FREEDOM

a) Freedom
b) End and Means
c) Licentiousness
d) Knowledge
e) Consent
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a) Freedom

        In order for an act to be truly human and thus morally good, the person must do it freely.

        So, freedom is the capacity of doing something in one way or another. Because God wanted it this way, we are able to decide if we want thing or another. However, freedom:

-must fit the truth,
-must always choose the best thing,
-requires order when using things.

b) End and Means

        Whenever we act, we do it with a purpose. So, whatever we do must be good, and we do it because we want to do it (and not "whatever" or "what do I care").

        However, the end doesn’t justify the means. "I hit the bull’s-eye because I wanted to do it, but I cheated by using unauthorized bows" is never justifiable.

        The end is the intention we act with, and points at what we want to achieve.

        The means is the way things are done, the process by which we achieve things.

c) Licentiousness

        The works which we freely do can be good or bad. So, the work that we do can sometimes be a bad deed, the result of misusing freedom. Licentiousness, thus, as misuse of freedom leads to:

-imperfections: mistakes, sticking our foot in it, and a whole series of blunders;
-vices: ba
d habits, which are acquired by taking the wrong paths.

        We usually calculate that for every year of vice, illicit passion, or choosing the wrong paths, 4 year of virtue or opposite action are needed to be completely cured.

d) Knowledge

        In order for an action to be completely free, without being intervened in or being obligated by anybody, firstly, we must know clearly what we are doing.

        Knowledge is the exercise which makes up our intelligence (which we all have), and which conscientiously or by reflectively:

-informs us about what we do,
-warns us about the pros and cons.

        Our knowledge about things is independent from our interests. It always favors us before and during an activity or action.

e) Consent

        Once our knowledge had informed us about what we are about to do or are already doing, we all possess another capacity, called consent. This consists of totally accepting the consequences of what we have done or are doing.

        Consent fulfills our will (not intelligence) and, more or less, willingly:

-accepts the consequences for what we do,
-admits being totally implicated in what we have done.

        Consent is needed in order to do something because we want to, because nothing has stopped us and because we are totally free.

 

Mercaba Eds 
Diocese of Cartagena-Murcia 
General Diagram of Mercaba's You
th Catechism