INSIDE AMERICA

Freedom: Confessing Reality as Given
Taking a closer look at the “cultural virus” afflicting America (described in the previous issue of Traces) brings to the fore the distinction, as explained by St. Augustine, between presumption and confession–two alternatives for approaching reality, in which our (true) liberty is at stake.

by lorenzo albacete

In the past two columns, I have sought to offer to you some reflections on the experience of freedom. This is a response to the judgment of the American bishops that the experience of freedom–especially religious freedom–is part of the recognition of the Presence of the Risen Christ. As such, this is a good response by the Church in the United States to the call for a new evangelization by Vatican II and by Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, since the desire for freedom is at the heart of the American Dream.  Freedom is, in any case, the theme that most characterizes modernity. Therefore, an understanding of how freedom is related to faith is a light cast on the point of encounter between faith and culture, between a divine Person known through faith and the fruit of all our efforts to construct a truly human world.
As discussed last month (Traces, Vol. 14, No. 11, p. 52), a cultural virus has infected our spirits. The virus does not seek to eliminate Christ directly from our culture; it knows that won’t work. The virus attacks our humanity, in order (so to speak) to deny to Christ a flesh in which He can become Incarnate.
The vocabulary of Christianity remains, but the words come to mean the opposite of what they meant once. Such is the case with the word freedom.
How does the virus affect our experience of the meaning of freedom? How does it “reverse” the meaning of freedom?
At this point, we ran into an observation by Saint Augustine that can help us understand better how the modern cultural virus works.
In The City of God, Augustine describes the difference between “presumption” and “confession.” 
In fact, he says, God had made him read all of Plato in order to teach him  the difference between presumption and confession.
These two alternatives are totally different ways of looking at reality, including ourselves.
It is not simply “looking at reality” as a matter of opinions, mood, emotions, etc. These are more the result of a deeper process in the heart: the formatting of reality in our hearts. This formatting process configures reality for us, creating the outlook on life that will guide our response to the circumstances in which we live.
“Presumption” responds to reality as entirely the product of human ingenuity, effort, and power. “Confession” experiences reality–existence itself–as a gift, a grace to be cared for, developed, and respected in love.
The experience of freedom is one of harmony with reality grasped as gift. Anything else is a form of slavery.