Throughout the course of this year’s reflection on Consecrated Life, I've always been careful to refer to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience not only as virtues for monks, friars, priests and nuns, but also as human values that are relevant to all who want to live their lives according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To put it simply, we could say that the vow of poverty defines and guides us in our relation with material things, the vow of chastity in our relation with people, and the vow of obedience in our relation with God. It is true that they all have implications with these three realities but it is also true that for each vow one of the three predominates.
With respect to the vow of obedience quoted in the passage above, the apostles refused to obey the Sanhedrin which was the highest authority of the people of Israel, composed of the High Priests, the Scribes, the Pharisees and the Elders, a total of 71 members. They justified this civil disobedience with their understanding that they ought to, above all, obey God not men.
Our place in the world
But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. (Mt. 6:33-34)
It is obedience that awakens us from the self-serving individual dreams of greatness and gives us the conviction that, as citizens of this world, we are here not for ourselves as our lives are not about us. Obedience recognizes and appreciates, at the same time, the rights and the obligations that all individuals have of belonging, participating and possessing a place in the history of humanity.
It is true that each one of us is an autonomous, independent and free living human being, and yet our individuality cannot be explained on its own; I would not have existed without the prior existence and coexistence of my father and mother. We are at the same time free and interdependent beings because we are all part of a family, of a community, of a country, of humanity.
The opportunity was given to a student to observe bacteria under the microscope. He could in fact see how a generation of this microscopic living organisms arose, grew, reproduced and died, leaving its place to the next generation. He saw, as he had never seen before, life being transmitted from one generation to the next. Understanding the lesson underlying this observation, that the value of his own life depended on how it occupied the space in the broader context of the common good, he said, "I pledge not be a weak link in life".
This story suggests that humanity is also a succession of generations interconnected like in a relay race. After finding our place in the world so that our life is productive and not necessarily reproductive, we ought to make it a contribution to the progress of humanity; we need to pledge to leave this world a better place than we found it. In this context, Obedience is therefore my participation and contribution to the building of a better world, the Kingdom of God.
No one finds self-fulfillment outside the community or against the community; in other words, there is no self-realization that is not a contribution to the community. We only feel good about ourselves when others feel good about us. It is only by appreciating others that we appreciate ourselves, and it is by recognizing the rights of others that we recognize ours. To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, each one of our small steps or successes is a leap for mankind.
In order for this to occur, as suggested by Jesus in the passage above, we need to first seek the Kingdom of God and His Justice; that is, with an attitude of obedience to God, we must resist all temptations to satisfy our own needs for it is only in so doing that happiness and self-fulfillment will be at our reach. Indeed the passage even suggests that we need not worry about these needs because in the process of seeking the Kingdom of God, that is, fulfilling the task which God has called us to, our needs will be naturally fulfilled.
As baptized Christians, we are all part of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church; as such, we are called to act in the here and now of the human history, the work of salvation which Christ started 2000 years ago. Since Christ could not live twice in a physical body, and since his salvation is for all humanity and not only for his contemporaries, all Christians, of each time and place, are called to be Christ's mouth, eyes, ears, arms and legs. From this perspective, the obedience of each and every Christian resembles the active compliance of each and all individual members as it happens in a physical body, to attain harmony and the greater good of the entire body.
The thirst for power
Pilate therefore said to him, "Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." (Jn. 19:10-11)
Unlike all other nations, the people of Israel never really wanted to have a king. Their only King was God, who time and time again raised a leader to guide and govern them according to His statutes and decrees. Throughout the history of humanity, all who had power attributed it in some way to God as its source or that they were exercising it on behalf of God, the only and one true Almighty. The association and identification of God with power led some Roman emperors to even proclaim themselves as gods.
Francisco Franco, caudilho de España por la gracia de Dios (Francisco Franco, the leader of Spain by the grace of God)–Thus was minted on the Spanish coins during the period of fascism in Spain. Recognizing that he himself did not have the right to occupy the position he claimed, because he was neither the elected president of the republic nor the son of a monarch, Franco resorted to this deception which, in its own way, affirms the fact that real power comes from God, and is delegated temporarily to this or that leader.
The acknowledgement that all authority comes from God and that He is above all powers, is exactly what St. Thomas More meant to say when one day while in prayer he was interrupted several times by a messenger of King Henry VIII who demanded to see him right away. With a calm that was characteristic of him, the saint said to the messenger, “Go and tell his majesty that at the moment I am busy with someone greater than him, the King of the Universe.”
