예수님께선 성부의 뜻을 받들어 십자가상에서 돌아가셨다. 그 결과 죄 많은 우리 인간은 구원을 얻고 예수님께선, 부활 승천하셨다. 우리도 이 같은 성부께 대한 예수님의 순종을 본 받아 아무리 크나큰 고난에 처하더라도 하느님의 뜻을 받아드리고 순종해야 할 것이다.

오늘날 우리들에게 하느님께 대한 순종은 어떠한 의미를 지니며 순종함이 중요한 이유는 무엇인가?

하느님께 대한 순종이란 자신의 좋고 나쁜 현재의 모든 상황, 생각, 계획등을  하느님 앞에 전부 밝혀 드러내며 이 모든 것에 대해 그분께서 주도권을 가지신 가운데 생각하시고 결정하시도록 함을 의미한다. 즉 무슨 일을 행하거나 계획할 때 내가 주도권을 가지고 내 좋을 대로 결정하며 행하는 것이 아니라, 먼저 하느님께 기도하면서 이러한 생각, 계획, 행동이 하느님의 뜻에 부합한 것인지 하느님께 여쭤 본다. 그럴 경우 우리의 이러한 처신은 이미 하느님께 대한 순종의 행위이며 더 이상 내 마음 대로하는 행위에서 초월해 있다.

이렇게 함으로서 나는 어떤 일이든 그 일을 하느님께 맡겨 드리고 그 일에 대한 나의 생각과 스스로의 결정을 일단 보류한 가운데 하느님께서 그 일에 개입하실 수 있도록 함으로서 내 삶 안에서 그 분 뜻대로 모든 것이 이루어지도록 하는 것이다. 분별력과 함께 자신을 제어하는 가운데 내가 우선적으로 할 것은 이 같은 하느님께 대한 순종이다.

다음 하느님께 대한 순종은 왜 중요한가? 그것은 우리가 하느님께 대한 순종을 통해 하느님이 원하시는 바를 실천하게 되고, 하느님이 원하시는 것을 우리 역시 똑 같이 원하게 됨으로써 “그의 모상이 되고 그와 닮게 되려는” 인생에 있어서의 우리의 소명이 이루어지기 때문이다. 그 결과 우리는 진리 안에, 빛 안에 있게 되며 평화가운데 있게 된다.

하느님께 순종해야 할 경우는 자주 생긴다. 하느님께 순종하면 할수록 하느님의 지시도 그에 비례하여 증가한다. 하느님께서는 사람이 자신의 명령을 이행할 때마다 그 사람에게 그에 상응하는 은총을, 이 세상에서 가장 고귀하고 아름다운 은총 즉 자신의 가장 사랑하는 예수께 내려 주셨던 그 은총을 주신다. 따라서 하느님의 명령을 많이 받으면 받을수록 은총을 그만큼 많이 받는 것이 되므로 우리는 기꺼이 하느님의 명령을 많이 받게 되기를 바래야 할 것이며 거부하는 것은 어리석은 짓이 될 것이다.

한 영혼이 하느님께 순종하려는 결심이 섰음을 하느님께서 아셨을 때, 하느님께선 배의 키를 잡거나 마차의 고삐를 잡듯이 그 사람의 인생을 손수 주관하신다. 하느님은 실제로 그의 삶을 다스리시는 “주님”이 되시며, 그 사람의 행동 방식과 말, 기타 모든 것은 점점 하느님 방식이 되어간다.

아래는 이 같은 내용을 담은 예수님이 수난 중에 성부께 드렸던 순종의 의미, 더 나아가 이 같은 순종이 우리 인간 모두가 지녀야 할 하느님께 대한 순종에 어떠한 연관성을 지니며, 하느님께 대한 순종이란 무엇을 말하며, 왜 중요한지에 대해 교황청 설교가 이신 카푸치안 수도회 소속 칸타라메사 신부님께서 해주신 두번째 수난강론 내용 요약이다:

우리는 광대한 바닷물에 대해 알려고 할 경우 바닷물을 몽땅 다 들어 마셔 볼 수는 없다. 다 마셔 버릴 수 없을 바엔 우리가 직접 바다에 뛰어들어 이에 접해 보는 것도 좋은 방법이다. 예수님 수난의 의미를 파악하는 것도 이와 마찬가지로 우리의 유한한 머리로는 예수님의 수난 전체의 의미를 완전히 파악할 수는 없는 까닭에 예수님 수난 사례들 몇몇에 직접 동참해 봄으로서 수난의 의미를 조금이나마 이해할 수 있다. 오늘은 수난사 중 예수님의 성부께 대한 순종의 의미에 대해 알아보고자 한다.

