Gossamer threads or thorn bushes
Of Perfect and imperfect Obedience The Lord says in the Gospel: they “that do not renounce all that they possess cannot be” a “disciple” and “they that will save their life, shall lose it.” A person is truly obedient when they leave all they possess, lose their body (and their soul), and wholly obeys their superior, doing whatever the superior requires - (provided the person know that what they do is good and not contrary to the superior’s will). If at times a person sees things which would be better, or more useful to, them than those which the superior asks of them, let them sacrifice their will to God. Let them strive to fulfil the work requested by the superior. This is true and charitable obedience, which is pleasing to God and to one’s neighbour. | Obedience, thought to be the domain least visited by most children, can be a thorn bush seeming to ambush the adult in Religion. I believe that St. Francis must have had difficulties with obedience himself; we read of his childhood escapades, his disobedience to his father. And I feel that his struggle went with him into religious life. This is one of the longest Admonitions he wrote – and this is just the first half of it. The longest one, I think is the one he wrote on the Body of Christ. (I have chosen to omit that one – for now, from the comments this month.) Obedience has a hefty price tag that only the poor might pay. Forsaking everything one owns in order to follow Jesus is too high a price for most. Yet if we don’t, the Gospel tells us we will lose our lives! Surely we will not die for sake of thirty thousand dollars or more (and will we pass through the Needle Gate if we do forsake it?) What is obedience? In monetary terms: -For us today it is firstly: to set aside our income, once all our commitments are met and to dedicate it to the Lord’s use. To make beggars of ourselves is far too irresponsible a vocation for religious life today. We are to minister to the children of God and in today’s world that requires money, however tainted the ‘lucre’ may be. Secondly, to do so with as perfect grace as we can muster – and this will grow as our relationship to our Saviour deepens. Spiritually - Regarding our Superiors wills, more important than in any other age we must be careful that our words and deeds reflect honesty and goodness – that if our Superior asks anything of us that bruises their own conscience, in charity we must refrain from it and gently chastise our Superior concerning it. The binding by gossamer threads of Obedience may be the most challenging binding there is for we can forget ourselves in our zeal to amount to something in our own eyes. Given patience we will find our hearts desires,( for higher education or greater skills or a posting to the more traditional Mission Fields) are become our Father’s will for us. When we have proven that we can be obedient in the little things… |
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