Freedom and Truth

Johannes Baptist Metz's short book "Poverty of the Spirit" is IMHO a spiritual masterpiece.  As I was re-reading it yesterday, I also saw that it had some rich fare for the anthropological underpinnings of CLT. 

Unlike other animals, "Being is entrusted to us as a summons, which we are each to accept and consciously acknowledge.  We are never simply a being that is 'there' and 'ready-made,' just for the asking.  From the very start we are something that can Be, a being that must win selfhood and decide what it is to be.  We must fully become what we are - a human being.  To become human through the exercise of our freedom - that is the law of our being.

"Now this freedom, which leaves us to ourselves, is not pure arbitrariness or unchecked whim; it is not devoid of law and necessity.  It reveals itself at work when we accept and approve with all our heart the being that is committed to us...  The inescapable 'truth' of our Being is such that it makes our freedom possible rather than threatening it (cf. Jn. 8:32).  Thus the free process of becoming a human being unfolds as a process of service.  In biblical terms it is 'obedience' (cf. Phil 2:8) and faithfulness to the humanity entrusted to us."

Metz then describes the many temptations - the attempts to evade, ignore, or rebel against our humanity.  "In short, we can fail to obey this truth [of our Being],thus aborting the work of becoming a human being."