Our contribution aims to show that the virtue of charity and the value of freedom are always in dialogue and dynamic in man’s ecological action. It also shows that one cannot exist without the other. And that the two remain a precious gift from God in man’s actions.
Among the major global changes that have taken place since Centesimus annus and which justified a new major magisterial document on social thought, we have the problem of the socio-environmental crisis. Through her two documents Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum, the Church presents her way of confronting such realities, its constant teaching on safeguarding creation. The solution to social problems cannot rest on economic activity alone. For the Church, it should take into account the principles of transparency, honesty and responsibility. These values can facilitate the principle of gratuity and the logic of giving as an expression of charity, which for Benedict XVI “can and must find their place within normal economic activity.”[1]
In number 31 of his encyclical Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II writes : “The human problems that are most debated and variously resolved by contemporary moral reflection are all linked, albeit in different ways, to a crucial problem, that of man’s freedom.”[2] Modern people claim freedom of conscience, of speech, of action, of acting in accordance with their own options and in complete free responsibility, not under the pressure of coercion, but guided by an awareness of his duty.[3] In this sense, it can be understood as the power to act within an organized society, according to one’s own determination, within the limits of established rules.
Contemporary people’s conception of freedom is one that claims to remove God from human life. According to the falsely developed theories of this era, people’s freedom is proof of God’s non-existence. One such theory absolutizes human freedom by postulating the negation of God, and is found in Jean-Paul Sartre’s assertion that “either man is free and God does not exist, or God exists and man is not free.”[4]
These different theories have given people the illusion of thinking themselves to be “master” of their destiny and life. They wanted to place at the center of their reflections an absolute sovereignty and human freedom, which would be the creator of values and truth, and ended up with relativism. People have become their own legislator, so there are no values that transcend human freedom. In such a field, where everyone refers to himself alone, the Truth of the Word of God is relegated to the private sphere of those who call themselves Christians. Because of the revalorization of the goddess of human freedom, advocated by modernity, people can kill, exploit others, even dispose of the environment at will.
The attribution to individual freedom of the prerogatives of the supreme instance of judgment, which must autonomously determine good and evil, and to act accordingly, has led to subjectivism in all its social, cultural, intellectual, ethical and other forms, with a tendency to suppress the other. The ideology of modernism turns man into an island closed in on itself. He is a “self” who has the task of making his own identity through his own free choices. He is, according to Marcus Ndongmo, an “individual sent back to himself, elevated to the rank of first and final reference, the center of decisions. He is a solitary individual, a being without guardian or support, asserting himself to be totally free.”[5]
The individualism advocated by modern ideology does not reach man in his essence, for to be free, do we not need otherness and community to exist?
Freedom is a gift, a precious divine gift that God has given to every human being. There is no life without freedom. Freedom is not just a property of human actions, it is the very being of humanity. To quote Leonardo Boff, the human is “essentially free by constitution. He is born to be free. He is called to realize himself freely. For every person, freedom is the mother of his history.”[6]
The pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes goes further, emphasizing that: “the human species is not only endowed with freedom as other species are with fins or wings: I am my freedom. It is above all through his freedom that man is the image of God.”[7] Quoting Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Hans Küng emphasizes: “it is to freedom that you were called”, and he continues: “only, do not make of this freedom a pretext for satisfying the flesh.”[8] The note in number 17 of Gaudium et Spes goes on to say: “Freedom is neither libertine nor liberal; it does not take liberties. It has nothing in common with fantasy, caprice, vagrancy or dilettantism. Ultimately, it is liberation of love.”
On the other hand, many people know that current progress, like the mere accumulation of objects or pleasures, is not enough to give meaning and joy to the human heart, but they don’t feel able to give up what the market offers. It is therefore necessary to strive to model a lifestyle in which the elements that determine the choices of consumption, savings and investment are the search for the true, the beautiful and the good, as well as communion with other people for common growth. When we are able to move beyond individualism, another lifestyle can really develop, and significant change in society becomes possible. At this level, freedom automatically summons the virtue of charity, which gives meaning to the exercise of people’s responsible freedom. And here we can conclude that a proper understanding of people’s exercise of freedom leads to the practice of giving and sharing, which becomes the expression of the virtue of charity in environmental management.
In fact, it’s clear that the man of the spirit acquires the necessary capacities to penetrate the substantial depth of things. This is the march towards the full freedom of the spirit. The ecological crisis undoubtedly implies equipping oneself and walking towards integration and existential unity. Only this integration and existential unity can make the believers of our time “watchmen” and people at the height of responsible and supportive freedoms.
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[1] Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (2009) 2.
[2] John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (1993) 31.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Charles Delhez, Ces Questions sur la Foi que tout le Monde se Pose (Paris: Cerf, 1997) 19.
[5] Marcus Ndongmo, A la Quête d’une Laïcité à l’Africaine (Yaoundé: Editions Taf et Melson, 2012) 12.
[6] Leonardo Boff, Témoins de Dieu au Cœur du Monde. La Vie Religieuse, Expérience Actuelle (Paris: Centurion)
184.
[7] Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes (1965) 17.
[8] Hans Küng, Liberté du Chrétien (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1967) 84.