Fidelity: Obeying God's Will

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 9/29/05)

This homily was given by Bishop Loverde for the 26^th Sunday in Ordinary Time on Sunday, Sept. 25, at St Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington.

For the last two Sundays, Jesus has been teaching us through parables. Once again today, Jesus is doing the same as He tells us the Parable of the Two Sons in the account just proclaimed to us from Saint Matthew’s Gospel. A man had two sons. He invited the first to go out and work in the vineyard. The son initially refused, but later changed his mind and went. The father invited the other son to do the same. This son said "yes", but he never went. So, Jesus poses this question at the end of the parable: "Which of the two did his father’s will?"

The answer is evident: the one that obeyed his father’s word. His obedience was shown, not by words but by his subsequent action: he actually went to work in the vineyard. He obeyed his father.

Obedience: here is a word that is seldom heard in our society, and if and when it is, it is so often misunderstood or, in fact, dismissed. Yet, for us, the disciples of the Lord, obedience is so key and central to our following Christ, to our imitation of Christ. I still recall so vividly some sentences I read years ago: "The pupil can sit at his teacher’s feet; the disciple must follow in his Master’s footsteps though they lead him to a hill named after a skull." Yes, we disciples must obey our Lord, Who tells us to imitate Him and to follow Him.

Indeed, Saint Paul in today’s second reading from his Letter to the Philippians is quite clear about what following the Lord will and must entail: "Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Yes, the Son of God obeyed His Father’s will.

So, the question for us is this: are we obedient disciples? As we know, the word "obedience" comes from the Latin verb "to hear or to listen to". For us to be obedient in faith to the Lord, we must first hear or listen to Him. How does He speak to us? He speaks to us through His Word, upon which we reflect in prayer, through His Church, which He has endowed with the Official Teaching Office, the Magisterium, and through the responsibilities inherent in our individual vocation, to which He has called us.

As we listen to His Word, we are being invited to respond with the obedience of faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states this: "To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to ‘hear or listen to’) in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself" (144). It is above all in prayer that we reflect on the Lord’s Word, begin to see its deeper meanings and implications for our lives, and attempt to apply these insights into daily life. Do we listen and give our obedience of faith?

God also speaks to us through the Church which Jesus His Only-begotten Son founded and in which He dwells in Word and Sacrament. The teachings of the Official Teaching Office of the Church, the Magisterium, are never to be dismissed; they call for our assent and practice. Christ has guaranteed that the Holy Sprit would guide and direct the body of bishops, so that their teachings, always in union with the Holy Father, can never lead the Church into error. Again, the Catechism is clear: "Having become a member of the Church, the person baptized belongs no longer to himself, but to him who died and rose for us. From now on he is called to be subject to others, to serve them in the communion of the church, and to ‘obey and submit’ to the Church leaders, holding them in respect and affection" (1269). Do we listen and give the obedience of our assent and practice?

God also speaks to us through the duties and responsibilities intrinsically connected with our individual vocation in life. The responsibilities of priests, deacons and religious differ from those who are married and are parents. Nonetheless, God speaks to us precisely through the specific vocation He has given us and is awaiting our response in obedience to Him. Do we listen within to these demands of our vocation and are we responding with our obedience?

What is it that enables us to hear or to listen to the Lord as He speaks to us in these ways? Prayer above all, that being with the Lord in the posture of listening and responding with the heart, enables us to hear and to respond with this obedience in faith. Once again, the Catechism

teaches us; "… We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son’s, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father (2825).

The saints understood how key and central obedience is to imitating and following the Lord Jesus in authentic holiness. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, whose Feast we will celebrate on Saturday next, October 1, wrote this: "I do not want to be a saint by halves. …I fear one thing alone and that is to keep my own will. Take it, for I choose all that you wish." Like her, we must seek to imitate Jesus, to do what is pleasing to the Father.

Jesus puts to us the question He asked at the end of today’s parable: "Which of the two did his father’s will?" We can only answer: "The one who ultimately obeyed his father in action." Dear Lord Jesus, let us be in that son’s company; let our obedience in faith be made evident and enduring by our actions - today, tomorrow and all days. Let us do always what the Father wills. Amen!

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