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 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.
All of our Lenten fasting and almsgiving is really at the service of helping us to be more obedient to the commands and inspirations of God. Fasting can strengthen our wills against disordered tendencies, and almsgiving flows out of that command to love our neighbor as ourselves. Prayer helps us to love God and to hate offending him through disobedience.
Obedience and disobedience have eternal consequences. As Jesus teaches today: whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven, and whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” Adam and Eve jeopardized the eternal life of all of humanity through an act of disobedience. Satan and a third of the angels were expelled from heaven for disobedience. Our own souls will be judged by this measure: did we simply obey, or not.
Simple obedience is not always easy; for we have often allowed rebelliousness to run rampant in our hearts; we have fabricated quite sophisticated justifications for our bending and breaking of the rules; we act as if the rules are for others. But True Faith is the call to simple obedience.
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. Let us truly harken to the Great Command to love God with our whole hearts, minds, and strengths. 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.
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That obedience to all the commands of Christ and the Church may mark the life of every Christian.
That all families will recommit themselves to fervent prayer this Lent so as to grow in greater love and holiness. We pray to the Lord.
That this Lent we will be faithful to fasting and to all the ways that the Lord sanctifies us. We pray to the Lord.
For generous giving for the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless, those who are sick, unemployed, victims of natural disaster, terrorism, war, and violence, the grieving and those most in need. We pray to the Lord.
For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered. We pray to the Lord.
Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.
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