IPLW-Faith, “What is Freedom?” pp. 60-66
Is it Possible to Live This Way? Vol. 1 Faith
Msgr. Giussani mentions that ‘freedom’ is a word that we use all the time, though most people really do not know how to define what freedom is. To most, freedom is just “doing whatever you want,” and as Msgr. Giussani notes, there is some truth to that, yet the way that most people use the term is very superficial. Why? Because they often equate what they “want” with what they “feel.” As I discussed in a previous posting, while emotions are important, and are part of who we are, they are NOT who we are. We are much more than just our emotions. In fact, our emotions are part of what St. Thomas Aquinas would call the sensitive part of our soul, that pertaining to our senses and is common with the animals. However, what makes us unique, distinct from the animals, is that we have the spiritual powers of the Intellect, Memory, and Will.
So, how do we come to understand what freedom is? As with everything, we need to begin with our own experience. What makes us feel free? What makes us not feel free? Simply, we feel free when a desire is satisfied. So freedom is equated with satisfaction, and in philosophy (particularly in the writing of St. Thomas Aquinas), another word for satisfaction is perfection. When something, some desire is perfected/satisfied we are free.
Do we ever experience perfection in our lives, in the sense of being completely satisfied? I would wage to say that we would all say “no”. Our satisfaction, our perfection, is never total. Once one desire is satisfied, we desire something else. We can look first at the most fundamental human needs. I experience hunger, the desire for food, so I eat a sandwich and for a while I am satisfied, but I will feel hungry again. Today I got a satellite radio, not that I thought that I needed it, but I desired it. Has it made me completely, perfectly happy? No! It seems as if our desire is infinite; which can be troublesome for us since we are very finite.
Msgr. Giussani was a great fan of Dante, and he used this quote from Dante’s Purgatorio, “Everyone vaguely pictures in his mind/ A good the heart may rest on, and is driven/ By his desire to seek it and to find” (Dante Alighier, Purgatorio, XVII). What makes most peoples’ idea of freedom superficial is that they have a superficial “good the heart may rest on.” Sex, drugs, money, reputation, a big house, a fast car, etc… on none of these things will the heart truly rest upon. So what is a good that the heart may rest on that will lead us to authentic freedom? St. Augustine gives us the answer in his Confessions, where he says to God, “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Only God, who is infinite can satisfy, can perfect, our infinite desire.
On page 64 of the book, Msgr. Giussani provides one of his famous diagrams, to demonstrate his understanding of freedom. It is too much for me to try to re-create in this blog, but the key is that freedom is our relationship with the Infinite Mystery; our relationship with God. We must start with our experience, which is always in the present. That is why God came into human history, when the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us. This is why Christ established the Church as His Mystical Body so that His presence extends through time and space. This is why we have the Eucharist, His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. We can always enter into a relationship with the Infinite, the transcendent Mystery; the Other. We exercise our freedom when we follow this Presence in our lives, ever drawing closer to the Mystery, the infinite that can perfect us. Freedom is becoming who we have been created to be.
