87. Third Wednesday of Lent

Meditations no. 133 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Our supernatural motive for obedience is to identify ourselves with God’s will.

Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfil them. Our Lord came into the world to fulfil his Father’s will, and this must be our own desire as well: to comply with God’s will in everything, but especially in what we are told or advised to do by the Directors.

We do not obey out of regard for a given person, or because what he or she asks seems to us to be a good idea, but rather because the Director is an instrument which God uses in order to show us his Will. The most effective spur, our Father has taught us, is the supernatural and human sense of responsibility which has been instilled in you. Most of my children often live and work far from their Directors (although they never lack the necessary spiritual care or continual formation) and I am sure that for this very reason they make an effort in the midst of their activities to be even more faithful to our spirit than if they felt they were under immediate supervision. Now perhaps you will understand why I often repeat that for each of us, the most supernatural reason is “because I want to”.

We must always obey with the same loving care as if it were Christ himself speaking to us. St Paul exhorts us: Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men. Such obedient self-giving is a source of supernatural effectiveness. You can see, my daughters and sons, what happened at Cana in Galilee: implete hydrias, fill the water-pots, Jesus said, and then the miracle happened. Just like that, with great simplicity. Everything was ordinary: those men were fulfilling their ordinary tasks, and they had water at their disposal. Yet this is the first revelation of Christ’s divinity. The most commonplace things become extraordinary, supernatural, when we attend willingly to what God asks of us.

We must have great supernatural outlook, and a disposition of unconditional self-surrender to God, in order to accept always, and in a docile manner, whatever we are asked to do by those who guide us, which will always refer exclusively to matters concerning the goals of the Work. To have a stable disposition of obeying, and relinquishing our own will completely, is something very supernatural and heroic. How well you understand obedience when you write: “Always to obey is to be a martyr without dying”! To obey once, twice, or three times is easy. To obey always is heroic; it is the result of extraordinary faith and love, the sort of faith and love the Lord expects from us. And so, even when obedience is difficult, we will not lack the deep interior gladness which love always brings, and we will say: Jesus, keep me smiling!

If our obedience is supernatural we will obey even in the smallest details.

Since the Work is a family of supernatural bonds, we read in the Catechism of the Work, requests are made as they are in Christian families: the strongest command is “please”, or some similar phrase. The words are gentle, and if we understand obedience properly, they lead us to act immediately.

We must be attentive to the Directors. As the Psalm says: Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God. The Lord wants us to let ourselves be guided. In this text from Scripture he points out to us what our supernatural attitude towards obedience should be. When you obey, our Father says, you ought to be quick to pick up the hints of your Directors, which are never compulsion.

Do not forget, my daughters and sons, that Christ, although he was the Son of God, in order to set us a good example, learned to obey and submitted to the sufferings of his Passion and Death: cum esset Filius Dei, didicit ex iis quae passus est oboedientiam. He learned obedience in the school of suffering. Our Lord’s attitude shows us clearly the path that we must follow: the path of readiness and attentiveness in responding to God, through the Directors.

The object is not only to fulfil the explicit instructions given to us, but also to conform our own will to the will of the one who governs. If we are faithful to the spirit of the Work, we will be quick to perceive and obey God’s requests. Often, obedience will be about details which might seem unimportant; but if we do not fulfil them, the apostolic work will be slowed down because that sort of carelessness hinders the effectiveness of grace. In apostolic work there is no such thing as a trifling disobedience. We must obey even in the smallest matters. The truly obedient man, St Bernard says, never regards little things as unimportant.

This is what our Lord wishes to emphasize in the Gospel of today’s Mass. Truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever, then, relaxes one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Even though something might seem of slight importance from a purely human point of view, and the Directors ask us to do it, as usual, by way of invitation, we should immediately recognize an opportunity to give up our personal views, and to identify ourselves with the will of those who govern and who watch over the effectiveness of the Work as a whole. These situations are always a chance to improve our loving dedication to God. And if, for any reason, we have any hesitation about obeying, we need to raise our thoughts immediately to a supernatural plane. The enemy: “Will you obey - in this ridiculous little detail?” You, with God’s grace: “I will obey - even in this heroic little detail!”

In obeying, we combine initiative with a readiness to leave our own judgement aside.

Personal ideas and solutions in matters of obedience, no matter how perfect they might seem, are of little worth for the members of the Work if they lack the seal and guarantee of being what God wants. We must consult the Directors so that we don’t exceed the boundaries of God’s will and so be deprived of merit, and so that God our Lord may not have cause to reproach us in those words of Scripture: Bring no more vain offerings.

Moreover, when we obey in accordance with the spirituality of the Work, we feel free and well-understood, for whenever the Directors ask us to do something, they keep in mind that we are intelligent, mature, responsible individuals, who use our will and intelligence actively when we obey, and who accept our responsibilities in each act of obedience. We are living beings, children of God; the dead we bury piously.

While acting with personal freedom, we want our initiative to be moderated by those who have the task of governing and the grace to make decisions. And so, if there are circumstances which suggest a course of action different from the one which has been indicated to us, we bring them up, so that the Directors are aware of them. However, we ought always to be ready to do what we are told. Obey without so much useless brooding. Appearing sad or reluctant when asked to do something is a very considerable fault. But just to feel like this is not only no fault, but can in fact be the opportunity for a great victory, for crowning an act of heroic virtue.

I have not invented this. Remember the Gospel tells us that a father asked his two sons to do the same job. And Jesus rejoices in the one who, despite raising difficulties, does it! He rejoices because discipline is the fruit of Love.

Once we know the desires of the Director, we carry them out straight away, responsibly and without putting them off. According to St Thomas Aquinas, obedience makes a person’s will ready to carry out the will of another. And our Father tells us that when we obey, we must listen carefully, because we are not sluggish or passive instruments, with no responsibility or ability to think for ourselves. After listening carefully, we focus our whole mind and will on carrying out what has been entrusted to us, with originality, initiative and spontaneity, doing what we have been asked and only what we have been asked. To act otherwise would be anarchy. In the Work, obedience fosters the development of your personal talents and helps you to live, grow and gain greater maturity, without losing your personality, remaining the same person that you were at the age of two and will be at the age of eighty-two.

Through our Lady’s intercession, we pray to God our Lord: during this Lenten season, nourish us with your word of life and make us one in love and prayer.