When we surrender our sinful need to be in total control, we do not surrender the use of our free will. We freely choose to exercise this gift in a way that is in harmony with who we are and in harmony with our relationship with the One who made us and in harmony with our ultimate destiny and fulfillment. "You first loved us so that we might love you--not because you needed our love, but because we could not be what you created us to be, except by loving you." (William of St. Thierry)

In answer to the question, "Why was I made?" an earlier catechism answer responded, "I was made to know, love and serve the Lord in this life and to be happy with him in the next." When we acknowledge the great commandment, we say "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." To do what these two faith proclamations state, we must choose to align our will with the will of God for us. To do otherwise is to oppose the Lord's plan by substituting our own plan of life, thus making ourselves the center of life and not God.

Such surrender and alignment can only occur when the love of God is the motivation and not the love of self. This happens when we fall so in love with God that nothing and no one, including ourselves is more important to us. "Love is the 'weight' of a soul which draws it as if by a law of gravity to what it loves and where it finds its rightful rest." (Raniero Cantalamessa, Life in the Lordship of Christ, p.144)