I briefly saw this headline the other day that stated: Professor Studies Free Will and Discovers It Doesn’t Exist.
And with that, we are relegated to either robots or purely animals, no different than a sloth or a caterpillar, or a computer.
I didn’t even bother to read it, because sometimes, you just don’t have time for nonsense.
Every single one of us knows that we have free will and the reason we know this, is because we exercise it all the time.
I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning to pray, because I was comfy and cozy. I could have just stayed in bed and, as St. Paul says in Romans 8:12, “live according to the flesh.”
But, I willed myself up because I need to live according to the spirit.
People have been trying to deny free will for ages now. Generally, what it all boils down to is an attempt to justify “living according to the flesh.”
“I can’t help it,” people say.
The excuse is that we are just “programmed” to give into any and all desires of the flesh.
But, St. Paul clearly points out that we have been given free will. You can either chose a life given over to the flesh OR a life given over to the spirit. There is a choice there.
Free will is a gift of God, Catholic Pilgrims, though it does mean people will chose the bad many times. Without free will, we would merely be programmed to act certain ways and we would have zero agency over our lives. We know that’s not the case. We have the ability to deny the flesh and chose something higher, which in the eyes of the world may seem counterintuitive to a happy life.
The Saints would say otherwise.
Live the Faith boldly and travel well Monday.
