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Today's Scripture
22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.
*St. John 14.22-24, NLT
Wisdom Quotes
The holy Syncletia said, "I think that for those living in community obedience is a greater virtue than chastity, however perfect. Chastity carries within it the danger of pride, but obedience has within it the promise of humility."
*St. Syncletia was a Desert Mother of the 5th Century
See how good and merciful is the Lord. He gave Christians the law for no other reason than for the destruction of our malice, for a cleansing from sins, and for the conquering of the passions that war against God's law. Therefore, we must not only keep God's commandments, but must also offer gifts in accordance with the commandments: just as the holy Fathers offered, each according to his strength, one five talents, another ten, another thirty. In the same way we also must prosper in doing good and in love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
*Abbot Nazarius of Valaam Monastery (1735-1809)
Wisdom Story
Abba Sylvanus had a disciple in Scetis named Mark. Mark had in great measure the virtue of obedience. He was a copyist of old manuscripts. Abba loved him for his obedience. He had eleven other disciples. They were upset that Abba loved Mark more than them.
When the old men nearby heard how Abba loved Mark more than the others, they were upset. So, they visited him, and Abba took them with him. Going out of his cell, he knocked on the door of each of his disciples. Abba would say, "Brother, come out, I have work for you." Not one of them appeared immediately.
Abba came to Mark's cell. Knocking, he said, "Mark." As soon as Mark heard Abba's voice, he went outside, and Abba sent him on an errand.
Abba Sylvanus asked the men, "Where are the other brothers?" He, then, went into Mark's cell. He found the book Mark had been writing in, and Mark was making the letter O. When he heard his Abba's voice, he had not finished the line of the O. The men said, "Truly, Abba, we, also, love the one whom you love, for God loves him, as well."
Comments
There are both inner and outer aspects in the virtue of obedience. Obedience to the inner life purifies the heart, so that we offer ourselves consciously as means of Grace. This means we are not, chiefly, offering ourselves, love, Christ, or any spiritual gift to others. We are, rather, consequent of first offering ourselves to God, a means of God offering Godself to others, and with all virtues and gifts of that Presence. In this we are not offering God, as much as God in us is offering who we are in God and God in who we are.
Then, the outer life is the testing ground for inner work. Inner work becomes easily escape from the needs about us, a sanctuary from others, rather than a sanctuary opening out onto the world.
Jesus lived deeply his union with the Father. And the Trinity is the sign of the integrated life within God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is and are, for they each and one live in an intimacy of withinness. The divine intimacy is the ontological basis of the inwardness of creatures. The Trinity is the ontological ground of the necessity of the inner life. The Trinity is, also, the ontological ground of the necessity of the outer life. For Godself in the Trinity becomes present as one and three, in union of deity and diversity of operation, to creatures outside the inwardness.
Obedience, really, is one life. Obedience is the life of union of inner and outer.
Possibly, one of the greatest threats to the life of authentic Christianity is the pervasive failure to obey the call to the inner devotion, leading to contemplative union, that prepares one most to be a sacrament of Christ to other creatures.
Reflection
How are you obeying the vocation of the union of the inner and outer in Christian discipleship?
How are you in obeying the words of Christ?
How does obedience to spiritual mentors and other authorities, both within and outside the Church, pertain to the virtue of obedience?
Do you believe there is a crisis of obedience in the Church? The home? Larger society? Explain your responses.
*Sources: quote St. Sycletia, story of Abba Sylvanu, thenazareneway.com/paradise_of_the_desert_fathers; quote Abbot Nazarius, mycopticchurch.com/articles/fathers.aspmycopticchurch.com
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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