During this season of Lent, the Church proposes the Three Pillars — namely prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — to help us to live in the freedom of the children of God.

Christ sets us free so that we may love other people as ourselves. If, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, “to love is to will the good of another,” then love is the ultimate purpose for the exercise of our free will. Sin is just the opposite. It is the abuse of free will, disregarding our neighbour’s good.

Sin makes us feel free and happy, doesn’t it? When we sin – when we do what God doesn’t want us to do – aren’t we satisfying our “human nature”, asserting ourselves against the rules imposed on us by a tyrant God? That feels great!