Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter

Lectionary: 286

And now I have told you this before it happens,
so that when it happens you may believe.
I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming.
He has no power over me,
but the world must know that I love the Father
and that I do just as the Father has commanded me."

Crucifixion is a horrible way to die, but it is very public and if you're the Lord and want to make a statement about yourself and your obedience to God, this is the way to go. The entire world sees a crucifixion because the victim is raised high above the crowd and is seen by all passersby on the nearby highway into the city. As dreadful as it is, they cannot look away.

In a similar vein, Saint Paul said of Jesus, 

...he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him...

As a young man of twenty-one, I made a solemn vow of obedience to the Church and the Franciscan Order. I was frankly more concerned at the time about the vow of chastity (or celibacy) and gave little thought to the third vow of poverty. But, I have come to know obedience as the most important of the three. The early Christian monks who laid the foundations of religious life promised only obedience. The other two were implicit, and none of it was easy unless one walked entirely in the Spirit. 

In those days we novices and simply-professed discussed vaguely whether one should obey a superior who told us to do something obviously stupid. Something like planting turnips upside down. Not that any of us were farmers or knew anything about turnips, but planting them upside down seemed obviously stupid. Should we do it in obedience? I think, if I remember correctly, we agreed to do it slowly, offering passive resistance, until a brighter authority would speak up for doing it right. 

Several years later, I got creative with the Mass and rearranged some elements in a fashion I thought suitable. With a very small group of seminarians and one priest, Father Berard Marthaler, I called for the Our Father and Sign of Peace before the Offertory. I recalled that Jesus "took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples." I supposed the order should be Offertory, Eucharistic Prayer, Fraction, and Distribution without the interruptions. It made sense and felt right to me.

Afterwards, Father Berard chewed me out. "This is not your Mass!" he said, "You cannot do with it whatever you want!" I was very upset the entire day because he was right. I've never done that again. 

Saint Francis taught his friars about perfect and imperfect obedience in his Admonitions: 

The Lord says in the Gospel: he "that doth not renounce all that he possesses cannot be a disciple" and "he that will save his life, shall lose it." That man leaves all he possesses and loses his body and his soul who abandons himself wholly to obedience in the hands of his superior, and whatever he does and says—provided he himself knows that what he does is good and not contrary to his [the superior's] will—is true obedience. 

And if at times a subject sees things which would be better or more useful to his soul than those which the superior commands him, let him sacrifice his will to God, let him strive to fulfill the work enjoined by the superior. This is true and charitable obedience which is pleasing to God and to one's neighbor.

It still seems like a big deal, like a very difficult command. But really, what does it matter? As my friend Father Howard Hansen - God rest his soul - used to say, "Quid est aeternitatae?" What is that in eternity? My will? What I want? What I think is important? Can that be important before the everlasting will of God the Father. 

I'm told that Frank Sinatra's I did it my way is the most popular anthem at funerals today. I've heard it once or twice in funeral homes, though never (thank God) in church. 

The saints and martyr universally command us to renounce the will on the way to salvation. Sure, we can express an opinion about many matters. And then let it go. It's not important. 

There's a better God to worship than myself. Thank God for that!