right to exercise freedom, but this right should always be respected, especially in moral and religious
matters, and it should be recognised and protected by civil authority.
Consequently the morality of human acts depends on three sources:

  • The object chosen;
  • The intention of the subject who acts, and the purpose for which the subject performs the act; and
  • The circumstances of the act, including the consequences of the act.

Circumstances can increase or diminish the responsibility of the one who is acting but they cannot change the moral quality of the acts themselves.
They never make good act an act which is also evil.

Noel. R. Baraka, Lae