49 — DIFFICULTIES OF OBEDIENCE

Presence of God. — Teach me, O Jesus, the secret of humble obedience that submits to any superior and to any command.

Meditation

1 — Although obedience is so precious as to put all life in the will of God, nevertheless it also presents its difficulties, which derive in great part from the fact that obedience itself does not come to us immediately from God, but rather through his representatives. It happens thus that too often we forget to see God in superiors and to recognize in theirs his authority. When, for example — which happens easily in religious life — one finds oneself to have as superior an ancient colleague or perhaps even an ancient disciple, younger and less experienced than ourselves, of whom one knows very well the lacunae and defects, one may be tempted not to have enough esteem for his authority, not to give enough value to his orders. Then the life of obedience becomes particularly difficult, one hesitates to submit, one does not have recourse to the superior with filial confidence and, what is worse, one believes oneself to have reason. There is instead a grave error of perspective; one has forgotten that the superior, whoever he may be, always clothes an authority that comes from God and that has placed itself on him solely because he has been called to such office. This authority is invariable and has the same value both in the senior superior and in the young one, as much in the one experienced and virtuous as in him who is less so. In fondo, if we find ourselves in these difficulties, we must accuse our lack of supernatural spirit, of spirit of faith. We judge spiritual things according to natural views, from the point of view of human values and in such manner it is impossible for us to enter well into the life of obedience, which is instead all based on supernatural values and motives. One must know how to escape from human considerations on the person of the superior, from the thought of his qualities or of his defects, of what he has been in the past, etc., to see in him solely the representative of God, the divine authority. It is true, this sometimes may require struggle and effort truly great, which it is nevertheless absolutely necessary to undertake if one does not want to lose the fruit of the life of obedience. It is certain that the more we strive to consider in our superiors the authority that comes from God, the more perfect and meritorious our obedience will be, and God himself will take charge of guiding us through their government.

2 — Many times, if not always, to the lack of supernatural spirit is joined the lack of humility. It costs self-love to depend and submit; it costs to submit one’s own things to the judgment and to the government of another person and to remit oneself to his decisions. It costs above all when the superior may appear to us, at least under certain aspects, almost inferior to us, inferior in age, in culture, in experience, in capacity; and behold that the I, stung in its pride, kicks strongly, masking its own resistance with a thousand excuses. Yet even here there is a grave error, because, admitting even that in reality there may be in the superior some of these inferiorities, we must not stop on these, but only on the fact that the superior is always such in our regard because thus God has constituted him. Superior because God has preposed him to our government, superior because God has given him the mission to direct us in his place; his personal qualities or deficiencies do not affect the superiority that God has conferred on him. Certainly the superior, on his part, must study to acquire, if he does not possess them, the virtues and capacities necessary to the exercise of the office that he holds, but this is his affair; on our part — on the part of subjects that is — there is to do one thing only: to submit with filial humility, let oneself be guided, let oneself be governed. It is precisely a question of humility, because in fondo to humble oneself means to lower oneself, means to put oneself in one’s own place and the place of the subject before superiors is always that of a humble dependence. Let us consider the obedience of Jesus and we shall see in it this attitude of humility carried to the maximum: though being God, “he annihilated himself, taking the nature of a slave and becoming like to man; ...he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2, 7 and 8). What is our lowering, what is our submitting and depending on superiors in comparison with the annihilation of the Son of God?

Let us persuade ourselves that, if our obedience is defective, almost always this depends on lack of humility.

Colloquy

“My sweet Savior, shall I be able to see you obedient, for love of me, to your creatures, and refuse to be so, for love of you, to those who represent you? Shall I be able to see you obedient for love of me unto death, to death on the cross, without embracing amorously this virtue and the cross in which You consumed it?

“I wish to strive, as much as I can, to imitate your examples, obeying for love of you every creature or superior or equal or inferior that it may be, in all things, without reply, murmuring or delay, but gaily and amorously. Therefore I do not wish to investigate for what motive this or that thing is ordered me, much less do I wish to consider the manner in which it is commanded me or the person who commands it to me, but in the command I wish to consider only your will, leaving myself, to your imitation, to be moved in whatever direction, by whatever person, in things pleasant or painful, fitting or unfitting. No matter! Let obedience make of me what it wills.

“O Jesus, who at the price of your life have willed to repair the disobedience of Adam and mine; O Jesus, who through your death have acquired for me the grace of knowing how to obey, I no longer wish life except to sacrifice it to you through a continual and perfect obedience” (St. Francis de Sales).

“O Lord, You will, it is true, to infuse obedience in our hearts, but what impedes it is the not wishing to recognize that You speak and operate in superiors; and it is still the being attached to one’s own will” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).