“I will show you my faith
by my works”
Letter of James, 2:17 – 18
WE ARE FREE TO SERVE GOD
All of us are bestowed by God with the freedom to make moral decisions which affect ourselves, as well as others. Generally, we think of this freedom as the capacity to decide what actions we shall do, and what actions we shall not do. This, indeed, is one aspect of moral freedom. But the decisions we choose to live by also affect what kind of persons we become. Each of us becomes the type of person we want to become through a process of self-actualization which takes place as a function of the decisions we make during our lives. Therefore, the freedom to make moral decisions is the freedom to decide who we will become as persons; it is the freedom for self-determination.
Confronted with a myriad of choices which will affect ourselves, as well as others, and confronted with the truth that the choices we make determine who we become as persons, we begin to ask ourselves: What should I do? What kind of person should I become?
Our longing to understand what we should do, and what kind of persons we should become, ultimately generates in us a desire to conform our decisions, and hence our lives, to that which God wants for us. Therefore, God bestows on us moral freedom, and we desire to conform the exercise of this moral freedom to that which Gods wants for us.
In the Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul said:
” . . . you were called for freedom . . serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Letter to the Galatians, 5:13.
Here, St. Paul recognizes that we are free to make our own moral decisions, but he exhorts us to conform the exercise of our freedom to that which God wants for us by loving our neighbors as ourselves; St. Paul exhorts us to conform our decisions, and hence our lives, to what God wants for us by serving each other. But, how shall we serve each other? Since God has given us the freedom to make our own moral decisions, and hence to decide what kinds of persons we shall become, He has not pre-determined for us what decisions to make; He has not pre-determined for us how we should serve each other. Hence, the question about how we should serve each other is not a question of how God wants us to serve each other. Rather, it is a question of how we ourselves, in the exercise of our imagination, in the utilization our freedom, determine how we shall serve each other.
We have chosen to serve God by engaging in a food ministry, a diaper ministry, and a toilet paper ministry for the benefit of Haitian refugees, Mexican day workers, Mexican orphans, poor mothers, etc.