The Only Obstacle to Freedom

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 25, 2025

The old Janis Joplin tune goes, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Sorry, Janis. With freedom, we gain everything. The only obstacle to our freedom is sin.

God created us in freedom. He placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden as a test of our freedom. Our first parents failed the test. The Church teaches that Original Sin didn’t destroy us. Even sin cannot obliterate God’s good creation. However, Original Sin badly wounded human nature, and we became slaves to sin in need of redemption.

Preaching against sin is part of a parish priest’s job description as God’s prophet. Jesus teaches us, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” (Lk. 13:24) Unrepentant sin slams the door shut on salvation and enslaves us. Repentance in Jesus reopens the door. As a Church-appointed expert in God’s objective law, it is easier for a priest to tell you what not to do than to advise you on the many virtuous options you have.

The Ten Commandments, as updated by Jesus through His Church, teach us to reject false gods, respect parents and lawful authorities, and reject the slavery of hate, murder, adultery, pornography, theft, and lies. The Commandments express human freedom. A child who knows little of the world learns to trust and obey his parents to achieve happiness. A person who worships God with piety, respects lawful authorities, reverences human life, is faithful in marriage, respectful of private property, and is honest—is a free man, even if imprisoned. Freedom, obedience, and joy are inextricably linked.

Prophets such as Pope John Paul II elegantly affirm, as in Veritatis Splendor, that good ends never justify evil means. It is never morally acceptable to choose intrinsically evil acts to attain good results. Catholic martyrs chose death in union with Jesus rather than commit an intrinsically evil act. Paralyzing fear may reduce the subjective culpability for an evil act, but such desperation cannot transform an evil action into an act of virtue.

Sometimes the choice is between an evil action and long-suffering. There is no harm in avoiding suffering using righteous means. Even Jesus begged the Father to remove the cup of suffering in the Garden. But He ended His prayer with, “Not my will, but thine.” The language of freedom describes the obedience of Jesus on the Cross. Jesus redeems us by His obedience to the Father and saves us from our sins. We reclaim our God-given freedom in our lifetime encounter with Jesus in the Sacraments.

Paradoxically, the martyrs teach us that following Jesus on the way of the Cross is the highest form of freedom, directing us through the narrow gate of salvation. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity spend a hard life ministering to the poorest of the poor, surrendering their freedom to their sacrificial apostolate. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn. 15:13)

The virtue of prudence involves an exercise of freedom. Prudence identifies and immediately rejects intrinsically evil choices and, with God’s grace, selects the best of the morally correct options. Example: A young man wants to make money so that he can move out of his parents’ basement. He has many evil possibilities: Rob a bank. Sell drugs. With prudence informed by a healthy conscience, he immediately rejects every intrinsically evil choice. He knows (at least intuitively) that good intentions or circumstances will never change the nature of an intrinsically evil act.

But he has countless good options. He could do lawn work. Work at McDonald’s. Sell insurance. Manage investment portfolios. Become a priest. The list is endless. A prophet must condemn objectively sinful actions, but he withholds final judgment on those many matters of prudence. Except for chronic spiritual or emotional pathologies like scrupulosity or other compulsions, clerical prophets should stay in their lane.

Many adults never mature beyond the schoolboy bundle-of-Catholic-rules catechetical pedagogy. If comments on some Catholic websites are accurate, many Catholics are unwitting moral consequentialists—and sometimes Manicheans: We justify our every act of vengeance because we’re the good guys.

Others (often elderly Catholics) trash the faith because of “the nuns” or an impatient priest in the confessional. Who hasn’t been disappointed by the sins of the clergy? But many use the sins of Catholics as an excuse to hate the Church for her authentic and demanding teaching. Be honest. Folks often secretly hate the virtues of Church teaching more than the vices of her members.

Modern clerical prophets are often similar to the false prophets of the Old Testament. Suppose a priest yearning for acceptance would say, “We have good news today. We’re having a sale and we are discounting the Commandments! For Labor Day weekend only, the Sixth and Ninth Commandments will not apply. Hurry, sale ends soon!” The absurdity makes a valid point. St. Paul warns that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So do clerical merchants of sin.

Jesus says, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Through Him, with Him, and in Him, the sufferings of this life are the stuff of sacrificial love: the love we have for the sick and suffering, ailing family members, and in solidarity with those suffering every injustice—and Jesus on the Cross. If we understand salvation as the fullness of virtuous human freedom in Jesus, we discover that narrow gate.

President Calvin Coolidge, Silent Cal, was a man of few words. When he returned from Sunday services, his wife asked him the preacher’s topic. He said, “Sin.” What did he say about it? “He is against it.” A good preacher also repeats the words of Jesus: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mk. 1:15)