Freedom is certainly the big word in our times. The soul of freedom is choice. Without the latter there is no such a thing as authentic freedom. A noted kind of choice, which lies at the heart of freedom, is what is often referred to as the fundamental option. In A Concise Dictionary of Theology, the Jesuits Gerald O’ Collins and Edward G. Farrugia explain fundamental option as “the general orientation of life or a particular, very serious decision that determines our essential moral and religious situation for good or evil”. The well-known authors go on by saying that thoughts concerning fundamental option were propagated in order to counter legalistic tendencies within the field of morals which “considered moral acts in isolation from the whole context of one’s life and growth”.
The catastrophic consequences left by legalism on both the human psyche and spirit cannot be healed by the laxity of irresponsible freedom. Unfortunately, contemporary society is condoning a culture which highly encourages a complete separation between one’s decision about oneself and her/his individual acts which are expected to translate one’s commitment. Take for instance the Christian faith. A Christian believer may happily espouse Christ’s invitation that “whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8, 35). But what if that believer chooses acts which, by their very thwarted nature, contradict such a high goal? Can one justify herself/himself by arguing that just because s/he has chosen Jesus Christ s/he is free to opt for what suits her/him in the situation? How can one identify oneself as a Christian and then engage or cooperate in acts “of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons” (Evangelium vitae, 3) and so on?
The Bible tells us squarely that human freedom is there to honour God through its responsible use, and as a result, should never be abused. In his letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul eloquently exhorts us: “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Gal 5, 13). This warning reinforces his previous one, just at the beginning of the same chapter: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5, 1). It is an utter slavery and a misery when our fundamental choices are completely disjointed from our individual choices, as expressed in our specific deliberate actions. As Pope John Paul II teaches, in his notorious encyclical On the splendour of the truth, (Veritatis Splendor): “By his fundamental choice, man is capable of giving his life direction and of progressing, with the help of grace, towards his end, following God’s call. But this capacity is actually exercised in the particular choices of specific actions, through which man deliberately conforms himself to God’s will, wisdom and law” (§ 67).
Integrity is the hallmark of what is authentically human. May our fundamental option always correspond with our individual choices and vice versa. When this agreement occurs we genuinely live our transcendental calling, that of being God’s children, in the most flourishing way.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann