My sister Maria Juana and I spent a most cerebral afternoon the other day with Rev. Fr. Sid Marinay, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Manila, who enlightened us on what constitutes free will and intellect with reference to us, Catholics.

Fr. Sid said, “God gave us our intellect and free will to be able to decide on our own about our moral choices as human beings.” He continued, “The devil uses imagination, memory and emotion to try to control us for his evil intentions. This is why God gave us our free will and our intellect to discern our path to salvation.” 

I was completely taken by Fr. Sid’s revelation that I decided to read more on this philosophical truth. The Oxford dictionary defines free will as “the faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively, specially with regard to abstract or academic matters. Free will in philosophy and science is the supposed power and capacity of a human being to make decisions or perform actions independent of any previous event or state of the universe or of any outside influence.”  

Free will

Thinking of this definition makes me understand so much better why God gave us our intellect and free will to make our own choices and course of actions in this life. God in His power understands our weakness and propensity for temptation of the devil as He gave us our intellect to be able to discern between good and evil. This is where the devil interjects our emotion, imagination and memory to tempt us for the glitz and glamour of sin. 

I am in absolute agreement with the definition that we are able to choose between right and wrong, and avoid all occasions which will test our choices. As it is, whatever we do here on earth is a manifestation of our deep belief in God’s power in our life and He will guide us along the right path as long as our faith, hope and love are constant, strong and undiminished despite all the temptations surrounding us.

Blessed Mother

We continued our deep discussion, and I asked Fr. Sid how we can overcome all these obstacles. He replied, “We need to pray constantly to God and ask the Blessed Mother to guide us because anyone who asks her help will never be refused. The devil hates our Blessed Mother because she crushes the serpent’s head under her feet and that is how strong the Blessed Mother is.”

I felt truly inspired and uplifted with this most revealing and powerful discussion. It gave me a warm feeling in the deepest core of my mind and heart. I know now that I can use this knowledge to enlighten my family and friends so that they too will be armed with the right actions to always be good human beings. To practice being a good human being gives us the leverage as good examples to reach out to as many people as possible in order to be able to influence them to do good, be good and think good 24/7. 

Thank you, Fr. Sid, for this most precious afternoon of a discussion that has profoundly and positively impacted our lives.