Freedom and Law

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

Please give me any advice on this paper... it is due tommorow (the 18th)...

Andrew Joseph Jaeger
Professor John Rzhia
RS 300 (12:00 MWF)
April 18, 2005

"The Truth Will Make You Free"
"You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." These words contain both a fundamental requirement and a warning: the requirement of an honest relationship with regard to truth as a condition for authentic freedom, and the warning to avoid every kind of illusory freedom, every superficial unilateral freedom, every freedom that fails to enter into the whole truth about man and the world."10 As we read in the Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 32, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." It is truth that will increase our freedom, not the disillusions which John Paul II spoke so much about. It is not acting towards those passing joys and satisfactions that makes us free. They merely pervert freedom and twist the person into believing that he himself is the truth. On the contrary, it is acting towards the Truth that will set us free. The truth of Christ and His teachings, the working of the Holy Spirit, and the teachings of the Apostles and their succesors is this authentic freedom that John Paul II is refering to. To ensure that the truth be followed one must by directed by laws. Laws that guide the soul towards the Ultimate Freedom. Laws which seek virtue rather than enslavement. Laws which are just and in accord with the Divine Wisdom of Eternal Law.
There are two different ways in which freedom can be viewed; however, there is only one way in which true freedom is obtained. The first and most common view of freedom is held by many adolescents and teenagers today. This is that false illusion that John Paul II spoke of. To those who have the incomplete view of freedom, one is free if he or she is not being impeded or restricted by any form of an external rule or law. To those who hold this view, one is free when he or she is able to commit acts which are chosen not by the intellect and will but by the emotions and passions. This view of freedom is known as artifical freedom precisely because that is what it is, artifial. Artifical freedom binds us to our appetites which are ruled by our unruly emotions and passions. In Reinhard Hütter's article, entitled Bound to be Free, he writes the following about this artifical freedom, "'Freedom' now means living out whatever drives us. Such freedom, however, is eventually exposed as a life that consists in nothing other than the search for the next sensual pleasure."1 If being bound to act upon passion and directed by sensual pleasures defines freedom, than freedom is defined by it's inverse, enslavement. However, we know that freedom does not consist of being enslaved to an end, rather freedom is having the liberty to choose one's Final End. Human's are natural inclined to happiness, thus what makes a person trully happy is when he or she freely chooses the Source of happiness. Even though humans are naturally inclined to happiness they can still freely choose it. This view of freedom is commonly known as authentic freedom. Authentic freedom differs from artifical freedom in many different aspects, the primary one is law. Law, in regards to authentic freedom, helps guide our intellect, will and unruly emotions and they help us to discern our reasoned end to ensure that it is in accord with our Final End, God. Law's aid in forming virtues and they set us free from the bondage of sin. Where as in the former view of freedom laws hinder ones freedom, causing him or her to become enslaved to sin instead of being liberated from it.
"Now the soul is drawn to a thing by the appetitive power rather than by the apprehensive power: because the soul has, through its appetitive power, an order to things as they are in themselves: hence the Philosopher says (Metaph. vi, 4) that "good and evil," i.e. the objects of the appetitive power, "are in things themselves."7 St. Thomas Aquinas explains that it is the object of the appetite, which can be good or evil, that the soul is attracted to. As humans, we can vouch that our passion's and emotions are not always attracted to the proper/virtuous end. St. Thomas Aquinas writes that it is only when passions are not controlled by reason that they become diseases or disturbances of the soul.6 One can logically conclude that since our passions are not always directed towards good objects we must have some way of determining a good object from an evil one. Laws help guide ones passion's to avoid the evil act and to ultimately be attracted to the good act producing a virtuous person. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, "...it follows that the proper effect of law is to make those to whom it is given, good, either simply or in some particular respect."4
When I speak of laws, I am refering to just laws, for it is these types of laws that enhance ones virtue and guides one to the Final End, God. As was stated above that the proper effect of a law is to make those whom it is given to, good. A law can only lead to this goodness if the law it self is just. Just laws are those laws which are in accord with the Eternal Law which, in the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas refers to as the Divine Wisdom, that is directing all of our actions and movements.8 Aquinas later writes about two other types of law; Divine Law and Natural Law. These laws are the means of making the Eternal Law visible and known to us humans.
Natural Law contains those laws which are knowable by reason of the Creator's creatures. By studying an artist's work we can know somethings about the artist. By studying an author's book we can know something about the author. It would only follow that by studying God's creation we can know something about God. We know that there are certain mathematical and logical laws which can not be broken. From these laws one is capable of knowing certain things about the One who created the laws. "True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchangeable and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by it prohibitions."9 The conclusion's that come forth from such propositions of the natural world are known as Natural Law only if they are in accord with the Divine Wisdom, Eternal Law.
Divine Law contains those laws that have been divinely revealed to humans by God Himself, whether through prophets, Christ, or the Apostles and their succesors. One can come to knowledge of this kind of law through many different acts. The study of the Word, Theology, is primarily the way in which persons come to an understanding of this Law set forth by God. It is through the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition that we are able to receive this law today. The Divine Law can be devided into two parts; the Old Law and the New Law. The Old Law, the law set forth in the Old Covenant, is the foundation for the New Law. The Old Law contained those laws and requirements that were revealed to Moses and the prophets in regard to what the should and should do and how they were to worship God. The New Law, the law of Christ and the Holy Spirit, fulfills the Old Law. It is through the Holy Spirit that ones intellect and will are moved to perform actions of charity. The second part of the New Law is the written words of the gospel and the Magestarial teachings of the Holy Church. It is through the fulfilment of the Old Law by this New Law that humans are saved. This Divine Law lets oneself know what type of actions he or she is to perform in order to share in the supernatural happiness of the Ultimate End.
It is in allowing oneself to be guided and ruled by these just laws that a person is trully free. As was proven by St. Thomas Aquinas, man desires the good and happiness. We could say it is man's nature to have an appetite for happiness. By the grace of God, man is free to choose to achieve such happiness or not. However, man can only trully make this decision if he is not bound to a vice which may prevent him from having a free choice to do so. Thus man is trully free when he is cabable of freely choosing happiness, because if there is nothing but virtue (formed by laws) guiding the man he is free to live out his nature of happiness.

Totus Tuus,
Andrew Joseph

[phatcatholic]

can i please cuss! i mean really!!!! cause i just edited your entire paper and then IE had an error and totally crapped all over itself. i don't have time to do it all again. but i will tell you generally what i found for you to correct.

--avoid ending a sentence w/ a preposition (to, for, about)
--things that are plural end in "s". things that are possessive end in 's. (i saw "ones" alot instead of "one's"
--check spelling ("successors" has two S's)
--citation 10 in the beginning has no beginning quotation mark.
--when u make a statement and then answer it (like, "the greatest guy ever: Nick") use a colon instead of a comma. i saw that several times in ur paper.

i think that's everything i remember. i'm sorry i couldn't do more

pax christi,
phatcatholic

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

Thankyou for doing that Nick: the greatest guy ever. I typed this paper very fast because I am stressed out. I have another paper due in Philosophy of Nature in a week. Please pray for me.

You are the bomb diggity.

Pax Vobiscum.

Totus Tuus,
Andrew Joseph

[phatcatholic]

good luck to ya bro. post ur papers a little earlier and we'll have more time to work on them i'll do whatever i can to help ya out (i know how ya feel! if you major in a social science--mine was mental health counseling--ya better be ready to write some papers!)

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

thanks...

[phatcatholic]

gotten any feedback on ur paper yet?