OBEDIENCE IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE

“Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what

he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of
eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb 5,9).

Of the three evangelical counsels the most biblical, the one that best reflects the profound
identity of Jesus Son of the Father, is without doubt obedience. Even though there is not one
specific text to provide the biblical foundation – as generally happens on the other hand with
the vow of chastity (Mt 19, 10-12) and of poverty (Mt. 19, 16-22) the whole gospel narrative
is nothing less than the expression of his filial obedience to the Father, expressed from the
very first time that he speaks in the scene of the finding among the doctors of the law in the
temple: “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Lk 2,49), until his
last words on the cross: “Father into Thy hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23,45).

The obedience of the religious has its profound roots in the obedience of Jesus Christ and
represents a way of following him (cf. LG 42; PC 14). We cannot therefore understand the
obedience of the religious, if we do not become aware of the depth of the mystery of the
obedient Christ.

The obedience of Christ

Paul presents Jesus Christ to us as “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2,8).
Even though a spiritual tradition has based the meaning of obedience in the religious life, on
the imitation of Jesus Christ, it is essential to ask ourselves the reason for this obedience of
Christ.

The obedience of Christ is intimately linked to his being the Son of God made man, that is, it
flows from his incarnation and from his mission, as one can clearly see from the expression of
the author of the Letter to the Hebrews who interprets the whole of the mystery of the
incarnation in terms of the obedience of the Son when he puts on the lips of Christ the words
of Psalm 40:

“Consequently, when Christ came into the world he said: ‘Sacrifices and offerings
thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin
offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, “Lo, I have come to do thy will, O
God,” as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” (Heb 10,5-7).

This means that Jesus obeys the Father because the Father has a plan for him: “I have come to
do the will of my Father”. And he makes of this will his food and his plan of life. (Jn 4,34;
5,30; 6,38). His mission, his work and his concern was that of doing the Will of the Father.

Consequently, the central objective of the “following of Christ” consists in continuing to fulfil
in the world the Will of the Father. In this lies the practicality of our holiness!

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Obedience in the Religious Life

Basically religious life is the public profession to take up the total Gospel as a project of life
in an appropriate manner, seeking to recapitulate the presence of Christ in the world in a
meaningful way. (cf. Eph 1,3-14).

Obedience in the religious life, therefore, is not a method of asceticism that one can use as one
chooses, nor is it a virtue that one can cultivate today and forget tomorrow, even less is it a
form of domination by one person over others.

Neither is obedience in religious life to be placed on the same level as the many other types of
obedience that are necessary for society to run smoothly, according to that aphorism in the
Roman Code of Civil Law: “Ubi societas, ibi ius”. Where there is society there is order, and
consequently authority.

Obedience in religious life is something much more profound, located on the plane of a direct
relationship between God and man. It presupposes the fact that every religious is aware that
he continues in the world the presence and the mission of Jesus: to do the will of God (C. 64).
He is convinced that such obedience is lived in the context of a community and at the service
of an apostolic project. This means that obedience, like poverty and chastity, has an apostolic
dimension (it’s at the service of the Kingdom), and a community dimension (it fosters the
building of the community).

For this reason, seeking God, or seeking the Will of God is - or ought to be- the main task of
every individual and of every community.

Presence of the Spirit and co-responsibility

The presence of the Spirit in everyone and the consequent co-responsibility of everyone in the
mission makes everyday obedience much more demanding, since it is not a question of the
confrere asking the superior for permissions or authorization. (C. 67)

The important thing is that before beginning the dialogue with the superior to discover the
Will of God, each religious tries to come face to face with the Lord in the intimacy of his own
heart, starting from the same criteria of the mission of Christ that we are called to continue.

Obedience and discernment

It is from this perspective that one sees the relevance of the new appreciation of the value of
personal and community spiritual discernment, to which the new vision of the formation of
religious confreres gives great importance, not only in the phases of initial formation, such as
on the occasions of assessment concerning the certainty of the call, growth in the maturity of
motives, the assimilation of values, growing identification with the project of life, in a word
suitability, but also throughout life, as an indispensable attitude in every religious to live
his/her vocation with creative fidelity and as a permanent response.

Discernment requires:

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 1) interior freedom in every person so as not to be carried away by false motivation;
2) listening to each other, without restrictions or being overbearing;
3) clear reference to the real situation regarding things and people.

The Person of the Superior

Recent trends within religious life have attempted to diminish the extent and even to eliminate
all need for authority in religious communities, appealing to the charismatic nature of
religious life and to the primacy of the person called individually.

It has been forgotten that in the Church there exists neither hierarchical exclusivity no
charismatic exclusivity, and that in religious life we are called to live in community.

Authority is a mission of service legitimised and conferred by the Church for the benefit of
the whole apostolic body. It is a form of hierarchical presence in the heart of a charismatic
community.

The superior, therefore, is not a natural leader who imposes him on the group. His role is to be
understood rather in the perception of the mystery of persons, in the divine pedagogy with
respect to each one of them, at the personal and community level.

Attitudes and behavior in the relationship Superior/Community

Attitude Preoccupation Objective Behaviour Result

Authoritarian The law Efficiency Orders Authoritarianism
Dictatorship Produces
Control rebellious, timid
people
Paternalist The atmosphere Peace Advice Paternalism
Manipulation, Produces insecure
demagogy and immature
people
Permissive Nothing No problems Absence Permissiveness
Spontaneity, Produces dissolute
anarchy and capricious
people
Animator/Leader The individual The community Dialogue, guided Animation
experience Produces secure
and mature people

In connection with this scheme it is necessary to observe that:

1. One can never have all the four attitudes.

2. It is possible, however, to have all the four forms of behaviour with one attitude: for
example, the attitude of the animator that leads to demanding, advising, having

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 dialogue and also on some occasions letting things be (cf. the Parable of the Prodigal
Son) according to the circumstances.
3. God has authority and is the Father, but is neither authoritarian nor paternalistic. The
Rector is called upon to reflect the authority and the fatherhood of God.
4. Often animation goes off course and becomes paternalism or permissiveness.
5. Guided experience is demanding and challenging and implies taking risks, but it is the
only way that helps the maturing process.

Obedience, the Person and the Mission

The key point in the service of authority is to be found in the increasing suitability of the
person for the mission and the mission for the person.

This places limits on the mission given the needs of the person and on the other hand imposes
requirement on the person given the needs of the mission. (C. 69.71)

The very fact of our option for the ‘sequela Christi’ and for the concrete and radical
implementation in our life of the evangelical project, in imitation of the own Founder, makes
our autonomy and control of things only relative.

And it is precisely here that we arrive at the more profound nucleus of consecration in
obedience: our total surrender to the will of God expressed through the will of the superior
and our absolute availability! That’s what makes great whatever Religious Order,
Congregation or Institute. (C. 69)

Conclusion

The principles of the Will of God as the guiding force of everything that the individual and
the community does on the one hand, and the consequent free choice to limit one’s own
autonomy and make it relative to this fulfilment of what is seen in fact as the Will of God for
oneself and for the community are what constitute the identifying parameters of religious
obedience.

Religious obedience can only be achieve existentially in profound communion with God and
with one’s brothers in the vocation, at the service of the Kingdom, full of compassion for
men, especially the poorest, the abandoned and the excluded.

It presupposes a constant self-education in love and in truth in the light of the Holy Spirit. But
lived in this way, evangelical obedience is the most humanly mature and evangelically fruitful
fulfilment of freedom.

Fr Pascual Chávez V., SDB

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