So many of us consider duty to be limiting and reducing our personal freedom. This comes from the commonly accepted notion that to be free one needs to do what one wants. Freedom to do what one wants is a prescription for personal unhappiness, just ask any honest man or woman who has tried to live that way for any length of time.
Freedom is something quite different.
Papa Luciani wrote about freedom in August, 1974 in this way:
“Doesn’t man become morally great and happy, if he accepts duties and limitations? Freedom? Yes, of course, but it doesn’t consist of doing everything you please, rather of being able to do what must be done.” (Italics mine)
God bless him, Papa Luciani!
