Salesian Views on

::   Obedience  ::   Office of the Hours

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Obedience

 

Obedience

Introduction to the Devout Life, 3:11. Charity alone establishes us in perfection.  But obedience, chastity and poverty are the three great means of acquiring perfection.  Obedience consecrates our will, chastity our body and poverty our material possessions, all to the love and service of God.

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Obedience

Charity alone places us in perfection, but obedience, chastity and poverty are the three great means of acquiring it.  Obedience consecrates our heart, chastity, our body and poverty, our possessions to the love and service of God.  To render us perfect we need only to observe these virtues. [Sp. Directory]  Also Introduction to the Devout Life, 3:11

 

Obedience as a Moral Virtue

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 10. Obedience is a moral virtue which depends on JUSTICE.  Now, there are certain virtues which are so related to the theological virtues of FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY, that they seem to be almost theological.  Such are the virtues of PENANCE and RELIGION, and so also JUSTICE and OBEDIENCE.

 

Conditions to practise Obedience

 

First Condition: Consent

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 10. The first is to consent to what is ordered and gently yield our will to it; being happy to be commanded; for we cannot become truly obedient if there is no one to command us just as the means to become gentle is not to live all alone in a desert.

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Second Condition: Promptness

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 10. The second condition lies in the promptness with which we obey.  Opposed to this is laziness or spiritual sadness.  Rarely a sad person does things readily and earnestly.  In theological language, laziness is called spiritual sadness and it prevents us from obeying swiftly and courageously.  We cannot cross rivers more surely than by boat; so too, we cannot make the passage of life more safely than by means of obedience.

 

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11. This obedience of love has a second condition as I have already told you: it is PROMPT.  Now this promptness of obedience has always been commended to the Religious as a necessary element to obey well and to keep perfectly what they have dedicated to God. 

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Third Condition: Perseverance

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 10. The third condition is perseverance.  It is not enough that we consent to obey a command for some time only. We need to persevere in it, and it is perseverance which merits for us the crown.

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 10. Perseverance in things that touch our inner self is more difficult.  In things which are merely material and external it is far easier.  This is because it is very difficult for us to surrender our judgement.  It is the last thing we ever want to give up, but it is, nevertheless, extremely necessary for us to submit out thoughts in certain matters.

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Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11. The third condition is perseverance.  Now Our Lord has taught us this in a very special manner.  St. Paul declares it in these words: He was OBEDIENT EVEN TO DEATH – death on a cross (Phil. 2:8).  These words EVEN TO DEATH suggest that he was obedient al his life, even from the time he was in the womb of Our Lady as I have already pointed out, when he went, or was carried by his Mother from Nazareth to Bethlehem. 

 

Obedience demands certain flexibility

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 10. Another kind of obedience is a certain flexibility of our will to follow the will of another.  It is an extremely loveable virtue which makes our mind readily adaptable to all circumstances and prepares us to do God’s will always.

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Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 10. To acquire this flexibility to follow the will of another it is enough to make often acts of surrender in prayer and then put them into practice when the occasion arises; for, it is pointless to strip ourselves before God in imagination; it means nothing at all.  To be effective we offer ourselves entirely to God, we find a person who orders us.  There is a great difference.  It is there that we must show our courage.

 

Kinds of Obedience

Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11. I shall begin by saying that there are three types of holy obedience – I shall not speak about the others – and the first is common to all Christians; it is the obedience rendered to God and the Church by keeping the Commandments. The second is the RELIGIOUS OBEDIENCE, by far richer than the first because it is not limited merely to the observance of the Commandments, but also binds us to the observance of the Counsels.  And then there is the third type of obedience, on which I am going to speak to you today, and I call it OBEDIENCE OF LOVE.

 

Obedience of Love: Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11. Let us come back to the first condition of this obedience of love, which is grafted on to religious obedience.  It is blind obedience because it begins to do with love all that it has been commanded to do, in all simplicity.

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Obedience of Love: Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11. The second quality of the first condition of obedience which is that it is blind.  After gaining the attitude of not stopping at the person who commands, rather it is ready to obey all kinds of Superiors equally well, it goes yet further and reaches the second quality.  It is to obey without seeking to know neither the intention nor the purpose of the command. 

