Law & Virtue: Freedom Refined for True Goodness

The Seven Virtues, Piero and Antonio Pollaiuolo and Botticelli

Depicted from left-to-right: Fortitude ~ Temperance ~ Faith ~ Charity ~ Hope ~ Justice ~ Prudence

If you have ever observed a significant amount of rhetoric on any contentious issue, then you would have observed an attempt to frame an objective reality subjectively, some ad hominem attacks, and even some conclusions/premises posed without evidence. This comes largely from the cultural inability to either form arguments or a disbelief in objective reality. However, more fundamentally, there is hardly ever a common definition of freedom. What is freedom, and do we have it? True freedom is the aspect of rational man to choose the good (according to the nature of a thing, in that it is some way desirable and that it has its essence in completeness or in that an action contributes or derives from the completeness of an act, thus an act not completely good is evil and it correspond to an imperfection in the actor and lacks being thereby) and fulfill one’s nature, which is fundamentally undermined in choosing evil.[1] Evil is contrary to reason, the nature of the agent, and it stifles one’s future ability to choose what is good—for oneself, for others, and for the sake of intrinsic goods such as truth, love, communion, perfection, and peace in conscience.

Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law" .[2]

True freedom is not license but the ordered power to choose the good, revealed through virtue and fulfilled in divine law, as St. Thomas teaches.

I. Freedom: License vs. Ordered Power

Freedom as license “saws off its own supporting structure” when it is used to choose what contradicts the good and the integral fulfillment of the person. Such abuse of freedom becomes, by definition, an act of self-destruction—not only for the one who chooses, but potentially for others as well. This is precisely because a choice against the good undermines freedom itself, which, as a good, must be ordered toward what is true and good in its object, intention, and circumstances.[3]

Just as the act of choosing a lie is not a valid exercise of reason—since it contradicts reason’s very nature to discern and affirm truth—so too, a supposed act of freedom that contradicts the good ceases to be true freedom. Truth, by nature, cannot contradict itself; therefore, a moral act that opposes what is self-evidently good—such as life, beauty, or justice—cannot be truly good. In this way, freedom rightly understood must be harmonized with the objective moral order, or it loses its very meaning.

II. St. Thomas on Law and True Freedom

Law shows us how to use freedom in such a way that we don’t destroy ourselves, undermine freedom, and sin.[4]

Due to the instantly gratifying understanding of freedom utilized by modernity and moral relativism, law is consequently disparaged as imposing, and virtue—the disposition to the good—is determined to be irrelevant. [5] The problem with this logical implication (derivative of its premises) is that it either considers what is truly good as erroneous or conceptually indeterminate.

Law is a statement of reason produced by the ruler, binding upon citizens. When something is said to be virtuous, it is because it acts as a subordinate to that which governs it. In its obedience to reason, an irascible or concupiscible faculty becomes virtuous. Every law is produced such that it is obeyed. Consequently, law ought to lead its subjects in any and all virtue, for virtue is that which makes something good. Therefore, law ought to lead those subjects to goodness, in general or in a particular way.[6]

If the legislator has the end of what is truly the common good in mind—i.e., in accord with Divine Law—it follows that the effect would be this goodness produced in those bound by the law. This attainment of good is undermined if the legislator legislates for his own supposed good or contrary to Divine Justice. However, sometimes even these abuses of authority can produce good in certain contexts (cf. ST I–II, q. 92, a.1).[7]

III. Divine Law and Human Fulfillment

Since man is fallible and known to be so by fellow man, it is necessary that the legislator of true law would be higher than man and even institutions of men. Still more, who better to draw the distinction between good and evil than God?

It is no accident that the tree that eroded the freedom to choose what is good was that whose fruit was the “knowledge of Good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). For in seeking to define our freedom to include what God forbade and accepting the ideals which seem convenient or expedient, we assumed that certain goods are opposed to others—rather than seeing the good as a maximized reality to be fulfilled. This disorder leads to valuing contingent goods (e.g., sexual gratification or drugs) as equal to or greater than higher goods such as communion or ideological coherence.

Even though we possess said disorder of will, it is helpful to understand how to become ordered—and this is the function law serves. “He hath not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them” (Psalm 147:20).[8]

Divine law concerns the acts of all virtues by ordering reason itself, and moral virtues order reason between external acts and passions. Therefore, Divine law proposes precepts about every virtue. Where there is no established virtue the Divine law binds man, and where he is well-disposed, he is guided through his good disposition by reason.[9]

IV. Virtue and the Practice of True Freedom

When one assumes that the bounds of freedom are clarified by law, it is no longer burdensome to oneself i.e. having the burden to, both author appropriate bounds and to abide by them. When someone else transgresses one’s principles, all one can appeal to is why their bounds are more legitimate than another's. This often takes the form of shaming, ad hominem attacks, or other methods of psychological control—rather than having something objective to appeal to that another could come to see as valid, though momentarily erring.

This opens the door to the possibility of the common pursuit of truth and perfection, much to the benefit of both souls—if virtue or the reception of the gift of eternal life are the focus, and the commandments of God are the ends in mind. Otherwise, we have to accept the oddly specific expectations of individuals as valid or make them experience our own, for there to be harmony.

This harmony or communion, which was intended by God from the beginning and which the abuse of freedom undermines, is fostered by recognizing God’s sovereignty, by doing one’s best to abide by it, and by forgiving oneself and others as they occasionally fall short.

Specific Virtues as Examples

Justice: Giving another his due educates one in maintaining communion and provides a suitable metric for reconciliation.
Temperance: Moderation of pleasures allows for ideal participation in material goods without defect or excess.
Fortitude: Strengthens the will to pursue the good amidst difficulty and loss.
Prudence: “Disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it.” This virtue secures peace by guiding us with reason rather than emotion.[10]

Conclusion

The modern “free-for-all” definition of freedom is not only myopic but self-repudiating. In making men not only good but also holy—graced in the constant gift of self to God and neighbor by consequence—one can not only attain Heaven, fulfill the call of the Gospel, and become for others a connection with the divine, but also break out of selfish patterns and poverty of all kinds.

The worst kind of poverty is to be separated from Joy, Peace, Existence, Perfection, Goodness, Truth, and Beauty Himself. Even the slightest bit of conformity to Him is sweet to the heart, life-giving, love-enabling, and beautiful.

If freedom is misunderstood as mere license, it invites one into a frame of mind that disregards what is truly good. In our fallen state, we inevitably fall short of the good and thus become confused, ashamed, broken, and conformed to evils, running into the "wall" or truth one has believed against. Consequently, we find ourselves confounded by suffering and unaware of its causes. These very consequences place us in direct contact with reality.

True peace is not found in pleasure or comfort, but in greatness—communion, honoring life, and living by those enduring truths and virtues that anchor us in God and in one another:

Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, Chastity, Humility, Obedience, Mercy, Forgiveness, Sanctity, Holiness, Righteousness, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of the Lord, Dignity, Life, Love, Peace, Joy, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Self-control, Greatness, Communion, Evangelical Obedience, and Evangelical Poverty.

The Use of Reason and Grace work together to ensure this freedom, even if evil is within our potency.[1]

Written by Carter Carruthers

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