PREAMBLE

Life is made up of years, months, days and ultimately, of moments, which represents the smallest unit of time. Every moment is an opportunity to make choices; the choices you make will go a long way to either improve and grow your mental health or diminish it. There is nothing that is of indifference in life- all circumstances and events are opportunities for choices to be made; right choices augur well for mental health whereas wrong or poor choices mar the mental health.

FREEDOM

Freedom is the power, rooted in Reason and Will to act or not to act, to do or not to do this or that and so, to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility. According to St. Irenaeus, “ Man is rational and therefore, like God, he is created with free will and master over his acts” By exercise of free will, one is able to shape one’s own life.

Every human person has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. The right to the exercise of freedom is a requirement of the dignity of the human person.

The human person is endowed with freedom- the capacity to make choices. There is absolute need for continuous formation, self-knowledge, the right training in order to make the best use of the gift of freedom. Acquisition of virtues or values, developing a well-formed conscience, having set goals and using the right means to pursue those goals are factors that helping make the best use of freedom.

Freedom makes the person responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good and ascesis ( ascetical struggle) enhance the mastery of the will over it’s acts and therefore, promote good use of freedom.

The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes; there is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to the “slavery of sin”

THREATS TO FREEDOM

It is important to note that the freedom of a human being is limited and fallible. The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or to do everything. By refusing to follow the plan of love and choosing evil, self-deception comes in and slavery to sin sets in. Human history has numerous cases of wretchedness and oppression which are consequences of abuse of freedom.

Some people have a wrong notion of freedom; thinking that it entails doing whatever one feels like; feelings can be deceptive- the tendency to yield to the weaknesses of human nature is usually very high- moods can change and making decisions based on moods and feelings can be detrimental-making wrong decisions, having regrets, being remorseful, angry and generally following a vicious cycle. The result of such wrong use of freedom is diminished mental health- individually and collectively.

By deviating from the moral law, the human person violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighbourly fellowship and rebels against divine truth.

THE NATURE OF FREEDOM

There is no true freedom except what results in choices leading to the service of what is good and just. As long as freedom has not bound itself definitely to it’s ultimate good or ultimate end, which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection, when a right choice is made, or sinning when a wrong or poor choice is made. This freedom characterizes human acts; it is the basis of praise or blame; merit or reproach.

LIBERATION AND SALVATION; THE ROLE OF GRACE

By his Passion, Death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has won salvation for all human beings. He has redeemed them from sin that kept them in bondage “For freedom, Christ has set us free”(Gal 5:1). In Jesus Christ, we have communion with the “truth that makes us free” (Jn 8:32). The Holy Spirit has been given to us to teach us the truth and as the Apostle teaches, “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17) . Already, we glory in the “liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).The more docile we are to the promptings of grace, the more we grow in interior freedom and confidence, especially during trials. By the workings of grace, the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom in order to make us free collaborators in His work.

THE ROLE OF HUMAN EFFORT

A popular adage says-“Work as if everything depends on work and pray as if everything depends on prayer”, Again and again, there must always be a reiteration of the fact that the human persons need to be grounded in humility, so that God’s grace can be at work in that person; so that the person can constantly grow in human, spiritual, professional and cultural formation and lead to a greater personal effectiveness. The greatest victory a person can achieve is victory over self-recognizing the areas of weakness, accepting them and making constant effort to overcome them; it also involves knowing areas of strength and working towards constant self- improvement. The greatest tragedy of a person is to fall and to remain in the fallen state; There must be a constant beginning and beginning again; constantly getting up after having fallen. You need to make an effort to believe –to have faith; faith in God and faith in yourself. You must be grounded in humility, filled with convictions that you have to make the necessary effort and look up to God Almighty to bless those efforts to make your endeavours fruitful.

Generally, lack of faith in God will lead to relying exclusively on human effort for success and denying the reality of the frailty of human nature; the consequences could lead to poor stress management skills; optimal skills are needed for handling challenges which are part and parcel of day to day living. Pride- the most dangerous weakness of human nature leads to egoism, self-deception, arrogance and a host of other negative attitudes, all of which lead to making wrong choices and diminishing mental health considerably.

CONCLUSION

It is indeed worthwhile to seek the truth, cherish the truth and live by the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it may be; going contrary to that will lead to abuse of freedom and cause sad consequences to occur; these consequences are always detrimental to mental health. It doesn’t matter how long it may have been that the truth has been rejected or denied—the popular adage-“Once there is life, there is hope” is always relevant. Ascetical struggle, self- discipline, determination to doing good and avoiding evil, aspiring always to have a well-formed conscience will lead to making good use of freedom, choosing right and consequently, enjoying a boost in mental health.

It is of utmost importance to recognize the Divine Presence and make all effort to grow in Faith so that we get the supreme benefits of having a close relationship with the Divine, which includes the required assistance towards making the right choice most of the time and flourishing in mental health, individually and collectively; ultimately, there will be an abundance of joy, productivity and good use of time.

Caroline Ademiluyi is a Lagos, Nigeria based Pharmacist

SOURCE: https://africavoiceshq.com/2022/07/13/choose-right-by-caroline-ademiluyi/