Memorial of Saint Bernard

Saint Francis in the
Valley of Saint Francis

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.

How fascinating that Jesus tells us to obey even those authorities who fail to edify us by their manner of life! Here is another of his counter-cultural teachings, though we might suppose it is precisely the opposite of counter-cultural.

Counter-cultural in the 1960’s and 1970’s was a catch-all phrase for alternative music, communes, recreational drugs and subsistence farming. Today counter-culture might be green, gay or gentle. One thing counter-culture never suggested then or today was obedience. That would have been too far out for even the most radical hipster. 

But here is Jesus teaching us to obey the scribes and Pharisees who “tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders….”

Saint Francis echoed this teaching when he urged his contemporaries to show profoundest respect to the clergy, despite their personal lives:

We must also frequently visit churches and venerate and revere the clergy not so much for themselves, if they are sinners, but because of their office and administration of the most holy Body and Blood of Christ which they sacrifice upon the altar, receive and administer to others. And let all of us know for certain that no one can be saved except through the holy words and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which the clergy pronounce, proclaim and minister. (from the Later exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance.)

His Admonition #26 reads:

Blessed is the servant who has faith in clerics who live properly according to the form of the Roman Church.  And woe to those who despise them; for even if they might be sinners, yet no one must judge them, because only the Lord himself reserves to himself judging them. For how much greater is their ministry, when they handle the most sacred Body and  Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they themselves receive and only they minister to  others, so much more are they guilty of sin who sin against them, than against all other  people of this world.

With these teachings and others Saint Francis reminded his disciples that the Eucharist is greater than the priest who administers it. His “counter-cultural” gesture was to revere the sinful priest despite his sins, honoring the authority of even those who are personally and flagrantly unworthy of such respect. In a sense he subverted the illegitimate authority of the priest who called attention to himself, and turned our attention back to the Lord of the Eucharist who loves and saves his people despite the sins of the clergy.

Obedience puts to death the “old man” with its self-centered willfulness. It reminds me that my life is not about me. As Saint Paul said, For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. (Philippians 1: 21) That’s the hard lesson that the Son of God taught on his way to Calvary. Obedience paves that hard road and makes it easier to travel.