I do not know whether or not you have read Pope Benedict’s homily for Holy Thursday two weeks past, but it is a wonderful meditation. I would encourage you to read and reflect upon it: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20120405_coena-domini_en.html
At the end of the homily, he talks about the fundamental rebellion and fundamental lie that perverts human life. He reaches back to Adam in speaking of human pride, which is the essence of sin. The lie is that we are only free if we follow our own will, and that God’s will which may appear opposite of ours is an obstacle to human freedom. That is the lie. To fall for it is the fundamental rebellion. As Benedict says, to set ourselves against God is to set ourselves against the truth of our own being, and to render ourselves slaves to that which we are not. We become alienated from ourselves, and God.
In Jesus’s Agony in the Garden, he united his natural human will with his divine will which was always perfectly united to the will of his Father. Jesus resolved the false opposition between obedience and freedom that we create for ourselves. He showed us the remedy for our estrangement and slavery. He showed us that freedom comes from obedience to the truth of who we are, sons and daughters of God.
