3rd Week of Lent - Wednesday - Simply Obey

Both Moses in the Old Testament Reading and Jesus in the Gospel extol a very important moral virtue this morning: obedience.

Summing up the entire spiritual life, Saint Francis de Sales, Patron Saint of Spiritual Directors said: “Simply Obey.  God does not ask anything else of you.” 

Obedience to the commandments keeps us in right relationship with God, and obedience to the inspirations of His Holy Spirit help us make us instruments of his grace in the world.  The word obedience comes from the latin word for turning your ear and harkening to the voice of another.  Communion with God and communion with the Church requires obedience to God’s commands and the teachings of the Church.

Alphonsus Ligouri said that obedience I more pleasing to God than all the sacrifices of penitential works or alms giving which we can offer to him.  All of our Lenten fasting and almsgiving is really at the service of helping us to be more obedient to the commands of God.  Fasting can strengthen our wills against disordered tendencies, and almsgiving flows out of that command to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

You may have already read on the front page of the Plain Dealer this morning how a priest who had promised respect and obedience to the bishop of the diocese of Cleveland has been excommunicated.  Excommunication is the Church’s way of alerting a person that they are doing something that gravely harmful to the unity of the church and their relationship with God.  In direct defiance of the church’s teachings and authority, this priest has led a group of Catholics into schism. 

We certainly pray today for reconciliation, that this group of catholics and this dissident priest may see this as a wake up call, that it is time to harken their ears again to the voice of the shepherd, in order to return to right relationship with God and the Church.

The Lenten journey leads us to encounter Christ who is totally obedient to his Father’s will, the Sacred Heart is an obedient heart, it is the heart of one which has surrendered everything to the Holy Will.  By God’s grace may we be free from all that keeps us from following the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter of God’s law and from faithfulness to God’s inspirations for his glory and salvation of souls.