OBEDIENCE

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To have Faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

 

The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.

Banksy

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obedience

I once took my dog to obedience school

 

sit, lie down, come, heel

stay

good boy!

 

I think, most of the time, he does not understand why I want him to do what I ask

he only does it

automatically without thought

 

I would like to think I have good reasons for asking

his safety

the safety of others

and I would like to think he obeys because he trusts me

and knows that I love him

 

 

obedience

I wanted my children to be obedient too

I wanted them to do what I asked

to stop

to go to bed

to come to the table

 

they only sometimes obeyed

having minds, very much of their own

I don’t think they always understood why I shouted “stop”

(as they wandered toward the road as toddlers)

 

but I would like to think they too knew that my requests

were not just a matter of my seeking to control,

but to protect, and help

 

I would like to think they trusted me

my intent, but most of all my love

 

and I would like to think, that in the end,

they obeyed not out of fear, but out of love

 

at its best, I think obedience

is love in, love out

 

one is asked to do something, out of love

one responds out of love

 

this seems particularly important when it comes to obedience

to those imperatives that come from the Sacred

to those laws that come from Love

 

how can we be true to Love

if love is absent?

 

commands that are not offered in love

that are a matter of dominance and control

that are purely for the benefit of the one with power

that have an intent that is malevolent

 

are dangerous and deadly

and lead to Dachau and Mi Lai

and even, perhaps, January 6

 

obedience that is not based on love

can be oppressive and fear-laden

 

I must obey, or else!

 

but when the commands and laws come out of love

and the response of obedience comes out of love

 

Ah!

 

I do not know why Mary obediently said “yes”

I do not know why Joseph obediently supported her

I do not know why the shepherds obediently stumbled to the manger

rather than run into the hills out of fear

I do not know what inner prompting caused the magi

to obediently follow that star

 

I do know the result

a child born

a gift given

and from that giving, more giving

 

I do know that in the dimness of a world in travail

the faint glimmer of heaven

shone

 

and that as we are guided in love

and respond in love

and live love

 

it still shines