How is it possible that God's grace can move us freely to make saving acts of
faith, hope, and love?
Isn't this simply a contradiction?
The modern presupposition is that it is simply incompatible with freedom for our will to
be moved, even moved by God.
But, Aquinas has an older and, in fact, much richer and deeper account of human freedom.
We need to unpack it a little bit.
First, the modern understanding.
Freedom in a modern understanding often means to choose without constraint, to opt for whatever
I determine.
Or to put it a little more technically, to choose between contraries.
So, I walk into a restaurant and I look at the menu.
I have a range of possibilities before me.
I could eat chicken, or beef, or even fish, and I opt for whatever I choose.
If anyone tells me what to choose or pushes me to choose one option rather than another,
then it seems like my freedom has been limited or diminished.
Now, this modern understanding of the nature of freedom is only partial.
Aquinas would say it's a misleading description of human action.
So by thinking with Aquinas, we can go deeper in understanding the human will and thus,
human freedom.
St. Thomas Aquinas would say, "In every choice we make we're aiming at something that we
regard as good.
If we don't regard something as good and at least some respect, we'll never choose it."
Our will, therefore, is not primarily a faculty of choosing of opting between contraries.
Choice is only one of the acts of the will.
The more fundamental feature of the will is that it is a faculty of desiring or even of
loving.
The will is a rational appetite, and it desires, it hungers for the good.
Whatever our minds grasp as good for me, especially as good for me here and now, that is what
I will, in some measure, will for myself.
Further, we see that our lives are not simply a series of one individual choice after another.
Yesterday, I chose beef. Today, I choose fish.
In fact, we engage in larger projects.
We aim at some goal, and we make many choices in order to arrive at it.
So, for example, a student who's going off to university is aiming at obtaining a degree.
So, she makes many individual choices in service of that goal.
She registers for her classes; she buys her books; she studies for her exams.
An athlete who wants to compete in the Olympics, he'll get up early in the morning in order
to train.
He might lift weights, eat a special diet.
Even if sometimes he doesn't feel like doing those things, he still chooses to do them
because his mind apprehends his training as good in view of his end competing in the Olympics.
So, he chooses those things freely because his will is focused on the end and regards
this training as a good means, or the best means, to get to what he desires.
So if we think about this, we begin to see that freedom, or our act of free choice, is
something that emerges from the will as it desires some end as good.
In view of what we desire, we freely choose a fitting action that will lead us to our
end.
Aquinas would tell us at this point to step back and look at the many ends or goals that
human beings can set for themselves and the many individual choices they might make to
reach those ends.
Some ends are consistent with human flourishing or happiness, but there are other goals that
we might mistakenly set out to pursue, but that will only lead us to frustration.
Aquinas thinks, for example, that pursuing money or power or fame or honor, if you make
it your ultimate end, these things, they will not make you truly happy.
Whenever we choose a course of action in pursuit of some end that's unworthy of us, something
that's not leading us to our true flourishing, we are in a sense acting freely--
yes, it's true--
but also in truth, the more we hide away from what's truly good for us, the more limited
our lives become.
It's possible for you freely to choose to use heroin, for example, the first time you
use it.
But as you make the choice again and again, most people will find themselves increasingly
unfree.
Their will will become chained to this desire, and it's a desire that's not worthy of the
human creature made in the image of God.
What will make us truly happy?
In the final analysis, only God is sufficient to quell all our desires, to satisfy us completely
so there's nothing more left to desire.
So, only God can be our final end, Aquinas says.
This is the true reason for our freedom, and the only way for our freedom to reach its
full amplitude and power.
We have the powers of intellect and will so that in this life, we would freely know God
by faith and love him by supernatural charity.
But if we use those powers in order to pursue something incompatible with God, then we're
in fact reducing the scope of the human person.
We are enchaining our wills so that they'll be addicted to what is not good for us.
According to Aquinas, every act of sin is a bit like taking heroin.
It turns us away from God, our true good and the only one who can make us truly happy.
And what is more, our wills then become focused on some partial created thing--pleasure or
money or honor or our own selves--in such a way that we become chained to these things,
fixated on them.
Indeed, in creating us, God has already ordered us to certain natural goods, which can lead
us to some measure of natural happiness.
Things like the good of friendship, family life, of knowing the truth, living well, and
according to virtue, the desires for these things are natural to human beings and our
nature is--in principle--capable of freely choosing the natural means that will lead
us towards them.
But, the highest good of the human person is to dwell in eternal life with God.
This is something that is infinitely above our natural capacity, but God, by the gift
of his grace that comes to us from Christ, can freely move us to desire and to choose
to love God above all things, to believe the words of Christ, to entrust ourselves to the
power of his sacraments, to profess the faith of the church.
When we do these things, we are in fact experiencing what our freedom was made for in its full
amplitude to know, and thus, to love the Supreme good for its own sake.
For readings, podcasts, and more videos like this, go to Aquinas101.com.
While you're there, be sure to sign up for one of our free video courses on Aquinas.
And don't forget to like and share with your friends, because it matters what you think!