48 — BLIND OBEDIENCE

Presence of God. — O Jesus, who for love of us willed to submit yourself to your creatures, teach me to obey without wishing to know more.

Meditation

1 — When in the superior one sees God, one obeys without discussions, without useless reasonings, without delays: “Christus jubet, sufficit”, Christ commands, this suffices me. Indeed, what shall I still go seeking, when I know that the orders of my superiors are the orders of God himself? Even if the thing commanded is for me difficult and grievous, the knowing with certainty that it is precisely the Lord who wills it from me, will give me the strength to undertake it with promptness, without opposing the least resistance.

There can certainly be some cases in which there is a reasonable motive to think that a given order has been imposed without taking account of elements which, if neglected, could bring painful consequences for the superior himself; and then it is well, and indeed may be obligatory, to make it noted. So likewise there is no imperfection in asking explanations when the order does not seem clear to us or puts us in serious embarrassment; but one must do it with humility, without insistence and always disposed to remit oneself to the decision of the superior. For the rest, moreover, one must be firm in not wishing to reason, in not wishing to discuss the orders received, in not wishing to investigate the motives that may have spurred the superior to give a determined order. If we set ourselves to reason on obedience, we shall create obstacles for ourselves to obey; one must therefore know how to cut short immediately every reasoning, even interior, to make of it a fine sacrifice to the Lord. Worse yet would it be to communicate our reasonings to others, to criticize the dispositions of superiors, etc.; in such manner obstacles would be created also to the obedience of others.

If you wish to give all your personality to the Lord, you must renounce totally your manner of seeing which, for as much as it may be good, will always be infinitely inferior to that of God, and God makes you act according to his views, precisely through his superiors.

2 — To say that the superior manifests to us the will of God, does not truly mean that all that he thinks, says, wills, God also thinks, says, wills. Certainly not. But only that, when the superior, as such, gives a legitimate order, that order is surely the manifestation of the will of God. Blind obedience is precisely that which, surpassing every judgment or personal opinion, adheres to the orders of superiors, solely because in them it recognizes the divine will. It is blind because it blinds the intellect not permitting it to take account of its own judgment, to examine the motives of the superior, to discuss the command received; it is blind because it is founded solely on a motive of faith, since indeed by faith we know that the will of God reaches us through superiors. And, since faith is an “obscure” knowledge, one can say that obedience is as conditioned and as such is “deprived of natural light” and therefore blind; in other terms, it is an obedience that is not based on the reasonableness of human motives, but on this sole motive of faith: who listens to superiors, listens to God. “He who hears you, hears me” (Lk. 10, 16).

In cases in which the opinion of the subject is better than that of the superior, blind obedience does not consist in denying one’s own judgment until affirming the contrary — which would not be conformable to truth — but simply in renouncing to regulate oneself according to one’s own opinion and in judging that one must nevertheless obey, because it is certain that God wills from us that which the superior has ordered and not that which to us seems, and perhaps even is, better.

Whoever, under pretext of the more perfect, leaves the way of obedience, leaves the secure way of the will of God for the dangerous way and full of snares of one’s own will; and it is a thing that a consecrated soul can do nothing pleasing to God outside of holy obedience. “The actions of the religious — says St. John of the Cross — are not his, but of obedience, and if he subtracts them from this, account will be asked of him as of lost actions” (Ct. 11).

Colloquy

“O Lord, how different are your ways from our gross imaginations! How true it is that from a soul already resolved to love you is all remitted into your hands, You will nothing else but that it obey, of nothing else desirous than to seek what may contribute to your greater glory! Since its will is yours, it has no need to seek nor to choose for itself another road, because this care, Lord, you take yourself and guide the soul by the path that is most advantageous to it. But if the superior should not have at heart our spiritual profit... You, O my God, would provide for it all the same, disposing in such manner the souls and our occupations as to find ourselves afterward, without knowing the manner, so advanced in the spirit and with so much profit as to remain marvelous” (T.G. Fd. 5, 6).

“From how many inquietudes is one not always freed, good God, pronouncing the vow of obedience!... Having for compass only the will of superiors, shall I ever be secure of proceeding on the right path without fear of erring, nor even when to my eyes it seems certainly that superiors are mistaken. But as soon as I cease to consult the infallible compass, soon my soul loses itself in the most arid paths, where soon the water of grace comes to fail. O Jesus, obedience is the compass that You have given me to conduct me with security to the immortal shore; and how sweet it is to me to repose my gaze upon it and then to accomplish your will!” (T.B.G. St. 9).

O Lord, I wish to give myself to obedience with an unshakeable confidence in your divine government that rules all, guides and turns in an infallible manner to the good of my soul. I wish to give myself to obedience without the least hesitation; binding myself to it I bind myself to you, I bind myself to your will.