On Obedience
Jan. 22
The first degree of humility is obedience without delay. This is the virtue of those who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ; who, because of the holy service they have professed, and the fear of hell, and the glory of life everlasting, as soon as anything has been ordered by the Superior, receive it as a divine command and cannot suffer any delay in executing it. Of these the Lord says, “As soon as he heard, he obeyed Me.” And again to teachers He says, “He who hears you, hears Me.”
Such as these, therefore, immediately leaving their own affairs and forsaking their own will, dropping the work they were engaged in and leaving it unfinished, with the ready step of obedience follow up with their deeds the voice of him who commands. And so as it were at the same moment the master’s command is given and the disciple’s work is completed, the two things being speedily accomplished together in the swiftness of the fear of God by those who are moved with the desire of attaining life everlasting. That desire is their motive for choosing the narrow way, of which the Lord says, “Narrow is the way that leads to life,” so that, not living according to their own choice nor obeying their own desires and pleasures but walking by another’s judgment and command, they dwell in monasteries and desire to have an Abbot over them. Assuredly such as these are living up to that maxim of the Lord in which He says, “I have come not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Reflection
How can we apply this chapter on obedience to us who are oblates? We need a spiritual master to teach us, and we can find one in the interior voice of the Spirit. Let us pray that we may always be open to hear Him.
Saint Benedict asks us here to put ourselves humbly in the presence of the Other Who already dwells within us. In stripping ourselves of our inmost self we will become more open to receive the One Who loves us; and we will begin to rejoice because we will find ourselves loved. Soon we will be able to go forward and to love even our very selves. It is by doing this, and only by doing this, that we will find true humility and our path towards Jesus.
