WHAT RELATIONSHIP IS EXISTENT BETWEEN FREEDOM AND LAW

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WHAT RELATIONSHIP IS EXISTENT BETWEEN FREEDOM AND LAW
Thomas Aquinas defines law as an ordinance of the reason for the common good, made by him who has care for the community, and promulgated. He makes it clear that the will of the prince has the force of law only if the will of the prince is reasonable. An unreasonable law, an arbitrary law, says Aquinas, is no law at all. It is a mere caprice that could lead to anarchy. Also, he defines the will as the power of rational desire. This means that an act of the will which is not reasoned is not really a human act at all, but more akin to the act of an animal who chooses without reason and from appetite alone. Animals are not free, only rationality makes us free. Thus, freedom does not mean being put down in the middle of the desert without a compass and being told to go where you like. Freedom is always freedom to do the good.   
The encyclical Veritatis Splendor makes some very important points about freedom in general. First of all, it rules out moral systems that make freedom the absolute value and the source of all other values. Clearly, the idea that human beings have supreme freedom which involves giving the law to themselves is not true freedom. Freedom always goes together with truth, one cannot exist without the other.
The existence of Divine Law actually promotes and protects human freedom. This is because God knows what is good for us. So God and human beings are not rivals but partners. The abolition of the divine law would mean human enslavement. Thus, Truth and Freedom are not opposing terms, and neither are Law and Freedom. Our freedom only makes sense in the light of divine truth. Moral autonomy wrongly intended is not true freedom. Participated autonomy, or theonomous autonomy, by contrast, is true freedom.

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