Are we Sovereign?

Are we Sovereign?

How sovereign do you feel since living in a world where at every turn there are obstacles that frighten our stability of freedoms.  Sovereignty is the right of a nation or group of people to be self-governing.  We can see that this isn’t so any more, in fact with the two World Wars and many other skirmishes we have seen with some nations, under the leadership of too many dictators, invade and overtake smaller nations without any sense or regard for their freedoms.

This begins not only a physical disruption of the powers of the weaker nation it also has become a moral ignoring of the Creator who made all men in his image.  To be sovereign we must be left to our individual desires to live without the interference of land hungry nations who want to destroy goodness among the world’s populations to suit their own greedy wants.  

One problem that individual sovereignty can create is the lust that man seems to have adopted without being able to adjust his desires when being left alone in his self-governing attitude. 

Etymologically, “concupiscence” can refer to any intense form of human desire.  Christian theology has given it a particular meaning: the movement of the sensitive appetite contrary to the operation of the human reason.  The apostle St. Paul identifies it with the rebellion of the “flesh against the spirit.”  Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin.  It unsettles man’s moral faculties  and,  without being in itself an offense,  inclines man to commit sins.  (CCC 2515).

Therefore, when seeking to become sovereign in our own mind, we must be cautious to not allow our appetites regarding sinful attractions to overtake our trend towards becoming so self-governing that it may in the end cause us to succumb to sin and lose our independence.  

With this sense of individual freedom in deciding our self-reliance it is necessary to find the way to purity in our growing with this individualism to satisfy our deeper desires.  

So-called moral permissiveness rests on an erroneous conception of human precondition for the development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law.  Those in charge of education can reasonably be expected to give young people instruction respectful of the truth, the qualities of the heart, and the moral and spiritual dignity of man.  (CCC 2526).

The very essence of being sovereign in this world places a lot of responsibility on each of us as we ponder the need to become independent without first seeking the grace of Almighty God and allow the power of the Holy Spirit be our guide when the crisis of life is encountered.

I thought that continence arose from one’s own powers, which I did not recognize in myself.  I was foolish enough not to know…that no one can be continent unless you grant it.  For you would surely have granted it if my inner groaning had reached your ears and I with firm faith had cast my cares on you.  (St. Augustine, confessions).

Ralph B. Hathaway