I’ll Do Whatever I Want - 1
Dear Friends,
Am I always free to do as I want?
I don’t think so.
My actions and choices cannot always be what I want or prefer.
Why?
My parents raised me and my religious education formed me to realize that there are other people whom I have to consider.
For example, I couldn’t have the TV on as loud as I wanted it because my parents and brother were also in the house, maybe doing other things.
When I got my driver’s license, I learned that I couldn’t drive as fast as I wanted because of speed limit laws that were designed to protect people in general.
More recently, we have all had to accept non-smoking regulations out of consideration for those who do not smoke.
I think that from a rather young age, I was taught to balance my own individual freedom with respect for the common good of all.
It is that concept of the “common good” that strikes me as important for us to recall right now.
This concept seems to have originated with the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato and with the Roman philosopher Cicero.
It was embraced, “baptized” by the early Church as expressing some of the core moral teaching of Jesus.
It also found its place in the framers of our American constitution.
Our Church says this: “The common good comprises the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.”
In my own words, I think that the common good is the overall good of everyone.
We need to think in terms of the common good of all in many dimensions of life, such as health care, environment, education, poverty, and on it goes.
In other words, it is not just what I want or prefer.
I have got to balance my own individual desires and freedom with a care for all.
More on this next week in the Inbox Inspirations of October 20.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
I’ll Do Whatever I Want - 2
Dear Friends,
I believe that the expression “It’s my personal choice” has got to be challenged a bit.
Yes, ultimately, all that I do is my choice.
But no, it is not just my thinking about what I want to do and then making a choice to do it or not based on just what I want.
It cannot always be that simple.
I also need to consider the well-being of others in many choices that I make in my life.
It may be my family, my spouse or best friend, my community or neighborhood, my parish, my workplace, other diners in a restaurant, and for that matter, all the people in my country or all the people in the world.
If the issue is what color shirt to wear to a football game, that is my personal choice.
If the issue is whether to drink a dark roast or medium roast coffee, that is my personal choice.
But, if the issue is whether to go to the bother of recycling paper, plastic, glass, and cardboard, then that is not just my personal choice.
It is not just what I want or what I prefer to do or what is easy for me to do.
Here, I have to think bigger, beyond myself, about the overall good of our world.
I believe that I need to consider the good of others or the common good of all in lots of my choices.
For me, this is a moral issue.
It expresses my following or failure to follow the way of Christ.
I believe that this has become a critical issue for us at the present time and is something to which we as Christians and Catholics can make a real contribution.
"We face a choice between a society where people accept modest sacrifices for a common good or a more contentious society where groups selfishly protect their own benefits."
More on this next week in the Inbox Inspirations of October 27.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from The Common Good by Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez.
I’ll Do Whatever I Want - 3
Dear Friends,
When I think of my individual freedom in relation to the common good of all, the word sacrifice comes to mind.
We can define sacrifice, in the context of everyday life, as giving up something good for the sake of something better or for the well-being of someone else.
Parents make lots of sacrifices for their children.
We are all called to make sacrifices for one another.
Isn’t the paying of taxes a sacrifice for the common good of all?
We may dislike having to pay taxes or disagree with the tax rates.
But, at root, paying taxes is a sacrifice of some of my money for something greater.
We are in a moment in American society when we have to remember this.
I do not believe that my individualism and my individual freedom is unlimited.
There are appropriate limits that I need to accept and even embrace as a member of a society and community.
“Our historical traditions place a high value on individual freedom, on personal rights, and on allowing each person to ‘do her own thing.’
Our culture views society as comprised of separate independent individuals who are free to pursue their own individual goals and interests without interference from others.
In this individualistic culture it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to convince people that they should sacrifice some of their freedom, some of their personal goals, and some of their self-interest, for the sake of the ‘common good.’
Our cultural traditions, in fact, reinforce the individual who thinks that she should not have to contribute to the community's common good, but should be left free to pursue her own personal ends.”
I believe that God created us to be a people, a community, sons and daughters of God, sisters and brothers to one another.
Existentially and morally, we are called to live with this awareness.
I will continue and conclude this series next week in the Inbox Inspirations of November 3.
Father Michael Schleupner
Quotation above from The Common Good by Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez.
I’ll Do Whatever I Want - 4
Dear Friends,
Today I am concluding a series of reflections (see the Inbox Inspirations of October 13, 20, and 27) on our individual freedom and its limitation for the sake of the common good.
As I said last week, my individual freedom is not unlimited.
Sometimes we are not even aware of how we let go of what we really want to do for the sake of the well-being of others.
Parents do this a lot.
Let’s think about our traffic laws.
We allow our government to regulate traffic.
So, we have traffic signals.
If 99% of us obey them, things go very well.
If a lot of people ignore traffic lights, chaos results.
We will have many accidents and injuries.
Red lights can be an irritant.
Do they limit our individual freedom each time we have to stop at a red light?
Yes!
But at the same time, do they really increase our overall freedom?
Yes again!
They free us from anxiety, from injury, from hospitalization, and maybe even from death.
They free us to cross intersections while driving or walking with confidence in our safety.
They free society, all of us to function together more harmoniously.
The traffic signal system is not flawless; sometimes accidents happen.
But generally, our accepting this limitation on our freedom is a positive thing.
“The same is true of vaccines; they aren’t perfect, but they do increase freedom overall by preventing death and serious disease. Yet they only do this if everyone, or nearly everyone, gets vaccinated. Imagine a city where more than a third of the population feel free to run red lights; that is where we are now with the pandemic.”
Father Michael Schleupner
Analogy of traffic signals and quotation above from Persuading Anti-vaxxers in Commonweal, October 2021 edition, by Michael Peppard.
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