One of the most fundamental (and consequential) choices that we must make in life is the choice between two types of freedom: freedom as total autonomy (the ability to do whatever I want, as free as possible from any external constraints or restrictions) and freedom placed at the service of God and neighbor, which Hans Urs von Balthasar eloquently described as the “freedom of self-giving in faith’s obedience to the free love of God.” In short, the choice between these two freedoms is a choice between self-centered freedom and God-centered freedom. The decision one makes in this regard will have an inestimable impact on the happiness, fulfillment, and sense of meaning and purpose one experiences in this earthly life, as well as on one’s eternal destiny. No pressure there!
From time immemorial, we human beings have been choosing a self-centered freedom over a God-centered freedom (Gen. 3:1-24). But the view that true freedom consists in total personal autonomy became much more prevalent during the so-called Enlightenment, as some philosophers and other thinkers of that period rejected religious belief and engaged in a “turn to the subject” in their writings and their thought. This “turn to the subject” entailed, among other things, an increased focus on the individual person and on concrete methods for attaining ultimate personal happiness and fulfillment here and now in this earthly life, rather than in an afterlife as promised by some religions, particularly Christianity. Self-centered freedom appealed to some people of that time because it seemed to offer liberation from the moral and social constraints that they felt limited their pursuit of the fulfillment of their desires.
Since the Enlightenment, there have been other periods of time when there have been a particular surge in the popularity of self-centered freedom. One can, for example, point to the “Roaring 20s,” when some people reacted to the senseless and, at that time, historically unprecedented scale of death and destruction that occurred during World War I with feelings of nihilism and despair, and, as a result, chose to reject religious faith and traditional morality.
To choose self-centered freedom is to choose to be far less than what we are capable of being and far less than what God intended us to be.
Then, of course, there’s the 1960s. The sexual revolution, the emergence of a largely self-centered “pop psychology” movement (e.g., “Looking out for #1”), and the explosion of mass marketing and advertising all combined to emphasize the fulfillment of one’s self-centered desires as the key to happiness in life.
This conception of freedom as the complete autonomy of the individual person found perhaps its most infamous expression in a passage from the judicial opinion authored by US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in Planned Parenthood v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”
Kennedy wrote that passage in 1992, but that view of liberty and human life is essentially the same—and just as gravely erroneous—as the view adopted by some of the generations that have gone before us, including our earliest human ancestors. We, like most people throughout human history, prefer to believe ourselves to be more “enlightened” than previous generations, but in some very significant ways, we are not.
So why should we choose a God-centered freedom over a self-centered freedom when we are constantly bombarded with messages that encourage a self-centered approach to life as the path to happiness?
First, the pragmatic reason: A finite, self-centered freedom will never be enough to satisfy us, no matter what some podcasters, advertisers, or social media influencers may claim. Our desire for freedom, like so many of our deepest desires, is infinite—without limits. Only infinite freedom will truly satisfy our desire for freedom, and infinite freedom is found only in God. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) provided a pithy expression of this fundamental truth:
If man is to be free, he must be ‘like God.’ Wanting to be like God is the inner motive of all mankind’s programs of liberation. Since the yearning for freedom is rooted in man’s being, right from the outset he is trying to become ‘like God.’ Indeed, anything less is ultimately too little for him. . . . Any liberation of man which does not enable him to become divine betrays man, betrays his boundless yearning.
Which leads us to the deeper, more ontological and more theological reason why we should choose God-centered freedom over self-centered freedom. We were made for the infinite freedom of God. Our desire for freedom is infinite because we were created to share forever in the infinite freedom of God. Only in God’s infinite freedom will we find our ultimate fulfillment. To choose self-centered freedom is to choose to be far less than what we are capable of being and far less than what God intended us to be. When we align ourselves with divine freedom, we align ourselves with the fullness of life and with the heart of Being itself. Because it turns out that God’s infinite freedom is identical to his essence as self-giving love. Our finite freedom finds its ultimate fulfillment by entering into the infinite freedom of the divine dynamic of self-giving love. Self-giving love is the path to ultimate freedom, the deepest form of freedom:
Nothing is as free as love; apart from love, all so-called freedom is no freedom at all. . . . Love makes us free if it is selfless, and it is selfless if it is ready to sacrifice pleasure, advantage and independence for the sake of the beloved.
Self-centered freedom—freedom conceived as the ability to do whatever one wants—leaves a person at the mercy of his egocentric desires, enslaved to those desires, rather than truly setting that person free. As Balthasar put it, “Only he who escapes from the prison of self is free.”
To choose God-centered freedom, a freedom that puts itself at the service of God and neighbor, is to choose the infinite freedom of self-giving love. Using our finite freedom to choose the infinite freedom of God and his will (which is always love) leads to absolute freedom, ultimate happiness, and eternal life in union with God:
Choice of the beloved and of his will, choice out of pure, unconditional love in the frankest, most boundless yes (2 Cor. 1:18-20), is, when the beloved is God, elevation to absolute freedom. . . . And all is rapturously crowned when this choice can be the answer to having been already chosen oneself in love; then the mutual sinking into each other becomes itself eternity.