One Lord, One World, No. 7 of 16 No. 7 of 16

During the next half-hour, the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations have made their facilities available to the National Council of Catholic Men as a public service for the presentation of the Catholic Alps. Today, the right reverend, Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen will deliver the seventh in a series of sixteen addresses under the General Title One Lord One World. Monsignor Sheen will discuss the moral principles underlying freedom. War on Polable Directed Choir of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, New York City, in a musical program expressing the prayers and hopes of freedom-loving peoples all over the world. Mr. Fully and the choir open the program with that great prayer for light and mercy from the Russian liturgy. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on Mealui. Gospudy for Mealui. Expressing our love and hopes for our own dear land requires sings America the Beautiful. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. Gospudy for Mealui. Lord have mercy on us. The right-revern, Monsignor, Fulton J. Sheen, now addresses the Catholic our audience. The title of Monsignor Sheen's talk is the social condition of world peace, Monsignor Sheen. Friends, we trust that you have written for the free booklet entitled Friends. Friends. When you receive it, you will notice that it pleads with Christians to be friends with the Jews and with the Jews to be friends with Christians and with all to be friends with God. We trust too that you are setting aside an hour a day in prayer for peace with justice. For how can God be on our side unless we are on his? Continuing now our series on the moral law, today we discuss the basic principle of the social order. Freedom is a moral power, not a physical power. Freedom could be understood in either of two ways, one of which is wrong and the other of which is right, namely as physical freedom and moral freedom. Physical freedom says, I can do whatever I please. Moral freedom says, I can do whatever I ought. Certainly you can do whatever you please. You can stuff your mattresses with old razor blades. You can turn machine guns on your neighbor's chickens. You can do these things, but ought you. Moral freedom is based not on power, but on the moral law of God. It envisages freedom within the law rather than outside of it, for the best self-expression, the self-perfection. Physical freedom means license. The power to draw triangle with four sides. Giraffes was short-necks. The power to plot against one's country and to break the commandments of God and of man on the theory that he restrains individual agotism, restrains freedom. Moral freedom on the contrary means purchasing the right to fly by obeying the laws of gravitation. The right to drive a car by obeying the traffic laws. The right to be American by obeying the laws of American. And the right to be a child of God by obeying the moral law. Now the point we are making is that freedom is meaningless apart from the moral law. In order to prove it, let us glance at the four freedoms for which we are fighting in this war. You remember them? Freedom of religion? Freedom of speech? Freedom from want? And freedom from fear? Not a single one of these freedoms is an end in its health. They are meaning only in the context of the moral law. Life, for example, should there be freedom of religion? Because of the sacredness and inviolability of the human person and his right to adore God according to the light of his conscience. Freedom of religion does not mean, therefore, the right to be anti-religious. Any more than a freedom to live means the right to murder. Why should there be freedom of speech? Because speech being an instrument is to be used for the proper purpose of speech. That is, for the communication of truth, goodness, knowledge, and information, and not for the diffusion of scandals, lies, treason, or immorality. Freedom of speech does not give one the right to destroy freedom of speech. Any more than the right to light of match gives one the right to burn down one's neighbor's house. Why should there be freedom from want? Because the necessities in the decent comforts of life are the material conditions for the development of personality, and therefore for the salvation of the soul. Freedom from want no more gives one the right to abundance purchased by making others want, then freedom to possess means the freedom to dispossess. And why should there be freedom from fear? Because peace of mind is the condition of culture. And culture is impossible when a man fears either the consequences of his own sins or the consequences of the sins of others. The right to freedom from fear never means the right to terrorize others. Any more than the murderous fear of jail gives him the right to kill the judge. Freedom, therefore, is responsibility. And hence, freedom of religion will die if we share our responsibility to God. Freedom of speech will die if we share our responsibility to truth. Freedom from want will vanish if we share our responsibility to our fellow man. And freedom from fear will vanish if we share our responsibility to love those who are in distress. Four freedoms set in the moral law, therefore quite different from the four freedoms isolated from it as a matter of fact. If you ever separated the four freedoms from the moral law, they would be wicked. So very wicked that they should be rejected as they were rejected by our blessed Lord on four distinct occasions. Our Lord once rejected a false freedom of religion. Satan appeared to him on the mountaintop, an unrolled before his mind's eye, all the nation's kingdoms and empires of the world in an increasing panorama of pomp and of power. And in one of the most frightening and terrifying statements in all scripture, Satan pointing to all of these kingdoms and nations said to our Lord, all these are mine. They are mine. And I will give them to thee if falling down thou wills adore me. Here was a freedom of religion in the false sense of the term. That is the freedom to adore either God or Satan. And our blessed Lord rejected it, for he would not have a freedom of religion that meant the freedom to be anti-religious, diabolical, anti-cog or anti-moral. And then he was once offered to a very false freedom of speech. Led before one of the judges, false charges and liars and accusations were hurled in his face. And the judge offered the divine mastery false freedom of speech. The judge said, answer us, thou nothing to the things that are laid to thy charge for these men. But he held his peace. He would not speak. For freedom of speech ceases to be freedom of speech when speech may be used only to defend the lie. It is the truth that makes us free, not a lie. And our Lord rejected a false freedom from once. After fasting for forty days, Satan appeared before our divine Lord and pointing to the little stones down below that resembled in appearance the Jewish bread. Satan suggested, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Evidently Satan too believes in freedom from once. But our blessed Lord refused to