It is a thing which sounds like a paradox, but which is nevertheless true, with a most exact truth, that of all the persons who serve God, those are the most free, indeed it might be said the only really free, who allow themselves to be guided entirely and in everything by the Spirit of God, and whom Saint Paul calls, for that reason, the children of God. "Those," he says, "who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God."
Worldly people who live according to their desires, and who restrain themselves in nothing, appear free, but they are not really so. They soon become mere slaves to their passions, which tyrannize over them with the utmost violence. This is a truth which they are themselves obliged to confess; and even if they did not, their conduct expresses it sufficiently; for there is no man who gives himself up entirely to his passions whom those passions do not lead much farther than he ever intended to go, whom they do not hold enchained, as it were, and whom they do not force at last to do what in his heart he condemns: such is the terrible empire of an evil habit.
Most of those who are sincerely Christians, and yet who are lax and remiss in the practice of their religion, are not free either. The occasions of sin draw them away; they yield to the least temptation; human respect holds them in subjection; they wish to do good, and yet allow a thousand obstacles to stand in their way; they detest sin, and yet they have not the courage to put it away from them. Now, certainly, this is not freedom, not to be able to do the good they wish to do, and to be forced to do the evil they detest. Devout persons, also, who are led by their own spirit are not free either. They think they are, because they make their own plans of devotion and follow a certain routine, from which they never deviate. But in reality they are the slaves of their own imagination; full of inconstancy, of uneasiness, of peculiarities, and of caprices; always seeking for sensible devotion, and when they find it not, which very often happens, then they are discontented with God and with themselves. More than this, they are generally scrupulous and undecided, constantly experiencing in themselves an agitation, which they know not how to quiet. Self-love rules them, and they are no less the absolute slaves of it than worldlings are of their passions.
We must then say, either that there is no true liberty in the service of God, which would be an error, and a kind of blasphemy; or that this liberty is the portion of those only who give themselves to God with their whole heart, and who resign themselves to follow in everything the leadings of Divine grace. But, you will say, how can a man be free and yet subject in everything to the Spirit of God? Are these not contradictory ideas? Not at all. The perfect liberty of the reasonable creature consists in this subjection, and the more complete the subjection, the greater the freedom.
To understand this truth thoroughly we must remark, in the first place, that liberty is the chief perfection of man, and that this perfection is the more excellent in him in proportion as he uses his liberty in conformity to reason and the designs of God; for liberty without this rule degenerates simply into vice and licentiousness.
We must remark, in the second place, that true liberty does not consist in the power of doing evil. This power is a defect inherent in the creature, who is essentially fallible, because drawn from nothingness. But such a power is so little an appendage of true liberty, that God, Who is free above all things, is in a state of absolute impossibility of doing evil. It would follow, then, that man was more free than God if liberty consisted in the power of giving oneself up to good or evil.
Now, man has this unfortunate power, and it is in him a radical imperfection, which may lead him to his eternal ruin. What must he do, then, to correct this imperfection of his liberty, and to approach as near as possible to the liberty of God? He must implore of God to direct him in the choice of his actions; to make him listen for the voice of Divine grace Within him; to help him to follow it, and to abandon himself to it. By doing this he comes to wish what God wishes; he does what God inspires him to do; he protects himself against all bad use of his liberty; he raises himself, as far as he can, towards the perfection of the Divine liberty; the liberty of God becomes, in some sort, his own, because he acts no longer according to his own desire, but solely as he is guided by the Will of God. Thus, by his perfect subjection to God he is as free as he can possibly be.
But, you will say, this subjection is a great constraint. And why is it such a constraint? It is because of our natural inclination to evil, of our bad habits, of that spirit of independence and pride which caused the fall of the angels and of the first man. What is it that feels this constraint so much? Is it the reason of man? Is it his conscience? No; it is his corrupt nature, it is his passions. Human reason, which is an outflow and a spark of Divine reason, will never complain of the necessity it is under of submitting and conforming to that Divine reason: conscience, that instinct of right, which God Himself has implanted in our hearts, will never murmur against this subjection, which is its primary law, and will never give the odious name of constraint to the wise rule which is its faithful guide.