Dura lex sed lex – The law is hard but it is the law. The whims and caprices of a dictator, or of someone who abuses the power delegated to him and governs as he pleases, makes the law much harder to bear. But being the law, equal for all in principle and by principle, it makes everyone equal under it. The ruling of the law, or the supremacy of Morals or Ethics, is the image of God’s supremacy since He is the Father of us all, and we are all equal before Him—hence in here lies the foundation of the dignity of a human person.
Voice of the people voice of God – In democracy the power resides in the people and always in the people. Since the people cannot rule as a whole, the power is periodically delegated to the ones who represent them in the governing of the nation. The same thing applies within a Religious Order; the power rests in the confreres who also periodically delegate it by elections to the so called Superior or Abbot.
Since the vow of obedience is made to God, to Him is also vowed the obedience that is mediated by or through a superior. Striving to act exclusively on the will of God, the superior of a religious order represents also the commitment that each individual religious makes to God, the community and the Church in general.
The vow of obedience
They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me… (Jn. 14:21)
Since the disobedience of Adam and Eve, through which evil entered the world, the history of Israel could be read as one where obedience is always tampered with disobedience. For Jesus it is only through obedience to the Word of God, which means by acting on it, that a person is able to build his house on rock; any other way it is inconsequential, leads to nothing, and the house is blown away by the wind. (Mt. 7:24-27)
Jesus called all who heard him to accept and obey his teachings, to incorporate them in their daily lives, and to imprint them into their day-to-day attitude and behaviour. However, Jesus also called twelve men from their previous lives, jobs and families, to have them at his complete disposal; to them, he told in complete detail how to behave, what to do, where to go, how to go and what to say.
Obedience is due to God alone and the religious vow of obedience cannot be an exception. This happens not because we belong to an institution that needs an authority but because we need mediations between us and God. The vow is based then on the faith that the will of God comes by means of a governing body.
For this reason, the first objective of obedience, what is most important, is not the structuring of the Community but the self-fulfillment of each one of its members; thus, obedience has less to do with the submission or the renunciation of one’s will and more to do with the affirmation of God’s will, despite the desires and opposing forces that operate within us and within the superiors.
It is therefore no longer our will which alienates us from God after we’ve freely decided to devote ourselves to the Kingdom of Heaven, quite the opposite, it is the evil that resides within us which in every moment antagonizes our fundamental choice. Lastly, and as Jesus puts it, obedience is a result of love, I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. (Jn. 14:31)
Coordinator of charisms
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father – the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. (Mt. 23:8-12)
Abbot, primus inter pares, prior, provincial, responsible, and superior are some of the titles that were given throughout history to that person who, elected by the majority, represents what we promise to God, the sacrament of divine authority to whom we ultimately owe obedience. All these titles in some form or other go against the passage quoted above because they put this person at a level above all others.
To my understanding, the best title for this position is coordinator of charisms, because each brother or sister has different charisms and for all these charisms to work harmoniously, with the view of forming one single body and for the greater good, it is necessary that there be a coordinator.
As the coordinator of charisms, the function of the “superior” is directed more to the community as a whole than to each of its members in parts. Each religious person is governed by his or her own conscience, and is therefore, apart from God, not obligated to satisfy anyone. As free and independent beings, we do not need anyone to tell us what we should or should not do.
As the idea of a coordinator of charism implies, in each community there is the need of a person who, like the maestro of an orchestra, harmonizes the distinct individuals to work in unison. In an orchestra, each musician plays a different instrument, each with its own unique and distinct sound; it is left up to the maestro, following a general score to which he himself obeys, to merge the contributions of all the different musicians into one beautiful melody.
So it must also be inside a religious community where each person should be above all truthful and faithful to himself and to his project or Mission, all the while bearing in mind that this would not make any sense unless it fits within the context of the common good safeguarded by the coordinator.
In case of conflict
Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God. Benjamin Franklin
Power does not always corrupt, but when it does it can even corrupt the one who in the community has the faculty to coordinate the charisms of all for the common good. The coordinator as well as the members of the community need to always be permanently within earshot of God and in dialogue with each other so that coordination and obedience are carried out according to the will of God.
We must always obey when what is asked of us goes according to our project and to what we have promised to God. However, if a member of the community has determined with all certainty that the coordinator demands obedience for reasons that are not in keeping with the will of God, in all good conscience, the member of the community can and should disobey because this type of disobedience is in fact obedience to God.
In the lack of this certainty, in case of doubt, it is preferable to obey; it will require certainly an act of faith in the coordinator but throughout the history of salvation, as it has been described in the Bible since Abraham, there are numerous examples where the question of obedience turned, many times, into a question of faith... either you believe, risk, trust and throw yourself knowingly into the dark abyss or you don’t believe, retreat and stay paralyzed.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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