예수께선 십자가위에서 죽기까지 순종하셨다 (필립보서 2장 8절). 한 사람의 순종으로 많은 사람들이 의롭다 여김을 받았다 (로마서 5장 8-9절) 순종은 예수님 수난 과정의 핵심으로 이로부터 수난은 그 의미와 가치를 지닌다.

성부께서 자신의 아들 예수의 십자가상 죽음에 대해 흡족하게 생각하셨던 게 아닌가 하며 분개하는 사람들에 대해, 성 버나드는 다음과 같이 옳게 답변해 주셨다: 성부께서 맘에 드신 것은 그의 죽음이 아니라 죽어가는 자의 자발적인 (성부의 뜻에 순종하려는) 의지였다 (Non mors placuit sed voluntas sponte morientis. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "De errore Abelardi," 8, 21 (PL 182, 1070)). 다시 말해 우리를 구원해준 것은 그의 죽음이 아니라 죽기까지의 그의 성부께 대한 순종이었다.

하느님께선 순종을 원하시는 것이지 희생을 원하시지 않는다고 성서는 말한다 (사무엘 전서 15장 22절; 히브리서 10장 5-7절). 예수님께서 희생을 원하신 것은 사실이나 그것은 우리를 구원하시기 원하셨기 때문이다. 그리고 이 경우 희생은 성부께 대한 순종을 확실히 드러내시기 위해 택하신 방법이지 그 자체 목적이 아니다. 하느님은 순종 그 자체를 원하셨던 것이며 이를 확실히 증명해 보이는 방법으로 희생을 원했다. 이에 관해 히브리서는 예수께선 “ 고난을 통해 순종하는 법을 배우셨다”고 기술하고 있다. 수난은 그의 순종의 증거이며 방식이었다.

신약 성서에서 말하는 예수님의 순종은 성부께 대한 순종이다. 성 이레니우스는 예수님의 순종을 종의 노래의 관점에서 극도의 어려움 가운데 하느님께 바치는 내적인 절대 복종으로 해석하며 다음과 같이 말했다:

“십자가위에서 드러난 죄는 십자가 위에서의 순종으로 씻어졌다. 그것은 사람의 아들이 하느님께 순종하시며, 십자가 위에서 못 박히심으로써 악의 원리를 멸하고 이 세상에 선의 원리를 도입, 침투시킴으로서이다. 하느님께 대한 순종은 선인 반면 불순종은 악이다. 따라서 죽기까지 한 순종으로 십자가상에 매달리심으로 그는 옛적 불순명을 없애셨다” (St. Irenaeus, "Dimostrazione della predicazione apostolica," 34).

겟세마네 동산에서 예수께선 성부께 “내 뜻대로 마옵시고 당신 뜻대로 하옵소서 (마르코 복음 14장 36절)”하고 말씀하셨다. 즉 육화된 말씀이신 예수께선 자유로운 인간 의지로 삼위 일체 하느님의 뜻에 순종하신 것이다 (St. Maximus the Confessor, "In Matth.," 26, 39 (PG 91, 68). 즉 예수님 안에서 말씀이신 성자께서 성부께 인간적으로 순종하신 것이다!

하느님이신 예수께서 인간적으로 순종하셨다! 여기에서 우리는 예수님의 성부께 대한 신심이 내포한 보편적 구원의 힘을 느낄 수 있다; 이는 하느님의 인간 행위이다; 신성과 인성이 함께 한 (teandrico") 힘이다; 시편의 표현을 빌리자면 이 같은 예수님의 신심은 “우리 구원의 반석”이다 (시편 95장 1절). 그 이유는 “ 모든 사람이 의롭다 여김을 받은 것은 이 같은 예수님의 순종 때문이기 때문이다.”

