How far can your freedom go

How far can your freedom go? German writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe once explained that if someone who in the name of liberty gives up being one’s true self, then it is like that person is committing suicide. A certain type of ethic, which gives as a good standard a double morality in many areas of human existence, is spreading like a deadly narcotic. For this reason, a mentality which accepts that “the ends justify the means” has developed, believing as well that it is legitimate as long as it serves to enjoy human happiness beyond measure. According to Thomas Aquinas, however, one can never justify a mean even if the end is sublime, The way out of this cruel situation happens to be linked to the author of all things and through the exercise of our free will. We can surrender or deny the greatness that concerns him, and that is exactly where the light and dark sides of free will are construed. Humans have mislaid happiness and the joy of life, because they refuse to give up their freedom. Furthermore, the truth that hovers like a mantra over our free will make us free because freedom reaches its genuine sense when it acts in the name of truth. Whether it is that we are God’s children or even prisoners of pride, eroticism, and of that tormented narcissism within which many mortals are trapped in. Freedom carries with it a great responsibility that straightens out our entire existence. Humans without freedom are like clouds without water, blown from hither and to thither by the winds and those unfruitful autumn trees that are twice dead and without roots. Where there is no intimacy with Deity, a personal void surges: In solitude and silence, in that dark abyss, everything becomes oppression and distress. St. Augustine of Hippo once wrote that marvelous song of freedom that explained that God created humans without them, and shall not save them without them. There lays an anthem to freedom. Free will and giving it up do not contradict each other; they always reciprocally protect one another. Freedom can only and exclusively be bestowed by the strike of an arrow of love, because freedom without a climax, without an objective standard and without a true commitment is mere sin. It is only because I want to, because I am free, because I am willing to give up my free will, that I chose to dedicate myself to God. Freedom attains its full meaning when it is cultivated to serve the truth. Saint John once affirmed that only truth shall set you free. “Oh, liberty, delight of my existence! Without you work is torture and life is prolonged death”, would affirm French philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon with ardor (Translated by Gianna A. Sanchez-Moretti).. Author and journalist Clemente Ferrer has led a distinguished career in Spain in the fields of publicity and press relations. He is currently President of the European Institute of Marketing. clementeferrer3@gmail.com