YOUCAT Question n. 287 - But doesn’t “freedom” consist of being able to choose evil as well?
(Youcat
answer) Evil is only apparently worth striving for, and deciding in favor of
evil only apparently makes us free. Evil does not make us happy but rather
deprives us of what is truly good; it chains us to something futile and in the
end destroys our freedom entirely.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 1744) Freedom is the power to act or not to act, and so to
perform deliberate acts of one's own. Freedom attains perfection in its acts
when directed toward God, the sovereign Good. (CCC 415) "Although
set by God in a state of rectitude man, enticed by the evil one, abused his
freedom at the very start of history. He lifted himself up against God, and
sought to attain his goal apart from him" (GS 13 § 1). (CCC 416) By his
sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had
received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings.
Reflecting
and meditating
(Youcat comment) We see this in addiction: Here a person sells
his freedom to something that appears good to him. In reality he becomes a
slave. Man is freest when he is always able to say Yes to the good; when no
addiction, no compulsion, no habit prevents him from choosing and doing what is
right and good. A decision in favor of the good is always a decision leading
toward God.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 417)
Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own
first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation
is called "original sin". (CCC 418) As a result of original sin,
human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the
domination of death, and inclined to sin. (This inclination is called
"concupiscence"). (CCC 420) The victory that Christ won over sin has
given us greater blessings than those which sin had taken from us: "where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20).
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