Freedom.

There is a great supporter of freedom St. Gregory of Nyssa, among the Church Fathers. Man is the image of God precisely because he is free. As God created the world freely, man also makes his own life, future, and happiness. In the age in which he lived, it was necessary to defend human freedom (St. Gregory was fundamentally opposed to slavery) and God’s sovereignty. Fatalism was universally recognized. Fate, i.e., the immutable laws of the world, reigned supreme. Not even the gods can do anything against them. So, the Fathers had to show that God is the Father, and his providence freely governs the course of
the world. God’s freedom is perfect. He can do all that is good, and nothing hinders him. Human freedom reflects God’s freedom; it must have similar characteristics. But this is a somewhat different concept of freedom than people superficially imagine. For we sometimes hear the objection that man’s freedom includes the possibility of doing evil. If man’s will is truly free, he can choose this or that. How is it, then, that he sin if he decides evil? But it is difficult to answer this objection if we content ourselves with the impoverished notion of freedom: to do this or that. Then, however, we would have lost freedom even for the saints in heaven since they can no longer sin.

St. Gregory of Nyssa uses a simple but fitting simile. The betrothed who has his girl truly loves his bride feels free only when nothing hinders him from marrying her. Similarly, he was unmarried and the first man. He had free access to God; he spoke with him. Sin shut the gates of paradise to him. So, we have lost the freedom to be with God. Nevertheless, we have something of it left, something we have taken away from paradise. We can still choose this or that. If we decide for the good, we allow ourselves to come to God again slowly; we grow towards freedom. If we do evil, we use free choice to destroy further and limit freedom, closing the entrance to God. The ability to decide for this or that is thus a great gift. It serves to build space in Christ. Its misuse, on the contrary, causes apostasy from God, sin, and therefore bondage.

Spiritual progress is slow growth in the freedom of God’s children (cf. Rom 8:21). It is a slow development. According to St. Gregory, humanity has fallen into threefold great bondage: psychological, social, and religious spheres. We are enslaved psychologically because we rarely know a pure truth and are subject to illusions, distorted impressions, and passions. The company of others should help us for good and whole personal development. Becoming the opposite happens. It binds us with its tyranny, its violence, but by its habits and public opinion so that the individual is shackled. Similarly, pagan religious ideas have bound the souls of their believers so that they are often not unable to accept the gospel.

The grace of Christ, however, is slowly doing its work. Faith frees us from the illusions of false ideas. Denial, by asceticism, we escape from the captivity of evil passions. Trust in God’s providence will keep us from fearing the weight of circumstance and other people’s pressures. Love and good works will overcome sin and the devil the oppressor. Even time cooperates. It frees us from the weighty past cares, so we move toward greater closeness to God step by step. This God himself does all this. He only asks of us a constant and daily lived Becoming, that is, a free consent to the good. Such consent brought Christ into the world (cf. Lk 1:38), and by such licenses also completed his work.
It is said that today is the age of freedom, that youth must be educated more for freedom than for submission. Just as they sound, these slogans are profoundly true. The danger is that they are not understood deeply and correctly enough, that they misuse and misrepresent one of the most beautiful concepts in Scripture, of the freedom of God’s children. It is only in Christ that we are made sons of enslaved people; therefore, we shall only be truly free when he sets us free (cf. Gal 5:1). Act as free men, but not as those who make freedom as servants of God.