Understanding obedience

II’S a basic virtue that comes to us like an instinct. It’s part of our natural endowments that at the beginning is ruled mainly by hormones. That’s why babies and children follow and obey their parents and elders without being taught.

But as we grow older and reason takes root, as well as the fact that we would be exposed to elements more complicated than our basic need for physical survival, we have to realize that this virtue also has to grow and develop beyond its hormonal stage.

We should not take this concern for granted. Otherwise, it would just get stuck at the level of the natural and what we consider as commonsensical. The truth is that obedience as a virtue has a coverage that extends way beyond these dimensions.

In a manner of speaking, we need to apply some philosophical and theological antioxidants to our conception of obedience to protect it from some reductive or corruptive or distorting elements and to keep it on track to its full development.

Obedience is very much at the core of the spiritual, moral and supernatural character of our life. It cannot remain in the level of instincts, the practical and reasonable. It touches on our faith and religion. It goes beyond the worldly considerations, no matter how valid and legitimate they are.

As a consequence, we cannot base our understanding of obedience on purely natural, worldly and temporal considerations. It has to enter into its more radical foundation and purpose. And that’s the fact that it is a gift from God. It has to be governed by God’s will more than just our own will and designs.

As a gift from God, it has to be understood as part of our nature. In other words, it is something to be lived all the time, in every circumstance and situation we may find ourselves in. it’s not something that we live from time to time. Its field of responsibility is universal. And so we have to develop the appropriate attitude and skills.

Of course, we have to understand obedience in reference to God. Only in that context is obedience to be lived always. Outside of that, as in our human relations, many would be the occasions when disobedience needs to be done.

When referred to God, obedience has to be seen as being at the very core of our freedom, to such an extent that freedom and obedience cannot be separated.

Where there is freedom, the freedom of the children of God, the freedom that makes us image and likeness of God, there should be obedience. Where there is obedience, there should also be freedom. We have to overcome the tendency to contrast the two.

This is something that needs to be understood very well. At the moment, the general attitude is to put them in conflict. To be free, one should be exempted from obeying. And to obey means at least a weakening of freedom.

That understanding may be right in some very limited cases, but it should be corrected to reach its full and ideal state. And that ideal state can only be reached if obedience is referred to God

In short, the main and ultimate reason for obedience should be God. It should be supernatural, not natural only. It has to be a consequence of our love for God, and because of that love, then it should also be a result of our love for others.

God, not us, is the source, the law, pattern and viability of obedience. That’s why it’s always good to refer to how Christ obeyed. Being the fullness of God’s revelation to us, he shows us the true character of obedience and how to obey.

Obedience unites our will with the will of God. This is the most difficult part to do, since we usually consider our will to be absolutely our own. We tend to think that if we subordinate our will to the will of another—in this case, God—then we would feel as if we are losing our freedom or real identity.

We need to overcome that erroneous understanding of obedience. And we just have to realize also that obedience, given our present human condition, would always involve self-denial and sacrifice.

Christ himself shows this to us. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we read: “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.” (5,8)

This is how we have to understand obedience.

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