베드로 전서는 “예수님께서는 우리들을 위해 고난을 받으셨으며, 우리가 이를 본받아 따르게 하셨다”고 기술하고 있다.

그렇다면 오늘날 어떻게 하는 것이 예수님을 본받아 하느님께 순종하는 것인가? 그것은 성령을 통해 교회 안에서 해주시는 하느님 말씀에 귀 기울이는 것이다. 교회는 성령을 통해 예수님 말씀과 성서 가르침의 진정한 의미를 밝히고 이에 권위를 부여하여 이러한 하느님 말씀이 우리를 향한 하느님 뜻의 살아있는 진정한 통로 구실을 하도록 해준다.

하느님께 대한 순종은 담에 매달려 있는 멋진 거미집을 지탱해주고 있는 “높은 곳에서 내려뜨려진 중심 거미 줄”과 같다. 거미는 자신이 뽑아 만든 이 최초의 주축 거미줄에서 내려와 이러 저리 움직이면서 실을 뽑아 하나의 완성된 거미집을 만든다. 이 주축 거미줄은 거미집을 지탱해주는 역할을 하며 이 줄이 끊어지면 거미집 전체가 무너진다. 우리 사회나 종교적 구성체에 있어서도 하느님께 대한 순종이 무너지면 모든 것이 위기에 쌓이고 무너지게 된다.

그러면 하느님께 대한 순종이 중요한 이유는 무엇인가? 하느님은 명령하시기를, 부하를 두시기를 좋아하시기 때문일까? 결코 그렇지 않다.

그것은 우리가 하느님께 대한 순종을 통해 하느님이 원하시는 바를 실천하게 되고, 하느님이 원하시는 것을 우리 역시 똑 같이 원하게 되며, 그럼으로써 우리는 우리 인생의 본래적인 소명, 즉 “그의 모상이 되고 그와 닮게 되려는” 목적을 이룰 수 있기 때문이다. 그 결과 우리는 진리 안에, 빛 안에 있게 되며 평화가운데 있게 된다. 이 모든 것을 단테는 그의 작품 “신적 코미디 (Divine Comedy)” 에서 모든 사람들에 의해 가장 아름다운 구절이라고 평가 받는 한 구절 안에서 아래와 같이 적고 있다: “그(하느님)를 사랑하는 가운데, 우리는 평화를 발견한다” (Dante Alighieri, "Paradiso," 3, 85).

하느님께 순종해야 할 경우는 자주 생긴다. 하느님께 순종하면 할수록 하느님의 지시도 그에 비례하여 증가한다. 하느님께서는 사람이 자신의 명령을 이행할 때마다 그 사람에게 그에 상응하는 은총을, 이 세상에서 가장 고귀하고 아름다운 은총 즉 자신의 가장 사랑하는 예수께 내려 주셨던 그 은총을 주신다. 따라서 하느님의 명령을 많이 받으면 받을수록 은총을 그만큼 많이 받는 것이 되어 우리는 기꺼이 하느님의 명령을 많이 받게 되기를 바래야 할 것이며 거부하는 것은 어리석은 짓이 될 것이다.

한 영혼이 하느님께 순종하려는 결심이 섰음을 하느님께서 아셨을 때, 하느님께선 배의 키를 잡거나 마차의 고삐를 잡듯이 그 사람의 인생을 손수 주관하신다. 하느님은 실제로 그의 삶을 다스리시는 “주님”이 되시며, 그 결과 그 사람의 행동 방식,  말, 기타 모든 것은 점점 하느님 방식이 되어간다.

이와 관련 안티옥의 성 이그나시우스는 자신의 교구내의 한 친구에게 훌륭한 충고의 말씀을 주셨는데 그것은 “ 내가 원하지 않는 바는 무엇이든지 하지 마라, 단 그전에 하느님의 동의를 구하라 (St. Ignatius of Antioch, "Lettera a Policarpo," 4, 1)”이라는 말씀이다.

이러한 하느님께 대한 순종은 또한 모든 것을 하느님께 제시하며 이 모든 것에 대해 그분께서 주도권을 가지신 가운데 생각하시고 결정하시도록 함을 의미한다. 어디로 여행을, 어떤 직업을 가질 예정 등등 무슨 일을 행하거나 계획할 때 내가 주도권을 가지고 내 좋을 대로 결정하며 행하는 것이 아니라, 먼저 하느님께 기도하면서 이러 이러한 나의 생각, 계획, 행동이 하느님의 뜻에 부합하는지 어떤지 하느님께 여쭤 본다. 그럴 경우 우리의 이러한 처신은 이미 하느님께 대한 순종의 행위이며 더 이상 내 마음 대로하는 행위에서 초월해 있다.

이렇게 함으로서 나는 어떤 일이든 그 일을 하느님께 맡겨 드리고 그 일에 대한 나의 생각을 버리며 내 스스로 결정을 내리는 것을 포기함으로써 하느님께서 그 일에 개입하실 수 있도록, 내 삶 안에서 그 분 뜻대로 모든 것이 이루어지도록 하는 것이 된다. 이때 분별력과 함께 자신을 제어하는 가운데 내가 오직 해야 할 바는 하느님께 대한 순종일 것이다.

충실한 종이 주인을 무시하고 자기 멋대로 하지 않고 낯선 사람이 명령할 때 “우선 주인의 말을 들어봐야 한다”고 말하듯이, 하느님의 충실한 종은 “주님이 내가 어떻게 하기를 원하시는지 기도!” 함이 없이는 어떤 일도 착수 하지 않는다. 그렇게 함으로서 우리는 우리의 삶의 고삐를 하느님께 넘겨드리게 되며 그 결과 하느님의 뜻이 우리 삶의 모든 부분에 더욱 샅샅이 스며들게 되며, 하느님께 대한 살아있는, 성스러운, 합당한 희생이 될 수 있다 (로마서 12장 1절)”. 그럼으로서 전 생애가 하느님께 대한 순종이 되며 교회와 세계 안에서 하느님의 주권을 선언하는 셈이 되는 것이다.

때때로 모든 노력과 기도에도 불구하고 우리가 생각하기에 어처구니 없을 정도로 고통스러울 때가 있다. 이럴 때 우리는 이러한 고난에 부정적 마음으로 맞서지 말고 그 고난가운데서 하느님께서 우리에게 알려주시고자 하시는 그 분의 뜻을 찾도록 해야 한다. 하느님의 뜻을 마음속 깊은 곳으로부터 충심으로 전적으로 받아드릴 때 그 같은 고난의 상황에서 분노하지 않게 되며 더 큰 평화가운데 이를 감내할 수 있다.

예수님께서 직면하셨던 십자가상의 죽음 예고만큼 어려운 고난은 없을 것이다. 이러한 어려움 앞에서 예수님은 “나는 성부께서 나에게 명하신 바를 행하며, 그리하여 세상으로 하여금 내가 아버지를 사랑하고 있음을 알도록 하겠다. 일어나 가자 (요한 복음 14장 31절)” 하셨다.

우리도 예수님을 본받아 어떠한 어려움에 봉착할지라도 하느님의 뜻을 따르도록, 그 분의 명령에 순종하도록 해야 할 것이다.

Father Cantalamessa on Christ's Obedience

Second Lenten Sermon Given to Pontifical Household

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 31, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the second Lenten sermon preached this morning, before Benedict XVI and the Roman Curia, by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, at the Vatican.

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1. Sacrifice or obedience?

One cannot take in the ocean, but one can do something better: allow oneself to be taken in by it, submerging oneself anywhere in its expanse. This is what occurs with Christ's passion. The mind cannot wholly take it in, nor can its depth be seen, but we can submerge ourselves in some moments of its occurrence. In this meditation, we would like to enter in through the door of obedience.

Christ's obedience is the most salient aspect in the apostolic catechesis. "Christ became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8); "by one man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:8-9). Obedience appears as the key to the reading of the whole history of the passion, from where it takes its meaning and value.

To those who were scandalized that the Father could find satisfaction in the death on a cross of his Son Jesus, St. Bernard rightly responded: "It was not his death that satisfied him, but the spontaneous will of the one who was dying": "Non mors placuit sed voluntas sponte morientis."[1] Thus, it is not so much the death itself of Christ that has saved us, but his obedience unto death.

God wants obedience, not sacrifice, says Scripture (1 Samuel 15:22; Hebrews 10:5-7). It is true that in Christ's case, he also wanted sacrifice, and he wanted it likewise for us, but of the two one is the means, the other the end. God wants obedience for itself; he wants sacrifice only indirectly, as the condition that makes obedience possible and authentic. In this connection, the Letter to the Hebrews says that Christ "learned to obey through suffering." The passion was the proof and measure of his obedience.

Let us try to understand in what Christ's obedience consisted. As a child, Jesus obeyed his parents; as an adult he submitted himself to the Mosaic Law; during the passion he submitted himself to the Sanhedrin's and Pilate's sentence. However, the New Testament does not mention these obediences; it mentions Christ's obedience to the Father. St. Irenaeus interprets Jesus' obedience in the light of the Songs of the Servant, as an interior, absolute submission to God, carried out in a situation of extreme difficulty:

"That sin which had appeared thanks to the wood, was abolished thanks to obedience on the wood, as obeying God, the Son of Man was nailed on the wood, destroying the science of evil and introducing and having penetrate in the world the science of good. Disobedience to God is evil, as obedience to God is good. Therefore, in virtue of the obedience he rendered unto death, hanging from the wood, he eliminated the ancient disobedience that occurred in the wood."[2]

Jesus' obedience is exercised, in a particular way, in the words that are written about and for Him "in the law, in the prophets and in the psalms." When they want to oppose his capture, Jesus says: "But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?" (Matthew 26:54).

2. Can God obey?

But how can Christ's obedience be reconciled with faith in his divinity? Obedience is an act of the person, not of nature, and the person of Christ, according to orthodox faith, is that of the very Son of God. Can God obey himself? Here we touch upon the most profound core of the Christological mystery. Let us try to understand in what this mystery consists.

In Gethsemane Jesus says to the Father: "yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt" (Mark 14:36). The whole problem consists in knowing who that "I" and who that "you" is; who says the "fiat" and to whom it is said. In antiquity, two quite different answers were given to this question, according to the underlying type of Christology.

For the Alexandrian School, the "I" speaking was the person of the Word that, as incarnate, says his "yes" to the divine will -- the "you" -- that he himself has in common with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He who says "yes" and he to whom he says "yes" constitute the same will, but considered in two times or in two different states: in the state of the incarnate Word and in the state of the eternal Word. The drama, if one can speak of such, takes place more within God than between God and man, and this because the existence is not yet clearly recognized of a human and free will in Christ.

More valid on this point is the interpretation of the Antiochian School. The authors of this School say that for obedience to take place there must be a subject that obeys and a subject to obey: No one obeys himself! As moreover Christ's obedience is the antithesis of Adam's disobedience, it must be a question of the obedience of a man, the New Adam, capable as such to represent humanity. Herein, then, are those who are that "I" and that "you"; the "I" is the man Jesus; the "you" is God, whom he obeys!

However, this interpretation also has a serious lacuna. If Jesus' "fiat" in Gethsemane is essentially a man's "yes," even if he is indissolubly united to the Son of God -- the "homo assumptus" -- how can it have a universal value so as to be able to "constitute" all men "just"? Jesus seems more a sublime model of obedience than an intrinsic "cause of salvation" for all those who obey him (Hebrews 5:9).

The development of Christology filled this lacuna, above all thanks to the work of St. Maximus the Confessor and of the III Constantinopolitan Council. St. Maximus affirms: the "I" is not humanity that speaks to the divinity (Antiochians); neither is it God who, in so far as incarnate, speaks to himself in so far as eternal (Alexandrians). The "I" is the incarnate Word who speaks in the name of the free human will he has assumed; the "you" instead is the Trinitarian will that the Word has in common with the Father.

In Jesus the Word obeys the Father humanly! And yet the concept of obedience is not annulled nor does God, in this case, obey himself, because between the subject and the end of obedience is the whole breadth of a real humanity and a free human will.[3]

God obeyed humanly! One then understands the universal power of salvation contained in Jesus' "fiat": it is the human act of a God; it is a divine-human, "teandrico" act. That "fiat" is truly, to use the expression of a psalm, "the rock of our salvation" (Psalm 95:1). It is because of this obedience that "all have been made just."

3. Obedience to God in Christian life

As always, let us try to extract some practical teaching for our life, remembering the invitation of the First Letter of Peter: "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps." To reflect on obedience might contribute to create the appropriate spiritual climate in the Church and the Curia every time one faces the eventuality of changes of persons and functions.

As soon as one tries to find in the New Testament in what the duty of obedience consists, a surprising discovery is made, that is, that obedience is seen almost always as obedience to God. There is also talk, of course, of the other forms of obedience: to parents, employers, superiors, civil authorities, "to the whole human institution" (1 Peter 2:13), but much less often and in a much less solemn manner. The substantive "obedience" itself is used only and exclusively to indicate obedience to God or, in any case, to instances that are on the part of God, except in one passage of the Letter to Philemon, where it indicates obedience to the Apostle.

St. Paul speaks of obedience to the faith (Romans 10:16,26), of obedience to the doctrine (Romans 6:17), of obedience to the Gospel (Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8), of obedience to the truth (Galatians 5:7), of obedience to Christ (2 Colossians 10:5). We find the same languages in other places: the Acts of the Apostles speak of obedience to the faith (Acts 6:7), the First Letter of Peter speaks of obedience to Christ (1 Peter 1:2) and of obedience to the truth (1 Peter 1:22).

But is it possible and meaningful to speak today of obedience to God, after the new and living will of God, manifested in Christ, has been expressed and fully objectified in a whole series of laws and hierarchies? Is it licit to think that there still exists, after all this, "free" wills of God that must be accepted and obeyed?

Only if one believes in an actual and punctual "Lordship" of the Risen One in the Church, only if one is convinced in one's heart of hearts that also today -- as the Psalm says -- "The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks ... and does not keep silent" (Psalm 50:1), only then is one able to understand the need and the importance of obedience to God. It consists of listening to God who speaks, in the Church, through his Spirit, which illuminates the words of Jesus and of the whole Bible and confers authority on them, making them channels of the living and actual will of God for us.

But as in the Church institution and mystery they are not opposed, but united, so we must show that spiritual obedience to God does not dissuade from obedience to the visible and institutional authority; on the contrary, it renews it, strengthens and vivifies it to the point that obedience to men is the criteria to judge if obedience to God does or does not exist and if it is authentic.

Obedience to God is like the "thread from on high" that sustains the splendid spider web hanging from a fence. Lowering himself by the thread that it itself has made, the little animal makes its fabric, perfect and stretching out to every corner. However, that thread from on high, which has served to weave the fabric, does not break once the work is finished; what is more, it is what sustains the whole framework; without it everything loosens. If one of the lateral threads becomes detached, the spider works to rapidly repair its fabric, but if that thread from on high breaks, the spider moves away; it knows that there is nothing to do.

Something similar occurs with respect to the network of authorities and obediences in a society, in a religious order, in the Church. Obedience to God is the thread from on high: All has been built around it; but it cannot be forgotten not even after the construction has ended. Otherwise, everything enters in crisis, until proclaiming, as has occurred in not very distant years: "Obedience is no longer a virtue."

But, why is it so important to obey God? Why does God want so much to be obeyed? Certainly not because he likes to command and have subjects! It is important because by obeying we do the will of God, we want the same things God wants, and thus we fulfil our original vocation, which is to be "in his image and likeness." We are in the truth, in the light and as a consequence in peace, as the body that has reached its point of stillness. Dante Alighieri enclosed all this in a verse considered by many the most beautiful of the whole "Divine Comedy": "and in loving him we find our peace."[4]

4. Obedience and authority

Obedience to God is obedience we can always carry out. To obey orders and visible authorities happens only occasionally, three or four times in one's whole life -- I am speaking, of course, of those of a certain seriousness; however, to obey God is something that occurs very often. The more one obeys, the more God's orders multiply, because he knows that this is the most beautiful gift that he can give, the one he gave his favorite Son, Jesus.

When God finds a soul determined to obey, then he takes his life in his hands, as one takes the rudder of a boat, or as one takes the reins of a cart. He becomes in deed, and not only in theory, "Lord," who "rules," who "governs," it can be said, moment by moment the person's gestures and words, his way of using time, everything.