accept Satan's abundance, for it would have been purchased at the cost of obedience to the divine will. Jekta they false freedom from fear. On Holy Thursday night, Judas led a band of soldiers down to the Brook of the Kedron and into the garden to apprehend our divine Lord. Peter in one of his rather frequent, impetuous moments drew a sword and tacked off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Peter apparently believed in security or freedom from fear. But it was the wrong kind. And our blessed Lord, reprimanding Peter said to him, puts up a game thy sword into its place. For all that takes the sword shall perish by the sword. No freedom from fear with the Savior of the world have, if it were purchased at the cost of injury to a fellow man. Hence not a single one of the four freedoms is an ending itself. Either they are means to the attainment of moral purposes or they are wicked. Freedom from something is meaningful only when we are free for something. And until we know what we want to be free for, there's not much use in struggling or fighting or waging a war. Very simply, what use is freedom of religion if there being no God to worship? What use is freedom of speech if there being no truth to defend? What use is freedom from what? If such security is purchased at the cost of another's privation, what use is freedom of speech? What use is freedom from fear if such security is purchased at the cost of one's soul? Freedom you see means moral responsibility. And from it these conclusions follow. First, we are talking a great deal in this war about the four freedoms. And we should talk about them. But we must not assume that we can give freedom to the enslaved peoples of Europe. All that we can do is to remove external hindrances to freedom. Freedom is from the spirit, not from power. We can no more give Europe freedom than we can give every European a soul. In order to be free, every man must make his own soul. Let us not then promise to Europe something that we cannot deliver. They have already been deceived too much. Communism promised them freedom through economic abundance and gave them spiritual destitution. Not soism promised them freedom through labor's realm and gave them totus realm. Tashism promised them freedom through law and gave them law without freedom. And democracy must not add to this tragic litany by promising a freedom which only God can give. We are not God and we cannot give God's gifts. We enjoy God's liberty, but we do not create it. And hence all that we can promise to Europe is to say this. We will take the shackles off your legs so you can walk out of your prisons and get down on your knees and remake your soul. We can say to them, we will make you freed men. But only God and His grace can make you free men. More than that, we cannot say short of swollen egotism and filed blasphemy. And secondly, we must appreciate the fact that freedom is not an heirloom which originally belonged to the founding fathers of our country and now belongs to our generation. Freedom is rather an endowment like life. And it is preserved by resisting from time to time the challenge of disease and death and slavery and the forces of evil. The freedom, for example, that George Washington won for us has not come down to us as an antique. Freedom of those days is not freedom for our day unless we win it for our day as they did by sacrifice and by fire and by tears. A freedom that costs nothing is worth nothing. It is not the original cost of freedom that is high. It is the upkeep. Freedom is not foolproof. It demands restraint and law and obedience and discipline, the freedom that is strong enough to enforce discipline. And finally, freedom is ours only to give away. We want freedom in order that we may make our choices. But do we appreciate the fact that every man on the world gives his freedom away? It gives it either to creatures, to public opinion or to God, to creatures. That happens when the man surrenders his freedom for money, for power, or for a human being. For all love is slavery. A slavery which seeks to unburden itself for the object of affection. Then there are others who give up their freedom to the moods and opinions of the moment, though how many they are. Swade for the winds of every commentator and propaganda, they have no judgments of their own, no standards of their own. And thus, while now things slogans of liberty, they surrender the last message of it to a slavery worse than chains, for by obeying propaganda, even the mind is bound. And finally, others give up their freedom to God, wanting nothing, seeking nothing, desiring nothing, except to do his will in all things. In his slavery to perfect truth and perfect love and perfect life, which is the highest kind of freedom, for to serve him is to rule. There is not a man alive who does not make one of these three surrenders, to whom do you give your freedom, to creatures, to propaganda, or to God. If I have any influence, please choose the last. For then your freedom will be eternal, as our blessed Lord said, if the Son of God shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. God loves you. You have just heard Mansin Yershin deliver an address entitled, the social condition of world peace. You may obtain a copy of this talk by writing to the National Council of Catholic Man Washington, D.C., or to the station to which you are now listening. Mr. Foley directs the choir in a hymn by the British composer Gustav Holtz. Turn back, O man. Turn back, O man. Oh, swear thy foolish ways. Oh, my dear child, what may come to you? may come a child, whose rank is only fair, seise, or fear of death in filthy bones, or may come to go sour in torches, if before it is true. They become the himself and height, The leaders are the break uniting And there's no need And now we invite all those listening to join Monsignor Sheen in offering up this prayer in time of war. O Lord Jesus Christ, who in die mercy hear us the prayers of sinners, more forth we be sweetly all grace and blessing upon our country and its citizens. We pray in particular for the President, for our Congress, for all our soldiers, for all who defend us in ships weather on the seas or in the skies, for all who are suffering the hardships of war. We pray for all who are in peril or in danger. Bring us all after the troubles of this life into the haven of peace and reunite us all together for ever old year Lord, in thy glorious heavenly kingdom. You are invited to listen to the Catholic hour next Sunday at this same time when Monsignor Sheen will deliver an address entitled, The International Condition of World Peace. The music will be performed by the choir of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, New York City. The music on today's program was directed by Warren Pouley. Your announcer is John Patrick Costello. The National Council of Catholic Men has presented the Catholic hour through the facilities of the National Broadcasting Company and its independent affiliated stations which have been made available as a public service and as a contribution to the religious life of America. This is the National Broadcasting Company.