July 24, 2009
Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
By Melanie Rigney
“I, the Lord, am Your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)
The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. (Psalms 19:8)
"Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit.” (Matthew 13:18-22)
Piety
Jesus, Almighty King of kings, You Who obeyed Your Father to the end, teach me the meaning of obedience. My soul burns to comply to Your Will, striving to charm Your Divinity. While my worldly nature seeks one way, my spiritual nature seeks another. Bless me with the strength to obey, that my soul may subdue both natures, blending them as a fair aromatic bloom. I always seek favor in Your eyes, to always obey You until my last breath! (Found at Catholic Online or http://www.catholic.org/clife/prayers/prayer.php?p=1563)
Study
Obedience is “the submission to the authority of God which requires everyone to obey the divine law,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We’re required to be obedient to the Church “in those things which pertain to our salvation” and to civil authority “for the sake of the common good and the order of society.”
A lot of other wise things have been said about obedience.
Thomas Aquinas: “Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His. If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.”
Teresa of Avila: “Souls who by God’s mercy are brought so far ... will, I believe, be greatly benefited by practicing prompt obedience.”
Henry David Thoreau: “What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but in his opposition, to his instincts, in one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.”
Peace Pilgrim: “The purpose of problems is to push you toward obedience to God's laws, which are exact and cannot be changed. We have the free will to obey them or disobey them. Obedience will bring harmony, disobedience will bring you more problems.”
Henry Ward Beecher: “True obedience is true freedom.”
Beautiful words. But if true obedience is true freedom, why is it so hard to achieve?
In our hearts and souls, we know we owe all to the Lord. Like the Israelites in today’s first reading, He has led us out of places of slavery, be that slavery in physical chains or mental or emotional ones. He has set down commandments that are the basic principles for a harmonious community: Honor me. Honor others in your life. Don’t do things that will hurt you or others.
Yet despite the perfect law of the Lord and His words of everlasting life, and the examples of Christ’s passion and Mary’s “let it be done to me,” we find it so difficult to obey these rules in our daily lives. We turn down the volume of that inner voice that seeks to set us on God’s path. We become that person in whom the Word has been sown... but we fall from the path due to tribulation, persecution, anxiety, or temptation. And it is obedience to the Lord, our God, that brings us back, again and again.
None of us ever will be as perfectly obedient as Christ. But every time we acknowledge and learn from our mistakes, we are brought closer to true obedience, and closer to the relationship the Lord desires to have with us.
Action
Discuss with your group reunion or others important in your life what obedience means to you and the places you find it difficult to obey.
