As a candidate for priesthood, I remember sitting down one evening in seminary and writing out my petition for Holy Orders to be sent to my bishop. Within this petition, and alongside it in a separate profession, I remember declaring a promise of obedience to the authority of the Church and Her teachings. This promise of obedience is also repeated before the congregation in the Church on ordination day as part of the rite. Its repetition indicates its significance in the life of a priest, for in each day and in every task set before him, a repeated call to obedience requires a repeated response.
The purpose and value of obedience in our world today seems to be skewed. Cries in culture loudly exclaim that obedience to oneself is all that is required and that true freedom comes from obeying one’s own desires, thoughts, and beliefs without succumbing to a system that may contradict those very desires, thoughts, and beliefs.
Obedience in this modern day looks like a warped understanding of freedom and choice. As an ordained priest, obedience can never be understood as what “I” want, rather how can I do what “He” wills. This call to obedience is not meant only of the ordained, however. Despite popular belief, by virtue of baptism, all Christians carry with them a similar responsibility of obedience to the Church and Her teachings.
Before promising to send the Advocate, Our Lord tells His disciple that to love Him means to keep His commandments (Jn. 14:15). To love Our Lord means to be obedient to all that He has taught and all that He has asked of those who call themselves His followers. With this, the modern label of a “cafeteria Catholic,” where one only picks and chooses the teachings and responsibilities that are most convenient, is not acceptable. To love is to take all teachings and commands and follow them, without exception. With this understanding, freedom is no longer measured by how many teachings or commands are asked of us, but rather by how closely we follow them so as to experience the true freedom that only God can give us. Thus, true freedom is a fruit of true obedience, and true obedience is evidence of true love.
A priest is obedient to his bishop and the Church out of love for the Body of Christ that is the Church. A Christian is called to be obedient to the teachings of Christ and His Church out of his or her love for God. It is through a life of love and obedience that we begin conforming to the perfection of our Heavenly Father (Mt. 5:48), but this is where we need the help of the Advocate, and this is why the Season of Pentecost is so crucial to our lives.
Jesus Christ fulfilled His promise of sending us the Advocate—He who is the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Obedience—because it is through a life with and in the Holy Spirit that we allow God to come into and live in our hearts.
Obedience is a daily journey (and a daily struggle), but we can start small. We can show our love to God by being obedient in things we already know we need to be, such as our commitment to our family, to our relationships, to our Church, to God’s commandments, and to our work.
We must strive to live lives in the spirit of obedience, which is above and beyond the discipline itself. The spirit of obedience is to strive to do the maximum possible in what is asked of us and not settling for the minimum. The spirit of obedience is to fulfill the command given to us without complaint of discomfort or inconvenience. The spirit of obedience is to say yes, regardless of potential embarrassment or fear.
The spirit of obedience is a life with the Holy Spirit in which we no longer allow ourselves to be imprisoned by the false realities of worldly freedom; rather, we surrender ourselves to enjoy the freedom that only the Spirit of God can provide us, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17).
Photo by Victor Serban on Unsplash
