Freedom of Heart in the CCC

[adgloriam]

“Freedom of Heart” is mentioned in the CCC 2043.

Can someone please help me better understand the specific meaning of the expression.

CCC 2043. The fifth precept (“You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.") ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts; they help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.

There are two footnotes to the paragraph but none mentions the word heart. Cf. [CIC, cann 1249-1251; CCEO, can. 882.

 

[fide]

This may help - and a bit more on the “heart” follows:

PURIFICATION OF THE HEART
CCC 2517 The heart is the seat of moral personality: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication…”<Mt 15:19> The struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance:
Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man’s life.<Pastor Hermae, Mandate 2, 1: PG 2, 916>

 

[CRV]

My understanding of this - “… freedom of heart.”

Is that it is in regard to the penitential acts of fasting and abstinence as it states in the beginning, and as these precepts are the minimum required by the Church, then the freedom of heart means that out of love which stems from the heart, an individual has the freedom to choose to do more - add more days of fasting, perhaps more difficult fasts (assuming health permits), or add more acts of penance than what is the required bare minimum, which in this case is the prescribed days of fasting & abstinence.

As we love our Lord, and the Holy Spirit enlarges our heart as He did for St. Philip Neri, then we, from our heart with the freedom to love more, are free to do more penance - thus the freedom of heart, in reparation for our sins as well as the sins of others as is said in the prayer of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Edited to add:- both footnotes link to the canon laws where this precept - the 5th which concerns fasting & abstinence is from.

 

[goout]

I like to think of freedom of heart as purity.
As we purge ourselves of distractions through disciplines our hearts are purified. And I think of purity as a singular focus on God’s’ will as we dwell in his presence. "Blessed are the pure of heart… "

As our reading today says “There is need of only one thing”. .
I don’t need another cookie, I don’t need to do one more mindless task, I don’t need to see what Kim Kardashian is up to, I need only to sit at the feet of the Lord. In that space I am free of heart

 

[Vico]

“Freedom of Heart” is mentioned in the [CCC 2043]…

Cast off slavery to sin.

Catechism

2563 The heart is the dwelling-place where I am, where I live; according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place “to which I withdraw.” The heart is our hidden center, beyond the grasp of our reason and of others; only the Spirit of God can fathom the human heart and know it fully. The heart is the place of decision, deeper than our psychic drives. It is the place of truth, where we choose life or death. It is the place of encounter, because as image of God we live in relation: it is the place of covenant.

1739 Freedom and sin . Man’s freedom is limited and fallible. In fact, man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God’s plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence of the abuse of freedom.

 

[Genesis315]

Fasting and abstinence help free our hearts from of inordinate attachment to creatures.