Conformity and Freedom
One
In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, he tells us that “for those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren” (Rom 8:29). This passage is very controversial because predestined conformity is precisely why many claim to despise organized religion. The root of modern reaction against religion centers on this belief that conforming to God takes away our freedom. It limits human creativity and expression, turning us into mindless robots. In the mad dash for freedom to do what we want, we end up enslaved in vice, error, and addiction. The Venerable Fulton Sheen offers this interesting point, “Thus does a society which lost its faith in the authority of a Church sneak authority back into society through the door of the counter-church... Once inner faith is lost, a dictatorship becomes imperative to reestablish some kind of order by force" (Communism and the Conscience of the West, p. 172). No clearer words could be spoken to describe our current cultural climate.
Yet how can conformity to God secure freedom? First, we need to know that God wants us to be like Him! He does this not by snapping His fingers and creating it in us instantly. He rather wishes to preserve our freedom. Conformity to Him means to be like him who is love. That is freedom’s purpose, not just being able to do what I want. Every addict or crime victim will tell you that ‘if it feels right, do it’ is a bad slogan to live by. Nor can freedom mean absence of rules. Try driving on the freeway, having an operation, or even playing a game without them and see how far you get.
Rather, freedom is the ability to choose that which truly brings me to a state of excellence, despite my tendency to foul things up. And God is necessary for me to achieve this excellence. The CCC teaches that human freedom is a power of reason and will to act or not to act for our own growth and maturity in truth and goodness. It is perfected only when it is directed toward God, our source of happiness (cf. #1731). God, then, is the end goal of freedom; its final fulfillment; its achievement in excellence. Freedom and God go together, like playing a sport and winning, setting out on a journey and arriving, or getting married and having a loving relationship. Freedom, then, is the power, and relationship with God is the fulfillment.
Two
“For freedom’s sake Christ set us free. Stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). Paul’s letter to the Galatians echoes his letter to the Romans. In Christ, we are set free! Jesus reveals to us that God alone fulfills. All our talents, our faculties, our loves, our hopes, our dreams find their most perfect and exciting fulfillment in God. Afterall, He is the author and giver of these things. As St. Thérèse the Little Flower puts it, God does not give us desires that He doesn’t intend to fulfill. Fulfillment means to put into effect. Attaining union with God puts into effect all of our potential to be great, creative, and joyful. The potential is transformed into the actual. In God, we are no longer subject to the darkness of error, the pain of loss, the humiliation of failure, or heartbreak of unanswered love. We now enjoy the fullness of Being in all its beautiful possibilities. And we not only enjoy this individually with God, but with everyone else, too, who share in our joy, and we in theirs!
Three
God wishes us to share in His own Divine essence and life. As St. Peter teaches, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Peter 1:3,4). Our conformity to God’s will means that we conform to infinite excellence and glory. When we choose to seek our own fulfillment apart from God, by definition we seek finite, limited and flawed excellence, which isn’t excellence at all. Many times, we think we’re exercising our freedom when actually we’re harming it. The accuser has tricked us from the beginning. God gave us our freedom, not for its own sake, but so that we could be excellent and happy by sharing in His life. Adam and Eve’s yes to Satan’s temptation, however, placed blinders on our eyes, thinking that freedom for its own sake makes us happy; that the thing that merely feels good is what we should do. We have gone along with this lie—each and every one of us—since then. Fortunately, God in His mercy offers us the way out: conformity to His will.
Four
Every decision we make, we make because we think it will make us happy. If you ask yourself, ‘why did I do this’ enough times, you will eventually answer, ‘because I want to be happy.’ God wishes us to be happy as well, infinitely so! He wants us to be fulfilled, excellent and happy by experiencing the deepest love possible. This is the purpose of conformity to Him. When our wills desire what He desires, and seek what He IS, we find the joy, happiness and bliss we were made for. The plight of our existence is that this choice is hard. It’s not instantaneous. It is a lived reality that requires undivided attention and continuous commitment, and above all, trust in Him. Therein lies the challenge, but also therein lies the adventure.
Five
Jesus offers the basic outline for conformity to God: keep the commandments and live the beatitudes. But if you’re like me, you need as concrete of an example as possible of how to live God’s life and how to keep up attention and effort. This is where the records of the saints have been so helpful to me. Their lives reveal the truths we have discussed and make it much more attractive when we get to know them. Their lives are adventurous, fulfilled, excellent, and happy, despite their trials. If you wish to get better at life, study the people who did it best. And they offer some simple practices that we should all know by now: daily mediation, frequent reception of the sacraments, penance. But if you find yourself in a rut and want to reinvigorate yourself, get a book of a saint, read their life, and let them show you what it looks like to live like God. I have included some good ones in the notes of this rosary.
Books on Saints:
The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure
Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset
Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
The Dumb Ox (St. Thomas Aquinas) by G.K. Chesterton
Dear and Glorious Physician (St. Luke) by Taylor Caldwell
Bakhita: A Novel of the Saint of Sudan by Veronique Olmi
Story of a Soul by Therese of Lisieux