Before setting out to mould our characters, our souls must be in perfect freedom. I cannot address myself to such an undertaking until I am unhampered in my movements. It is essential for me in order to achieve anything that requires much effort, to avoid everything that prevents action, even though in other ways it might be useful, and might, indeed, later be ultimately repossessed. Thus, in a case in some sort parallel, a battleship going into action clears its decks of every obstacle. Things that have their use at other times, that will again become useful, are for the moment altogether sacrificed in the immediate and compelling interests that dominate the situation. Danger of fire from shell, and danger also to the free movement across the deck that might at any moment become essential to the safety of all concerned, are sufficiently pressing to force the destruction of everything, however useful, that might possibly impede this freedom. Or again, for the same thing is observable whenever there is any occasion for swift and determined action, in military operations liberty and mobility of attack are themselves so absolutely of life-or-death necessity, that houses, industrial centres, cultivated plains, may have to be ruthlessly harried, and great national loss inflicted on his own dominions by the general, in the interests of final victory. Or, in a more homely illustration, a man going to work vigorously, or even going in for sport, rolls up his sleeves. Now something of the same kind of thing is necessary in the work of forming our characters. I must have perfect and unhampered liberty of soul if I am to work at all easily. In a certain sense this is also the final result of the whole spiritual life that it produces a detachment in the soul and effects a real freedom that marks off the saint from the sinner. The great-souled lovers of God need nothing else upon earth than God's constant presence. They have attained that liberty that was promised to the sons of God, so that neither life nor death nor any other creature can separate them from their Friend. The attainment of this in part is essential for the beginning of the spiritual life.
Before the Fall, the soul of Adam must have been especially beautiful from this very freedom. The whole harmony of passions, will, and reason united in acting with solemn and pleasing smoothness: nothing disturbed, no discord broke in upon the matchless symphony. It was as though a perfect piece of machinery were working without friction, and with such absolute adjustment and nice balance as hardly to suggest the possibility of any untoward accident dislocating the mechanism. Then there befell the terrible sin of disobedience whereby "came death into the world and all our woe." Thenceforward the only possible remedy was, under the grace of God, to be achieved by man's own energy. Freedom must be grasped; is never given. It is something to be fought for, some thing that is bought only at a great price; indeed, for some it is death alone that frees the soul from all the tanglements of existence. There must be nothing to hamper or clog the free movement of the will or the reason, nothing to obscure or ruffle the one, nor to blunt the energy of the other. As with the boxer whose every limb is by training and practice brought into immediate subjection to the mind, so that the rippling muscle moves under the silken texture of the skin at the slightest instinctive prompting of the intelligence, so must every emotion and passion obey the will in the light of reason.
Now though it is true that this perfect adjustment and nice balance can never be completely recovered, yet it is both the basis and the goal of the spiritual life. I cannot go forward till I have effected the subjection of myself; and when finally I overcome and enter into my kingdom, then only shall I have achieved perfect freedom. I must begin with this, and thus I see the necessity of acquiring a spirit of detachment from all things in the sense of subordinating my own will to the will of God, realizing by faith that I cannot escape from it, that whatever happens comes to pass only because God has allowed it in His wisdom and His love. I must frequently meditate upon this divine will. Then, again, I must try to be perfectly truthful in life, i.e. my life should correspond absolutely to my thoughts. Once I start posing or pretending, I am become the slave of a pretence. Never shall I be able to free myself till I revert to myself, and am not content to act as others expect of me. Compromise, just because it is a lie, cannot be allowed within these limits which circumscribe truth. To be prudent, to be on my guard, yet to keep myself undisturbed, to possess my soul in patience, that is the great secret of life. Especially in these days when speed enters so enormously into life, when everything is at a rush and hurry, I must take care to be in perfect serenity of mind, lest I add to the disturbance of existence and break in upon my peace of soul and perfect freedom, without which spiritual life is rendered impossible.
- text taken from Meditations for Layfolk by Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.