Mystery of Free Will

Mystery of Free Will

we touch upon the second greatest mystery of the universe: human freedom. (The first greatest mystery is the Trinity – how one God is three Persons.)

Jesus did everything he could to bring his enemies into the fold of truth and light. Only when they stubbornly refused his rule, over and over again, did he honor their wishes and exclude them from his Kingdom. 

How can it be? How can the human soul, created by God to find its fulfillment in God, reject the very God it can’t help desiring? Jesus doesn’t give us a full answer, probably because only God himself can penetrate this mystery completely. 

The leaders of the people want to do away with Jesus, because they fear losing the personal advantages they have in the status quo. But here on the threshold of his Passion and Death, Jesus pours out a flood of teaching that shows fully the mistake they are making.

The leaders understand exactly what he is saying to them: Jesus is the Son of God, the final and overwhelming gesture of love sent by the Father to win them over to the truth, and though they maybe have lived unfaithful lives up to now, they still have time to reform. 

And yet, in spite of the blinding clarity of the teaching, in spite of the three years’ worth of miracles and exorcisms, in spite of the overwhelming support of the common people, and in spite of Jesus’ own riveting personality and undeniable holiness, these men still “would have liked to arrest him”, and in their cowardice they simply “left him alone and went away.”

His many confrontations with his enemies make it clear that these men freely chose not to believe in Jesus, because they wanted to cling to their own ideas and way of life, which Jesus’ doctrine denounced. But why and how they were able to resist the advances of his love and grace remains a question mark. 

The Catechism teaches us that “at every time and in every place God draws close to man” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1). He is always reaching out to each one of us. He sends us his messengers in many ways – the teaching of the Church, the examples of the saints, the beauties of nature. 

He offers his grace over and over again, sometimes through simple conversations and invitations and nudges of conscience, other times through suffering and tragedy and interior restlessness. Over and over again Jesus reaches out with his offer of friendship, a friendship that can fill our hearts like no other, a friendship that will only grow brighter, deeper, and more joyful the closer we come to eternity. 

But, he will never force us to accept that offer.

The Holy Spirit acts directly on our will, he urges, inflames, and attracts it to himself, and enlightens our mind through love. 

This directs us toward God more than any reasoning or study on our part could ever do. We perceive by intuition that God is the only One, we sense he is worthy of all our love, then we are led to make a total gift of ourselves.

The action of the Holy Spirit is powerful and effective, yet he is always the spirit of love, and does no violence to our liberty as men. He waits for us to cooperate lovingly with his promptings, and to yield ourselves to his will out of love. If he meets with resistance, he withdraws his favors and leaves us in our mediocrity. 

We who have received the gift of faith can only pray for the hard-hearted, and beg the Lord to save them – and us – from a dire fate.