45 — COME AND FOLLOW ME

Presence of God. — O Jesus, who for our sake became obedient unto death on the cross, teach me to follow your example.

Meditation

1 — To the young man who aspired to perfection, Jesus said: “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor [and this is the counsel of evangelical poverty] ...then come and follow me” (Mt. 19, 21) and this, teaches St. Thomas, is the counsel of voluntary obedience. Indeed, to follow Jesus means to imitate his virtues and among these certainly obedience stands in the first line. Jesus comes upon earth to accomplish the will of his Father: “lo, I come to do your will, O God” (Heb. 10, 7), and more than once during his life he expressly attests to this: “I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (Jn. 6, 38), indeed he declares that his food, that is, the support, the fulcrum of his life, consists precisely in accomplishing the will of his Father (cf. Jn. 4, 34). But Jesus also willed to concretize his dependence on the Heavenly Father by submitting himself to those creatures who, according to the natural order, had some authority over him as man. Thus for thirty years he lived subject in all things to Mary and Joseph, recognizing in theirs the authority of the Father. “He was subject to them” (Lk. 2, 51), says the Gospel, summarizing in these brief words the long period of the Savior’s private life. During his public life, moreover, and especially during his Passion, he also gave example of obedience to constituted authority, both religious and civil, submitting himself even to judges and executioners, making himself “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2, 8). Having come into the world through obedience, Jesus willed to live in obedience and through obedience he embraced death, repeating in the garden of olives: “Father,... not my will, but yours be done” (Lk. 22, 42). To follow Jesus in the perfect life therefore means to embrace voluntarily a life of total dependence; and St. Thomas, basing himself precisely on this argument, concludes that obedience belongs to the essence of the state of perfection.

2 — To follow Jesus also means to fully carry out his invitation: “if any man would come after me, let him deny himself” (Mt. 16, 24). Now, the greatest renunciation that man can make is precisely that of his liberty, subjecting himself in all things to obedience. Indeed, “nothing is dearer to man than the liberty of his own will, because by means of this he is master even of others, can use and enjoy other things and is master even of his own acts. And just as man, by abandoning riches or related persons, renounces them, so by leaving the liberty of his own will, by which he is master of himself, he comes to deny himself” (St. Thomas — The Perf. of the Sp. Life). For this reason the vow of obedience is the greatest and most meritorious sacrifice that man can offer to God.

Here precisely lies the sacrifice of obedience: to let oneself be governed by another in one’s life. Every man is free, has received liberty from God and therefore has the right to govern himself according to his judgment and his views; now, whoever promises obedience renounces freely this his right, making of it a free holocaust for the service, for the worship, for the glory of God. As the holocaust of the chosen people was the victim that was consumed entirely in honor of God, without any part of it being spared, so the vow of obedience immolates man entirely in honor of God. In this way obedience comes to sacrifice to the very end our personality or, more precisely, sacrifices everything in it that is selfish, everything that is attachment to views, to inclinations, to personal exigencies; and in this sense nothing more than obedience helps us to free ourselves from self-love, to strip ourselves of ourselves. But at the same time, far from destroying the personality, obedience employs it in the most beautiful, greatest and most glorious way, that is in renouncing itself to adhere totally to God, to the holy and sanctifying will of God.

Colloquy

“O Jesus, You who were obedient unto death, you certainly cannot will that a soul that loves you should go by a different road than yours” (T.G. Fd. 5, 3). And so then I decide to follow you, to tread behind you the way of holy obedience, a way carved in the solid rock of your examples, of your most humble submission, of your ineffable subjections. “You, God, to whom the Angels are subject, to whom the Principalities and Powers obey, were subject to Mary and not only to Mary, but also to Joseph on account of Mary. That a God should obey his creatures is a humility without example. O Lord, You abase yourself and shall I exalt myself? O my soul, if it deigns to imitate the example of a man, certainly it will not be unworthy of you to follow your Maker. If you cannot perhaps follow him wherever he goes, deign at least to follow him as far as he wills to descend for you” (cf. St. Bernard).

Yes, O Jesus, grant me to follow you in the way of obedience, grant me a profound spirit of faith so that I may always recognize in the voice of obedience your voice, your will. “Teach me, O Lord, to abandon myself trustfully to your word: ‘He who hears you, hears me’. Teach me to forget every will of my own, a sacrifice greatly appreciated by you, because it constitutes you master of that free will which You yourself have given me. This is the gift that I desire to offer you in all its fullness, without any reserve. Make me faithful to this purpose and then, though amidst the repugnances of nature and prey to a thousand struggles, I shall arrive at conforming myself to those who command me; in short, with pain or without pain, I shall end by submitting myself. I know well, O Lord, that You will not fail to help me; and, by subjecting for love of you my reason and will, you will give me the means to become master of them. Once master of myself, I can consecrate myself to you with perfection, offering you a pure will, that You may unite it to yours” (cf. T.G. Fd. 5, 12).