Catholic Candle note: The article below is a “companion” article to these two previously published articles:
➢ The Leftist Attack on the Moral Fiber of Society: https://catholiccandle.org/2023/10/29/the-leftist-attack-on-the-moral-fiber-of-society/
➢ We Should Not Dress Like Cultural Revolutionaries! https://catholiccandle.org/2024/02/20/we-should-not-dress-like-cultural-revolutionaries/
True Freedom
All around us, we see so many people with impoverished characters – whose highest values and goals are comfort, convenience, pleasure, entertainment, conformity, and being coddled.
Let us contrast those misplaced priorities with what it takes to be a free man and to be a free people. Most people in our society are willing to “sell” their freedom for the mess of pottage of a comfortable life in the nanny state. Because the people of our society are increasingly like this, it appears likely that our freedom is nearing its end.
This is because true freedom is not free. By true freedom, we mean the lack of constraint which would prevent us from serving God, practicing the full Traditional Catholic Faith, living life according to virtue, and acquiring and spreading the truth. In past decades, the freedom existing in society was certainly not perfect – because error and sin were allowed to sprout and to thrive like so many poisonous mushrooms that leached off of the previous good of the Christendom which has been steadily-decaying for hundreds of years. But this freedom we had in those past decades was much greater than what we have now and what will (apparently) exist in the future, as the good and the true are (and will be) much more restricted and persecuted.
True freedom – especially in a very complete form – is of priceless value but is very costly to acquire and to maintain. Freedom requires accountability and responsibility. These are neither convenient nor comfortable. Freedom requires sacrifice and at least the possession of some virtue (the greater the virtue, the greater the true freedom). These are the opposite of the values of the weak men of today.
Even after true freedom is possessed, it must be continually earned through sacrifice – every year and also by each generation. That is the high cost of true freedom. Parents can pass on to their children the true freedom they themselves enjoy but that next generation will lose that freedom unless they also receive the formation in virtue and good character which is necessary to guard this true freedom from destruction by their own wounds of Original Sin and by evil men.
It is true that some of these people, though possessing weak characters nonetheless work hard for leftist causes (e.g., climate alarmism, racial “justice”, economic “justice”, “saving the rainforests”, “justice” for those persons who are deluded into claiming that they belong to the opposite sex, etc.). Such empty leftist causes do not require virtue in those people or even require them to seek virtue. Thus, these people do what their fallen human natures desire but do not do what results in their true happiness: viz., follow their reason, live for God, serve Christ the King, and acquire virtue.
That is why the leftists are more unhappy and depressed than conservatives are[1] – although those “conservatives” are themselves, for the most part, not very conservative (except in comparison to the leftists) and are merely conserving the lesser liberalism of a few decades ago.
These empty, leftist causes do not make a satisfying and happy life. As St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, taught:
Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.
Confessions, Bk.1, ch.1.
People nowadays, who more or less follow their leftist leaders are rewarded by receiving the acceptance and approval of their “crowd” as well as (sometimes) rewarded by receiving financial incentives such as government, corporate, and academic grants, employment positions, awards and honoraria, favorable book publishing deals, favorable media coverage, social media “likes”, etc.
The current generations of immature and insolent “activists” are not resilient. They are neither strong of will nor well-formed in mind, (i.e., they are not formed in the truth, which is the good of the mind). These “activists” only serve to destroy what others have built. They are destroyers like Satan is.
We must fight those trying to enslave us in a nanny state! It is true that the circumstances are against us. We might lose this fight, (i.e., God might allow that) but God is in charge. The Blessed Virgin Mary told us at Quito, Ecuador, that she will triumph when everything seems hopeless. Here are her words:
When everything will seem lost and paralyzed, that will be the happy beginning of the complete Restoration. This will mark the arrival of My hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under My feet and chaining him in the infernal abyss.[2]
God did not assign us the “problem” of how to turn around all of society and to “save the world”. That is God’s concern to save what He wants to save and to punish what He decides to punish. Our focus must be on serving Him well and faithfully in whatever capacity He created us to fill. That is, we must be valiant soldiers of Christ as well as men and women of character. The rest is God’s concern.
We must be “apostles” of virtue and of truth, and of taking responsibility. We must be “Jeremias” to warn against the rot of incessant self-indulgence which is all around us.
Let us fill this role with strong hearts and with the confidence of a soldier who is on the winning side – that is, on God’s side!
[1] Read these articles:
➢ https://catholiccandle.org/2023/11/08/the-connection-between-virtue-and-happiness-part-1/
➢ https://catholiccandle.org/2023/12/12/the-connection-between-virtue-and-happiness-part-2/
[2] Words of Our Lady of Quito, Ecuador, in 1634, to Mother Marianna de Jesus.