We’ve never had so many options, so we know firsthand that just having lots of choices isn’t enough. Neither is an empty calendar with no obligations. Imagine dropping all your commitments: not going to classes, ignoring friends, doing whatever feels good in the moment. It might feel like freedom at first, but without direction, it would soon feel empty.
That's why Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz, Prelate of Opus Dei, wrote a letter on freedom in 2018. Drawing on the teachings of St. Josemaría and Sacred Scripture, he makes the case that true freedom is about learning to love, and letting that love carry you.
🫶 Freedom and love are inseparable.
Freedom without love is hollow, because love is what gives freedom its content. “Human history has never witnessed an act as deeply free as our Lord’s self-giving on the Cross. ‘He gives himself up to death with the full freedom of Love.’”
⚡️ Knowing that we’re children of God gives us the courage to take risks and make mistakes.
“How important it is, then, to form ourselves in the need to live without fear of making mistakes, without fear of failing, without fear of an adverse environment. With supernatural outlook we need to be involved—with prudence and determination—in our own social and professional environment.”
☀️ Joy is a sign of freedom.
“Realizing that we are free to love floods our soul with joy, and with it good humor. Our vision of the world deepens beyond the merely natural and we learn to grasp the positive—and, sometimes, amusing—side of things and situations.”
🧩 You can’t always choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond.
“In calling each of us into existence, God has made us able to choose and to love the good, and to respond with love to his Love. Nevertheless, our limitation as creatures makes it possible for us to separate ourselves from God. ‘It is a mystery of divine Wisdom that, when creating man in his image and likeness (Gen 1:26-29), God wanted to run the sublime ‘risk’ of human freedom.’”
🤸♀️ You can grow in freedom.
Do your choices make you freer to love, or just more comfortable? This is a good question for an examination of conscience. “‘Do you love me?’ (Jn 21:17). The Christian life is a free response, imbued with initiative and availability, to our Lord’s question.”
Here are some practical tips for exercising your freedom:
- Choose what’s right even when no one sees
- Be more honest with your friends
- Fulfill your commitments
- Ask for forgiveness quickly
Read the full letter here.