This "spiritual direction" is exercised through "good inspirations" and with greater frequency even in God's words in the Bible. One reads or hears passages of Scripture and behold a phrase, a word, is illuminated, it becomes, so to speak, radioactive. One feels it questions one, that it indicates what one must do. Here one decides whether or not to obey God. The Servant of Yahweh says thus in Isaiah: "Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught" (Isaiah 50:4). We, too, every morning in the Liturgy of the Hours or the Mass, should listen with an attentive ear. In it there is almost always a word that God addresses to us personally and the Spirit does not fail to act so that it will be recognized among all.

I have mentioned that obedience to God is something that can always be done. I must add that it is also obedience that we can all do, both subjects as well as superiors. It is usually said that one must obey to be able to command. It is not just question of an empirical affirmation; there is a profound theological reason at its base, if by obedience we understand obedience to God.

When an order comes from a superior who makes an effort to live in the will of God, who has prayed before and has no personal interests to defend, but only the brother's good, then the authority of God itself is the buttress of such an order or decision. If protest arises, God says to his representative what he said one day to Jeremiah: "Behold, I make you this day a fortified city ... and bronze walls [...]. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you" (Jeremiah 1:18f.).

A famous English exegete gives an enlightening interpretation of the Gospel episode of the centurion: "I," says the centurion, "am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it" (Luke 7:8). By the fact of being subject, that is, obedient, to his superiors and ultimately, to the emperor, the centurion can give orders which are backed by the authority of the emperor in person; he is obeyed by his soldiers because, in turn, he obeys and is subject to his superior.

So -- he says -- it occurs with Jesus in regard to God. Given that he is in communion with God and obeys God, he has behind him the very authority of God and because of this can command his slave to be healed, and he will heal; he can command the sickness to leave him, and it will leave him.[4]

It is the force and simplicity of this argument which draws Jesus' admiration and makes him say that he has never found such faith in Israel. He has understood that Jesus' authority and his miracles stem from his perfect obedience to the Father, as Jesus himself, moreover, explains in John's Gospel: "He who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him" (John 8:29).

Obedience to God adds authority to power, that is, a real and effective power, not only nominal or of duty; ontological, so to speak, not only juridical. St. Ignatius of Antioch gave this wonderful advice to a colleague of his in the episcopate: "May nothing be done without your consent, but may you not do anything without God's consent."[5]

This does not mean to attenuate the importance of the institution or the duty, or to make the subject's obedience depend only on the degree of spiritual power or of the superior's authority, which would manifestly be the end of all obedience. It only means that the one who exercises authority must lean as little as possible, or only as a last resort, on the task or duty he carries out, and lean the most possible on the union of his will with God's, that is, on his obedience; the subject on the other hand must not judge or pretend to know if the superior's decision is or is not in conformity with God's will. He must presume it is, unless it is an order that is manifestly against conscience, as occurs sometimes in the political realm, under totalitarian regimes.

It occurs as in the commandment of love. The first commandment is the "first" because the source and incentive of everything is the love of God; but the criterion to judge is the second commandment: "he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20). The same can be said of obedience: if one does not obey God's visible representatives on earth, how can one say one obeys God who is in heaven?

5. Present Matters to God

This way of obedience to God does not have, of itself, anything of the mystical or extraordinary, but is open to all the baptized. It consists of "presenting affairs to God," according to the advice that Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, gave him one day (cf. Exodus 18:19). I can decide on my own to take an initiative, to go or not go on a trip, to take or not take a job, to make or not make a visit, to incur or not incur an expense and then, once decided, to pray to God for the success of the matter.

But if love of obedience to God is born in me, then I will act in a different way: I will first ask God, with the very simple means of prayer, if it is his will that I undertake that trip, job, visit, expense and then I do or do not do it, but then it will already be, in any case, an act of obedience to God, and no longer a free initiative on my part. In general it is clear that I will not hear, in my brief prayer, any voice, nor will I have an explicit answer about what to do, or at least it is not necessary that there be one so that what I do will be obedience.

Acting thus, in fact, I have submitted the matter to God, I have despoiled myself of my will, I have given up deciding on my own and I have given God a possibility to intervene, if he so wills, in my life. What I now decide to do, regulating myself with the ordinary criteria of discernment, will be obedience to God.

Just as the faithful servant never takes an initiative or responds to an order from strangers without saying: "I must first hear my employer," likewise the true servant of God does not undertake anything without saying to himself: "I must pray a little to know what my Lord wants me to do!" Thus one relinquishes the reins of one's life to God! Thus the will of God penetrates, in an ever more capillary way in the fabric of a life, embellishing it and making it a living, holy and agreeable sacrifice to God" (Romans 12:1). The whole of life becomes obedience to God and proclaims silently his sovereignty in the Church and the world.

God -- said St. Gregory the Great -- "sometimes warns us with words, sometimes, instead, with events," that is, with incidents and situations.[6] There is an obedience to God -- often among the most exacting -- which consists simply in obeying the situations. When one has seen that, despite all the efforts and prayers, there are difficulties, at times even absurd situations in our lives and -- in our opinion -- spiritually counterproductive, which do not change, it is necessary to stop "kicking against the goad" and to begin to see in them God's silent but determined will in us. Experience teaches that only after having pronounced a total "yes" from the depth of one's heart to the will of God, do such situations of suffering lose the anguishing power they have over us. We live them with greater peace.

A case of difficult obedience to situations is the one that befalls all with age, that is, the withdrawal from activity, the cessation of function, having to pass witness to others leaving perhaps incomplete and in suspense projects and initiatives underway. There are those who, jokingly, have said that the highest function is a cross, but that at times the most difficult thing is not so much to ascend it, as to descend from it, to be deprived of the cross!

Of course it is not a question of speaking ironically about a delicate situation, before which no one knows how to react until it touches him. The latter is one of the obediences that is most akin to Christ's in his Passion. Jesus suspended teaching, truncated all activity, did not let himself be held back by the thought of what would happen with his disciples; he was not concerned about what would happen to his word, entrusted, as it was, only to the poor memory of some fishermen. He did not even let himself be held back by the thought that he was leaving his mother alone. No lament, no attempt to bring about a change in the Father's decision: "I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go hence" (John 14:31).

6. Mary, the obedient one

Before ending our considerations on obedience, let us contemplate for a moment the living icon of obedience, she who not only imitated the obedience of the Servant, but lived it with Him. St. Irenaeus writes: "In a parallel manner" -- understood as referring to Christ, the new Adam -- "one finds that also the Virgin Mary is obedient, when she says: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word' (Luke 1:38). As Eve, by disobeying became the cause of death for herself and for the whole human race, so Mary, by obeying, became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race."[7] Mary appears to the theological reflection of the Church -- we are, in fact, in the presence of the first outline of Mariology -- through the title of obedient.

Mary also surely obeyed her parents, the law, Joseph. But it is not of these obediences that St. Irenaeus is thinking, but of her obedience to the Word of God. Her obedience is the exact antithesis of Eve's disobedience. But -- again -- whom did Eve disobey to be called the disobedient? Certainly not her parents, of which she was lacking; or her husband or some written law. She disobeyed the word of God! As Mary's "fiat" is situated in Luke's Gospel next to Jesus' "fiat" in Gethsemane (cf. Luke 22:42), so for St. Irenaeus, the obedience of the new Eve is placed next to the obedience of the new Adam.

No doubt, in her earthly life, Mary recited or heard the verse of the Psalm in which one says to God: "Teach me to do thy will" (Psalm 142:10). We address the same prayer to her: "Teach us, Mary, to do the will of God as you did!"

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[1] St. Bernard of Clairvaux, "De errore Abelardi," 8, 21 (PL 182, 1070).

[2] St. Irenaeus, "Dimostrazione della predicazione apostolica," 34.

[3] St. Maximus the Confessor, "In Matth.," 26, 39 (PG 91, 68).

[4] Dante Alighieri, "Paradiso," 3, 85.

[5] Cf. C.H. Dodd, "Il fondatore del cristianesimo, Leumann," 1975, p. 59 f.

[6] St. Ignatius of Antioch, "Lettera a Policarpo," 4, 1.

[7] St. Gregory the Great, "Omelie sui vangeli," 17, 1 (PL 76, 1139).

[8] St. Irenaeus, "Adv. Haer.," III, 22, 4.