Freewill

Hey Zeteo community!

The next Zeteo event is tomorrow. I am not sure about the rest of you, but this past month has absolutely sped by. Having a one-year-old will do that to your time, I suppose. I hope to see many of you there tomorrow, even though it is a holiday weekend.

Here is the newest Zeteo in Action post. If you have any questions, concerns, thoughts, insights, stories, or anything else to add, I would be happy to hear from you.

God bless!
Olivia Fischer


Week 4: Freewill

The other day, a friend of mine posted the picture below on Facebook. Ever since I read it, it has been on my mind, especially the line "... for our freedom has the power to make choices forever, with no turning back." (CCC 1861)


Freewill has always troubled me. When I found out about it as a child, I wondered why God had possibly given us so much power. Why would he have ever given us the ability to chose not to love Him, and end up in hell - it seemed so cruel to me.

As a mother, I have a little bit of a different perspective. While I have long understood why we have freewill, the love of my child has altered that knowledge. Jerome is one year old now, and he can willingly chose who he wants to be with, if he wants to hug me, if he wants nothing to do with me. While he does - though I know it is silly, have the ability to hurt my feelings, I understand the importance of when he does chose to show me love, and it is so much more precious because of that choice.

There have been many times in my life where I have felt that choice to do what I know is Gods will in a situation, or the opposite. It is easier to chose the opposite, because we tend to forget how much turning our back on God hurts Him. I once heard that God is always waiting for us, as in the tabernacle of the church, and every time we chose not to turn to Him, it pierces His heart. Our free will is in no way a cruelty to us, as I believed as a child. As explained in the Catechism, CCC 1730, free will is given to us as the dignity of our person, so that we may be able to seek our Creator of our own accord.

Freewill of course, is governed by truth that is far beyond man's understanding. God gave us freewill so that we could be rational beings, as He is. However, we need to turn to Him and His truth, in order to know what is good and what is evil. It reminds me of the story, which Michael Chiasson mentioned, of Peter walking on water. Peter gets out of the boat, and begins to walk toward Jesus. It is only when Peter looks away from Jesus, that he becomes incredulous of his ability to walk on water, and he begins to sink.

We are unable to know good from evil on our own, and if God had left us to figure it out alone, that probably would have been cruel. However, He gave us the perfect example of love, as well as the Holy Spirit, for us to fix our eyes on. He is a personal God, one we can choose to have a close and intimate relationship with - it is only when we take our eyes away that we lose sight and begin to sink.

The Catechism, CCC 1721, speaks of freewill as being a "force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude." In choosing good over evil, we become ever more mature in our faith and, the Catechism says, we become more free. For in fact, choosing sin negates our freedom and leads us to the "slavery of sin." (CCC 1733)

In a way, freewill is a grand test of our character. As Michael Chiasson challenged at the last Zeteo, "what we do reflects our belief, and eventually our true selves will always show through. Are we okay with that person?" Through freewill we are given the ability to choose each action, and this will always reflect who we truly are - someone who seeks heaven, or by default, the opposite.