The constraint is only for our mad passions, for our pride, for our self-love: it is a salutary check, it is a yoke of sweetness and happiness, to our reason enlightened by faith.
Besides, this constraint only lasts until our evil passions are exterminated, our self-love conquered, our pride trampled under foot; it only lasts until our bad inclinations are changed, by custom and perseverance, into a real inclination towards all that is good, and until the voice of grace is stronger than the voice of nature. This happy moment will come when we have for some time made generous efforts against ourselves, and when, by the assistance of grace, we have acquired some command over our senses, over our imagination, and over those first ill-regulated impulses which often carry us away in spite of ourselves.
Then we begin to feel independent of all that is not of God; then we begin to taste, in all its sweetness, the true liberty of the children of God. There we begin to pity the miserable slaves of the world, and to congratulate ourselves on having escaped their chains. Tranquil upon the shore, we see them tossed about on the waves of that sea of iniquity, troubled by a thousand contrary winds, always on the point of being engulfed by the tempest. We enjoy a profound calm; we are masters of our own actions, because what we wish to do, we do. No object of ambition, of avarice, or of unholy pleasure can tempt us; no human respect keeps us back; the judgments of men, their criticism, their raillery, their contempt, have no longer any effect upon us, and can no more have power to turn us from the right path. Adversities, sufferings, humiliations, crosses of every kind, can no longer frighten us, nor have we any dread of them.
In one word, we have been lifted above the world and its errors, its attractions and its terrors. If this is not to be "free indeed," what is freedom?
More than this: we are free with regard to ourselves; we rely no longer on our own imagination and on the inconstancy of our will; we are firm and unshaken in our resolutions, fixed in our ideas, decided in our principles, consistent in all our actions. The Spirit of God, which we faithfully follow, communicates something of His own immutability to the creature, who by itself is so changeable; and in the midst of all the interior conflicts to which we may be exposed the will remains firm as a rock. This is a matter of experience on which those who are led by another way are incapable of judging. But those persons who have really and truly given themselves entirely to God, even those who are only beginners, are astonished at the difference they find in themselves, between what they are and what they were formerly. This difference is exactly like the difference there is between a calm and peaceful sea, which is, in a measure, mistress even of the very movement of its waves, and a raging sea, tossed into fury by every wind. What liberty can be greater than this entire possession of ourselves, this empire over every movement of our soul, from which scarcely ever escapes, even for one short moment, any indeliberate impulse!
Is there anything beyond? Does the liberty of the children of God extend any farther? Yes. They are free, with regard to God Himself. I mean to say, that whatever is the conduct of God towards them; whether He tries them, or whether He consoles them; whether He draws near to them, or whether He appears to abandon them, the real fixed state of their souls is always the same. They are raised above all the vicissitudes of the spiritual life; the surface of their soul may be troubled, but the inner depths enjoy the greatest peace. Their liberty with regard to God consists in this: that, willing everything that God wills, without inclining to one side or the other, without any thought of their own interest, they have given their consent beforehand to all that can happen to them; they have lost their choice in that of God; they have freely accepted everything that comes to them from Him; in such a manner, and so completely, that they can always say, that in whatever state they may be, they are not there against their will, but that they are perfectly content, and have all that they wish for.
Yes: even if they are surrounded and weighed down with crosses; if they are submerged in an ocean of sorrow; if the devil, and man, and God Himself seem to be fighting against them; if they are absolutely without support, either exterior or interior; still, they are in peace, their joy is perfect and over-abundant, according to the expression of the Apostle; and they take a pleasure in their state, so that they would not change it for any other, nor would they allow themselves to take any steps to go out of it.
This, and even greater still, is the liberty of the children of God. Nothing in this world can possibly happen to them against their will; they desire nothing; they regret nothing; nothing troubles them; nothing affects them. Compare this state, I do not say merely with worldlings, in their false joys, in their annoyances, in their projects, their fears, and their hopes, but compare it with the state of ordinary good people, whose self-love will never allow them to taste what true peace is, and you will agree that there is no sacrifice we ought not to be ready to make in order to attain to a state so blessed and so high.
- taken from Manual for Interior Souls, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou