Freedom implies obedience

fr. Antonio Ramina

To speak about freedom is like treading on sacred ground. Effectively it is one of the most important characteristics of a human being, so important it risks to be miss understood. So before starting we should say that freedom is not just a “characteristic” of a human being but that it identifies him as a real person who is responsible of his actions. Let’s consider freedom by lending a listening ear to the word of Saint Anthony. “Freedom is the greatest happiness but you will not enjoy it if you do not bend the neck of pride to the chain of humility and do not put carnal desires in irons of mortification” (XV after Pentecost, 4). The Saint declares at first that freedom is the greatest happiness but he immediately underlines a quality apparently paradoxical and even contradictory: human freedom is linked to limits and to constrictions. Who knows how many times we have been told that freedom is not doing as you would like! The freedom which makes us happy is not a whim. Saint Anthony reminds us that if we want to enjoy happiness of freedom we must renounce pride and choose humility; we must recognize our egoistic…