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Wisdom Quote
Implicit in ... contemplation is the concept of obedience; human life must be brought into conformity with a pre-existing divine harmony. ... The pious gesture of genuflection captures the implication of this notion of contemplation.
*Ronald Rolheiser. The Shattered Lantern.
In the present order of things, divine providence is leading us to a new order of human relations which by men's efforts and even beyond their expectations are directed toward the fulfillment of God's superior and inscrutable designs.
*Words by which Pope John XXIII opened the Vatican Council, Oct. 11, 1961. Thomas Merton. Life and Holiness.
Today's Scripture
16Don't you know that you are slaves of anyone you obey? You can be slaves of sin and die, or you can be obedient slaves of God and be acceptable to him. 17You used to be slaves of sin. But I thank God that with all your heart you obeyed the teaching you received from me. 18Now you are set free from sin and are slaves who please God.
*Romans 6.16-18, CEV
Stop here ~ now, proceed by meditating prayerfully on the Romans passage. Okay, let us continue, together...
Wisdom Story
A widow who was fond of cleaning had two little maidens to wait on her. She was in the habit of waking them early in the morning, at cockcrow. The maidens, aggravated by such excessive labor, resolved to kill the rooster who roused their mistress so early. When they had done this, they found that they had only prepared for themselves greater troubles, for their mistress, no longer hearing the hour from the rooster, woke them up to their work in the middle of the night.
*Aesop's Fables. Elbourne.org .
Comments
Obedience is not popular, today. In fact, persons often assume surrendering either to the Universal Spirit or to the authority of a human superior is diminishing or a sign of weakness.
However, obedience, rightly understood, is a way of wisdom, not a staid rule thrust upon us by a God who delights in seeing us suppress our native passion for action. Spiritual obedience is a means to channel wisely our eros, or soul-energy, so that the life force will lead to freedom for not only ourselves but for everyone.
This makes obedience a profound communal rite, even when I am obeying only in what I might call a personal way. My act of obedience resonates within the entire communion of creaturely life forms. There is no individual, or individualized, obedience.
Obedience, then, as Rolheiser notes, is within a "pre-existing divine harmony." The harmony is illustrated in the maidens killing the rooster. Everything has a sacred place in the divine economy; everything must be respected for the good of the whole. A rock obeys by being a rock; you obey by being a human person. The rock and you have ordained designs of action within the entire divine Design. If anything goes awry in the economy, through disobedience, as in a cancer cell or a person not "obeying" its natural place and action, the balance of the economy is upset and needs to be restored to integrity, or wholeness. Seen in this way, the Gospel shows us Jesus seeking to restore an original wholeness.
What are, in the words of Pope John XXIII, "God's superior and inscrutable designs"? We discover that only on the journey. Indeed, the path is realization of that through surrender to the overarching design, a design that calls forth our best by being both inscrutable and superior.
Rolheiser writes, in The Holy Longing, the following sane reminder: Everyone worships at some shrine. The question of final obedience remains for each of us ~ and we have to make it daily, moment-by-moment even ~ , and the answer will be a matter of what we devote our lives to as warranting our time, attention, energy ~ that is, our obedience ~ : What shrine will I choose?
Spiritual obedience ~ and all healthy obedience is spiritual ~ is not a matter of obeying some rules just to please God or anyone else, or to be a good person, or to be a good Christian, or good Buddhist, or good Hindu, or good citizen, or decent human, or ... Spiritual obedience is an actively-surrendered placing of oneself, in trust and by Grace, within the superior plan evolving out of the Mind and Heart of God for the healing of all creation ~ including your healing.
Reflections
(1) How does the teaching on obedience above compare and contrast with teaching on obedience that you have been taught?
(2) Write out your own definition of obedience? What implications does this definition imply for your life?
For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, see next page:
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