Those
who live "by the flesh" experience God's law as a burden, and indeed as
a denial or at least a restriction on their own freedom. On the other
hand, those who are impelled by love and "walk by the Spirit", and who
desire to serve others, find in God's Law the fundamental and necessary
way in which to practice love as something freely chosen and freely
lived out. Indeed, they feel an interior urge- a genuine "necessity" and
no longer a form of coercion- not to stop at the minimum demands of the
Law, but to live them in their "fullness." This is a still uncertain
and fragile journey as we are on earth, but it is one made possible by
grace, which enables us to possess the full freedom of the children of
God and thus to live our moral life in a way worthy of our sublime
vocation as "sons in the Son.
--Pope John Paul II,
Veritatis Splendor
