Obedience and Responsible Freedom: An SMSC Hallmark

 This undertaking is inspired and enlightened by the event during the time of the Holocaust. Many people were imprisoned by Hitler, physically they were not free, but interiorly they were free because they stand for the truth. In regards to this idea, Cardinal Newman expresses a very relevant view. He postulates that ‘freedom’ can be seen in two steps or categories. He calls it freedom from and freedom for. Freedom from needs one has to empty oneself of the many small or great possessions that he has. Freedom from idols and attachments only results in aimless drift unless it clings into something. This clinging unto something is that ‘freedom for’. In a book about Pope Francis it is stated that “Be free people! … Freedom means being able to think about what we do, being able to assess what is good and what is bad, these are the types of conduct that lead to development… Always being free to choose goodness is demanding but it will make you into people with a backbone who can face life, people with courage.”[1]

In the seminary context, maybe one can say that his actions are curtailed. But the point here is that even if one’s action is curtailed, he willfully respond. This only mean that an external barrier cannot reach the interior freedom of a seminarian.  Like Jesus, he obediently obeyed the father to redeem the world. As a seminarian, one must also be obedient to the formation, with the external barriers, but he is actually free because his interior freedom can never be hindered. These things constitute the responsible freedom of Seminario Mayor de San Carlos.

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[1] Chris Lowney. Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1983), 114.