Of the Second Degree of Obedience

THE second degree of obedience consists in conforming our will to that of the superior, and having no other will, neither choosing nor refusing except what the superior wills or wills not. It is the tritest and commonest saying that we have in religious life; it is on this presupposition that we all enter that state. It is the first principle and foundation. It is told to all, and put before everyone who has a mind to enter religion: “See, now, you do not come here to do your own will, but another’s.” And all say, “T know that already.” As we say it, and as it was said to us, so it is in truth. This is being a religious and living under obedience. St. John Climacus says: “Obedience is the tomb of self-will, and the awakener of humility. In entering religion we have to take account that we are burying our own will, and that henceforth we must in all things follow that of the superior.”

Our Father adds that we must be so disposed, even though they command us things difficult and repugnant to sense. It is rather for these things particularly that we should show much readiness, when we are ordered to do them, for in them true obedience is shown, as the saints commonly observe. When they order us what we like and what is conformable to our inclination and will, obedience cannot be well seen, for haply it is our own taste and inclination that carries us thereto rather than the will of God and obedience. But when the thing ordered is difficult, and repugnant to our sensuality and our flesh, and we embrace it with great alacrity, then obedience is very visible; we are there quite sure and satisfied that we are not seeking ourselves, but purely God and obedience. Hence that is an excellent praiseworthy practice that we see in some religious, who, when they are ordered to take up offices and ministries for which they have great taste, are suspicious of themselves and feel a holy pain and anxiety, saying: “I don’t know whether I am gaining any merit by this, for methinks I am doing it of my own will,” and they lay their anxiety before their superior once or twice. Contrariwise, when they are ordered something for which they feel no inclination, but rather difficulty and repugnance, then they are much consoled, thinking that therein they may well be satisfied that they are not doing their own will, nor seeking themselves, but God alone. This is a very good and safe way of proceeding.

St. Gregory says: “When they order us to do high and honorable things, there ought to be nothing of our own in the performance, but we should take such functions up purely because they are commanded us and because such is the will of God. But when difficult, lowly, and humble work is enjoined us, there ought to be something of our own there, because to such things we should endeavor to bend our inclinations and likings, and take them up with much promptitude and good will”—Debet obedientia in adversis ex suo aliquid habere, et in prosperis ex suo aliquid omnino non habere. He who shall act in this way will have good grounds for believing and being satisfied that in other things also, commanded him by obedience, even though they are to his liking, he is doing the will of God and not his own. But he who does not obey with alacrity and good will in lowly, humiliating, and laborious offices, causing him sensible difficulty and repugnance, may well fear that in other things also that he does that are to his taste and inclination, he is not doing the will of God either, but his own. This is one of the signs whereby we may know when we are seeking ourselves in what we do, and when we seek purely the will of God.

Hence it follows that he is no obedient man whose desire and aim it is to get the superior to order him what is to his taste and to fall in with his will, and is ready to do that, but unready for other things. Our Father says very well: “It is a great self-deceit, and a mark of an understanding blinded by self-love, to think that obedience is being kept when the subject contrives to bring the superior over to what he himself wants.” And he quotes St. Bernard’s saying: “Whoever openly or by stealth gets his spiritual father to order what he himself wishes, deceives and flatters himself idly if he reckons on his obedience and plumes himself thereon, for it is not he that obeys the superior, but the superior that obeys him; nor does he do the superior’s will, but the superior does his.” This point is commonly insisted on and well known; still, that is no reason for passing it lightly over, since it is one of the most important and chief points that there are in this matter, and one of the things that religious have most to dread. Be very much afraid of the superior’s putting upon you any office, ministry, or occupation simply because you desired and tried for it, and showed an ill countenance at something else that he hinted to you, and would rather you had done. Perhaps you will think afterwards that you have done wonders, and are laden with good works, because you have worked hard; and you will find that you have been befooled and void of all merit before God because you have done your own will, and not that of God. He may answer you in the words of Isaias (lvii. 1-3): Why have we fasted, labored, and wearied ourselves so much, and all in vain? Do you know why? Because you did your own will therein.

This passage of Isaias is quoted by St. Bernard to this effect, and he adds: “‘A great evil is self-will, since it makes your good works not to be good in you”—Grande malum propria voluntas, qua fit ut bona tua tibi bona non sint. In another place he further enlarges on this topic. Referring to the occasion when Christ our Redeemer appeared to St. Paul, and threw him from his horse and converted him, and scales fell from the eyes of his soul, and with the light that he received from heaven he said: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? (Acts ix. 6), St. Bernard says: “The sign of a perfect conversion, the sign of a man’s having renounced the world in good earnest and determined to follow Christ, is when he comes to say with the Apostle: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? A short speech, but compendious and pregnant with meaning, lively, to the point, and worthy of all consideration. Oh, how few there are at this day who attain to this perfection of obedience—that is, who have so far given up their own will that they never seek or claim or desire to have their own way in anything, only God’s way, saying ever with the Apostle: Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and with the Royal Prophet: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready (Psalm lvi. 8), it is disposed and prepared to do Thy will. Oh, the pity of it! We find today many more imitators of that blind man in the Gospel than of the new-made Apostle. Heu plures habemus evangelici illius caect quam novi Apostoli imitatores. The Savior of the world asked that blind man: What wouldst thou have me do for Thee? (Mark x. 51). Oh, how great is Thy mercy, O Lord; how kind Thou art to us! How great Thy loving-kindness in our regard! When was it ever the usage for the master to inquire the will of the servant that he might do it? It is quite clear that that man was blind, since he did not consider, did not cry out in amazement at such a question from the mouth of Christ, even as the Apostle Peter did when Christ offered to wash his feet (John xiii. 6), and St. John when he saw Him coming for baptism (Matt. iii. 14). If he had not been blind, he should have cried out: ‘Never, please God! It is for Thee, O Lord, to tell me what Thou wouldst have me do, since so it is fitting that I should do Thy will, and not Thou mine’— Vere caecus ille, quia non consideravit, non expavit, non exclamavit: Absit hoc, Domine; tu magis dic quid me facere velis; sic enim decet, sic omnino dignum est, non meam a te, sed a me tuam quaeri et fieri voluntatem. In this way nowadays there are many religious who have to be asked: What wouldst thou have me do with thee?” Thus far St. Bernard. The superior has to put on his thinking-cap and consider: ‘‘What would So-and-So like? What will he take to?” whereas it ought to be the other way about; subjects should come inquiring the will of the superior and wanting to know his wishes, to act accordingly, since it is for that that they came into religion, and not for the superior to come over to their will and order what they like, for that is neither obedience nor religion.