Day 234: Freedom and Responsibility (2026)

The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Ascension

On Day 234 of 'The Catechism in a Year,' Fr. Mike Schmitz explores paragraphs 1730–1738 on human freedom and responsibility, emphasizing tha

Key takeaways

• True freedom is the capacity to choose what is good, not merely doing whatever one wants.
• Freedom attains its perfection when directed toward God, our ultimate beatitude.

Main topics

• Human Freedom as a Gift from God
• Freedom vs. Slavery to Sin

Notable quotes

"By free will, one shapes one's own life."

"There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just."

Conclusion

Fr. Mike Schmitz concludes that freedom is not about autonomy from moral law

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:05) Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 234. We are reading paragraphs 1730 to 1738. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y, and you can click follow or subscribe to the podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications because you made it today, to day 234, day 234. We were reading paragraph 1730 to 1738 about man's freedom. Yesterday, we talked about that we're made for beatitude, right? We're made for that. fullness of blessing. Today, we recognize that we've been given freedom. And there's something so powerful about that because freedom comes with responsibility. I know, but we have the capacity to choose good. We have the capacity to choose evil. And because we have the capacity to do this, we have the responsibility to do this. Does that make sense? The last couple of days, we went through the entire article. Today, we're only going to do a part of the article. We might call it a particle. I don't know what I'm saying, but we're going to talk about the reality that because we're given freedom, we have the responsibility to live like God. We have the responsibility to use that freedom, to exercise that freedom by doing good, by choosing the good. That means we're responsible. I know, I know, but what a great gift. Tomorrow, we'll talk about human freedom in the economy of salvation, like when it comes to freedom and sin and threats to freedom. But today we're talking about that power we have, the capacity to choose good or evil. And so because of that, because we need God's help, we need God's grace, let us call upon him now in prayer. Father in heaven, we give you thanks and praise and thank you again. And thank you so much for your goodness. Thank you so much for bringing us to this day, for bringing us to this moment. Thank you for giving us an intellect to think. Thank you for giving us a will that we can choose. Thank you for creating us in your image and likeness and conferring on us this dignity and this power. Thank you for the power to do good. Thank you for the power to choose the good. Help us to always, always turn away from evil. Help us to always, always turn towards you. And in turning towards you, experience that beatitude, experience that blessing, experience that fullness that is you. And that fullness that comes from choosing you. Give us this power because Lord, we often find ourselves too weak to choose. Give us the power to do the right. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 234, rewriting paragraphs 1730 to 1738. Speaker 1 (3:18) Article 3. Man's Freedom God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions. God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel, so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him. St. Ernaeus wrote, Man is rational, and therefore like God. He is created with free will and is master over his acts. Freedom and Responsibility Freedom is the power rooted in reason and will to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will, one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness. It attains its perfection when directed toward God, our Beatitude. As long as freedom has not bound