401. Twenty-sixth Friday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 359 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Our obedience should be intelligent.
God has called us to carry out a supernatural work that far exceeds our own strength. In any human undertaking, discipline is an essential part of effectiveness. Organization and division of labour are pre-requisites for good results. But when the undertaking is divine, obedience is absolutely necessary.
The Church reminds us in todayâs Gospel: He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.
Our apostolic effectiveness doesnât depend on merely human means. The ascetical and apostolic practices in the Work have come from God, through our Founder. They stem not from our own effort and insight but from the spirit of the Work. Hence our need for obedience.
But it is not enough to want to obey; we must learn how to. Do you want to obey fully? Well then, listen carefully so that you may understand the extent and the spirit of what is being pointed out to you. If you do not understand something, ask.
As we learned from the start, our obedience has to be intelligent. When obeying, we enlist all our faculties. Obeying passively, like a lifeless instrument, is impossible for anyone in Opus Dei, because we take full responsibility for all our actions. The Directors count on this disposition of ours and ordinarily donât specify what to do down to the last detail. Theyâll point out what needs to be done, and then we put our mind and heart into the project, consulting when necessary, and carry out what has been entrusted to us.
To obey intelligently, we must listen and grasp what needs to be done. Our Father wrote: Most acts of disobedience come from not knowing how to âlistenâ to what one is being asked to do, which in the end shows a lack of humility or of interest in serving. If we donât understand, we have to ask again, and pay attention to what we are being told.
In addition, we also have an obligation to point out to the Directors those facts which we think they need to know, when it seems to us that the thing they have asked us to do has some aspects they may be unaware of. But if, in spite of this, they insist, we have to obey, as long as no offence to God is involved. And we canât go wrong in doing so: God will draw great good from our obedience.
Complete obedience; avoiding critical spirit.
Intelligent obedience does not mean questioning what we are asked to do; it means putting all our talents and resources into the task entrusted to us. Itâs not a matter, therefore, of looking for difficulties. We shouldnât behave in such a way as to deserve the reproof our Father wrote about: You comment and criticize. Without you, it seems, nothing is done properly.
Donât be angry if I tell you that you are behaving like an arrogant despot.
Obedience unites us to our Lord, who came to earth to do his Fatherâs will. The Second Vatican Council teaches: Let all follow the example of Christ who by his obedience even unto death, opened to all men the blessed way of the freedom of the children of God. Therefore we should obey wholeheartedly: Non mea voluntas, sed tua fiat - not my will, but thine be done.
Critical spirit is as far removed from wholehearted obedience as it is from intelligent obedience. It is not intelligent, since it overlooks the most important factor: the supernatural reason for obeying. Moreover, critical spirit is opposed to boldness and daring. It narrows peopleâs outlook and leads them to go through life with a small-minded attitude. Itâs synonymous with a mind that is closed, trapped in itself, with neither human optimism nor supernatural faith. People with a critical spirit filter everything through their own narrow, partial point of view.
Obedience, the fruit of faith, increases our love of God. By destroying arrogance and fostering humility, obedience becomes the gateway to charity. We realize we are engaged in a divine enterprise, and recognize the limitations of our own point of view. Today, in an environment saturated by disobedience, back-biting, deception and bickering, we have to love obedience. My children, you should obey your Directors, and that way, through the Directors, you are obeying this Father of yours. Otherwise, we can do nothing in Opus Dei.
Critical spirit shows a lack of faith and supernatural outlook, the result of pride. And pride sooner or later ends up humiliating a man before others, however much of a âmanâ he is, for he will have been acting like a vain and brainless puppet, moved by Satanâs strings.
We ask God to uproot from our heart the slightest trace of critical spirit, which yields such bitter fruits.
Otherwise we will not learn to practise the spirit of the Work, and we will never be effective. You should be convinced, our Father said, that if you donât know how to obey, you wonât be effective.
Trust in the Directors.
The first condition for intelligent and wholehearted obedience is trust in the Directors. This trust, based on supernatural reasons, is always shown in the fraternity that makes our life in Opus Dei so lovable. Government in the Work, our Father taught us, is based on freedom and trust: the one in charge trusts in the responsibility of the one who obeys. Therefore Iâve sometimes said that the Work is like an unorganized organization. Each Region, each house, acts with full autonomy. My children, donât ever act as a herd, as a group. Each of you has your own personal freedom and responsibility. I believe in freedom as a means of formation; I believe in freedom as a means for effectiveness; I believe in trust as a prerequisite for unity.
Everything in the Prelature contributes to our love for and trust in the Directors. We share the same goals and spirit, and belong to the same supernatural family. Our close unity makes obedience according to the spirit of the Work both possible and easy. The Directors are courteous when they ask us to do things, as in a family. A âpleaseâ, and off we go, our Father said. âPleaseâ is our strongest word of command. We ask tactfully, respecting the freedom, intelligence and will of the person obeying. Otherwise, we would be looking for an obedience perinde ac cadaver (like that of a corpse). And as I told you Iâm not going anywhere with corpses. We are living beings, children of God. As for the dead we bury them piously.
We should respond to our Directorsâ confidence in us with the same courtesy. Our Father used to say that fear of the Directors is the worst temptation, the most diabolical one. All our actions should stem from love. Commanding and obeying are, in the end, one and the same thing: serving.
In the Directors we see the Father and Christ himself. Hence there is no room for distrust. We are grateful to receive directives, because they are a manifestation of Godâs love for us; they lead us to fulfil his will, and thus be happy and effective. Obedience is our path to holiness. By Christâs obedience we were justified, and by our personal obedience, we receive the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. Our obedience will multiply the fruit of our apostolate abundantly, as God himself promised: And if you will obey my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be full.
Our Blessed Lady, our Mother, teaches us intelligent and trusting obedience. Mary doesnât hesitate to ask about what she doesnât understand: quomodo fiet istud? How will this come about? Hers is a wholehearted and unconditional obedience: Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum, let it be done unto me according to your word. And the fruit of Maryâs obedience was infinite, for through her we received the Saviour of the world.