READ PART 1: H is for Humility
This is the second post in a three part series. We’re using the word HOP to discuss the key virtues of a disciple on the run:
Humility
Obedience
Perseverance
O is for Obedience
In Part 1 we reflected on humility. In this post we’ll turn our attention to obedience. We’ll start with God’s Word to awaken our sacred imaginations:
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23 Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray. Proverbs 10:17 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:2 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! Deuteronomy 5:29 Mankind’s rise, fall, and resurrection in the New Life center around the virtue of “obedience”. Our salvation history begins with acts of disobedience. From the fall of Lucifer, to Adam and Eve we see how pride and how the abuse of our free will fashion chasms between us and God. When we’re obedient we’ve got it made. Imagine walking with God in the Garden of Eden sharing with Him the names we’ve given to His animals: 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. (Genesis 2:19-20)
The power of naming is sacred. We literally see the genesis of our inheritance as co-creators. Let’s not mistake ourselves as sources of creation, but rather understand ourselves as collaborators; beloved agencies of God’s Love in ceaseless, tireless motion.
As far as humans go, disobedience seems to be the norm. Noah was an anomaly. Disobedience was so rampant that God did a complete reset of the world.
What’s broken between man and God must always be fixed. There’s never any exception to this pattern.
God Loves us too much to let us flounder in our disobedience.
His plan is to bring us into complete Communion with Him. Anything that gets in the way of this, will be destroyed by the Holy Wrath of His Perfect Love.
This begs the question: Why is God never in a rush? His Patience is enduring. Three hundred-sixty-five years after Noah, God gives Abraham a chance to prove His obedience and put things back into Order (right relationship with God).
There’s a kind of deliciously absurd divine irony to God’s storied testing of His children. Abraham is not the only one who’s subject to the Father’s molding invitations to submit to obedient sacrifices after being granted an answer to a prayer.
Our Great and Good God has a habit of giving us something we desire and then asking us to give it back to him in complete trust. Remember Hannah and her desire for a son? Hannah gives Samuel back to the temple after he is born in an act of loving sacrificial obedience.
God always want the greatest Good for us which is His Absolute, Unconditional, Fierce, Passionate, Love that knows no quenching. Is our God jealous?
God delivered all these commandments:
“I, the LORD, am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves
in the shape of anything in the sky above
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;
you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God,
inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness
on the children of those who hate me,
down to the third and fourth generation;
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation
on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Genesis 20:1-7
The Great I AM gives Moses the Ten Commandments to help His chosen people live obedient lives. These commands will be read to Israelites, agreed upon, and through the blood of a bull ratified as a covenant between God and His people. We know how the story goes… it will take more than the blood of a bull to bring the eternal fruits of obedience into Holy accordance.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
him who takes his name in vain.
“Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter,
or your male or female slave, or your beast,
or by the alien who lives with you.
In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
“You shall not kill.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him.”
Exodus 20: 8-20
To be obedient means to relinquish our will to the Will of God. Jesus teaches us how to pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” As a side note if you’ve never read anything about the mystic Luisa Piccaretta she has a lot to share on this topic. These prayerful words will be answered.
God is not a “sideline” coach barking commands. Our Lord gets right into the fray and shows us what He means by obedience. He lays downs His life of Glory to walk with us and take on all things except sin. Jesus in his humanity must learn how to embrace the challenges of obedience. Despite the rejection of His Loving Presence among us, He must embody obedience to His Father from His earliest days to the agonizing pathos of the cross
Picture Jesus as a boy in the temple:
41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”[a] 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2: 41-52
It can’t be a coincidence that in Matthew’s gospel after Jesus talks about the ultimate act of obedience He will be making, this mysterious story about the temple tax follows:
22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
26 “From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” (Matthew 17:22-27)
We’re all called to be obedient across different circles of our life. There’s civic obedience to comply with basic mores and practice for our social well-being. There are other social contracts we enter into for the smooth and productive functioning of our lives (e.g. following the rules/process/practices that make up our work lives). We can understand these circles of obedience as mini reflections of the Natural Order of God’s Love. They are mini orderings that reflect fruits of being obedient.
Obedience draws us into a space of forgetting ourselves to save ourselves from the slippery slope of self-reliance. We must learn to rely on God’s Love alone. This doesn’t mean to be a passive wall flower. God invites us to engage with Him using all of our faculties especially our intellect.
God writes His Law of Love on our Hearts. It’s not meant to be a burdensome law intent on ruling our lives. If being obedient means foregoing some of the questionable yet fleeting fun offerings of this life from time to time, the riches we will reap in Joy with Him are more than worth it.
Let’s close by asking for special prayers for our priests and religious. They take vows of obedience. They especially need our prayers at this time of chaos.
Lord we join our Blessed Mother in asking for your special blessings and graces to be poured out upon our priests and religious. They are your shepherds Lord. We ask that you protect them. Grant them an abundance of energy and patience. May our priests experience the Glory of your Body and Blood in their offering of the sacrifice of the mass. Please grant them courage, fortitude, and wisdom. Be pleased to minister your Mercy through their work. Open up the sweetness of your Word to them in new ways that they might move the hearts, and minds of the people they minister to. May the communities of faith our religious live and work in be filled with your Joy and Peace. May they feel supported, loved, needed, and protected by the prayers of the people they minister to, your angels, and the Communion of Saints. AMEN
Questions to Consider:
Are we ready to go to obedience school? Jesus is an amazing teacher.
- Are there areas of your life that are out of sync with God’s Ten Commandments? What actions can you begin to take to address it?
- How do you imagine practicing greater obedience will change your life?
- What grace do you need to live the virtue of obedience more fully in your life?
By the way, did you know Saint Padre Pio is the patron saint of obedience? Padre Pio pray for us.
In the comments below please consider sharing with us a time when you grew in the virtue of obedience…