 

Obedience of Love: Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11. The third property of blind obedience is that it does not seek to know the ways and means by which it will obey.  It knows that the road which leads to God is the Rules of the religious life and the commandments of the Scriptures.  It undertakes this journey in all simplicity of heart, without being in any way punctilious.  It does not ask whether this or that way of doing things is good for obedience.  It is enough that it obeys, for it knows that it is enough to become pleasing to God, for whose sake it obeys in purity and for love of him. 

 

Religious Obedience: Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11.  The Commandments of God and of the Church are not so strict as we think they are.  They are not meant to trouble our hearts, as much as we imagine. 

 

Religious Obedience: Spiritual Conference, Vol. 1, 11.  You want to know whether it is permissible to the Sisters to tell one another that they have been scolded by the Superior or the Mistress of Novices on some occasion.  There are three different ways of saying this.  The first is that a Sister can go and say: My Sister, how our Mother has taken me to task.

 

Sermon for Palm Sunday, March 20, 1622

Humility and Obedience: Everything in the world has two faces, because everything has two principles. The first is God, the first cause of everything that exists. The second is the nothingness from which everything has been drawn. Now, since God is the first principle of every being, there is nothing that does not contain something beautiful and lovable in it. But since every created thing is drawn out of nothingness, each contains some imper­fection. 

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Commentaries

Commentary on “obedience”

 

What a challenge St. Francis de Sales presents to us in the practice of obedience!  He explains: …  [Sp. Directory]

Ever-flowing streams of Love: Obedience

 

 

Introduction to the Devout Life

Charity alone establishes us in perfection.  But obedience, chastity and poverty are the three great means of acquiring perfection.  Obedience consecrates our will, chastity our body and poverty our material possessions, all to the love and service of God.  These are the three branches of the spiritual cross, all the three, however, based on a fourth which is humility.  [Introduction to the Devout Life, 3:11)

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There are two kinds of obedience, namely, necessary obedience and voluntary obedience. 

 

[i]  Necessary obedience requires that one ought to obey the ecclesiastical and civil authorities.  No one can exempt himself from such obligation, for the authority they hold comes from God. (But one needs to be cautious in this obedience, with the exercise of charity and prudence). 

 

Practical steps to help learn obedience: “In order to learn to obey your superiors easily, comply readily with the will of your equals giving in to their opinions in what is not evil without being quarrelsome or obstinate.   Accommodate yourself willingly to the wishes of your inferiors, insofar as reason permits it, and so long as they are good without exercising any domineering authority” [Introduction to the Devout Life, 3:11).

 

[ii]  Voluntary obedience is that to which we bind ourselves by our own choice and which is in no way imposed on us by another.  (This applies especially with regard to the choice of confessor or spiritual director).  A religious freely and voluntarily makes a commitment to obey.  Here there is no force or obligation to make such a commitment.  But having made the commitment one is obliged to obey.

 

The fundamental obedience that binds every person is obedience to the will of God.  Every other form of obedience is subservient to it.  When there is a question of conflict between obedience to the will of God and the will of the superior or any person in authority, it is the will of God that we ought to obey. 

 

Treatise on the Love of God

Declared will is revealed through the Christian doctrine which clearly sets forth the truths God wants us to believe, the blessings he means us to hope for, the punishments he intends us to fear, the things he would like us to love, the commandments he means us to keep and the counsels he wishes us to follow.

 

A short way of knowing God’s will:  According to St. Basil, God’s will is made known to us by what he disposes, what he commands.  This calls for no deliberation on our part; we simply carry out God’s order.  In everything else, we are perfectly free to make our own choice of what seems good – though it is not a question of doing everything that is permissible, but only such things as are suitable.  To discover exactly what is appropriate, we are t take the advice of a prudent spiritual director.

 

By God’s Permissive will, means that nothing happens but by God’s will, i.e., by a positive or permissive will which no one can obstruct, which is known only by its results.  These events, when they occur, show us that God has willed and planned them. [Treatise on the Love of God, 9:1]

 

Quoting the episodes of Abraham, Moses and Job, SFS provides the right perspective of God’s permissive will 

(Treatise on the Love of God, 9:2)

 

When it came to sacrificing Isaac, Abraham saw that it was God’s permissive will. Hence, it took on a new aspect, and he embraced it lovingly.

 

On the ground Moses’ staff was a frightful serpent; in his hand it was a miraculous wand.  Trials in themselves are dreadful; but seen as part of God’s will, they are attractive, delightful.

 

Job:  What, should we accept the good fortune God sends us, and not the ill?

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