Volume III, Treatise V, Chapter XI

That to Look on Your Superior as on Jesus Christ Himself, Is an Excellent Means to Obtain Obedience in Perfection

One of the most proper, and indeed the chief means to acquire the perfection of obedience, is to behold God in your superior, and to make account that it is God who commands you, and that you obey him, not man. This is earnestly recommended to us by St. Paul in several of his epistles, but particularly in that which he wrote to the Ephesians, where he thus addressed himself to servants: “Servants, obey your masters with fear and respect, and with simplicity of heart, as you would obey Jesus Christ himself’ (Ephesians 6:5) If St. Paul commands, says St. Basil on this passage, obedience to be paid to higher powers upon Earth as to Jesus Christ himself, and even to such of them as remained in sin and infidelity—if St. Peter would also have us obey “not only the best, but even the worst of masters”—I. Pet., ii. 18,—with how much more reason ought religious obey their superiors, who desire nothing more of them than to accomplish the will of God! It is for this reason St. Paul subjoins: “You must not serve them only when their eyes are upon you, as if it were barely to please them, but, like servants of Jesus Christ, do the will of God, by serving them readily and cheerfully, as if it were Christ and not man yon were serving” (Ephesians 6:6,7) We are not to regard man but God in the person of our superior, for we are not come to religion to serve man, but God; nor do we live with men, but God, since our life is crucified with Jesus Christ. ‘All that you do”, says the same apostle, in another part, “do it with a good will, as if it were done for Christ, not men, being assured that he will reward you for it”’ (Colossians 3:23,24)

Our holy founder, resting on this apostolical doctrine, insists ~ very much in his constitutions upon the same motive, and frequently recommends it to us. In one place he tells us that in order to give ourselves up totally to obedience we must of necessity look upon our superior, whosoever he be, as holding the place of Christ himself. In another place he tells us that it is very necessary to obey not only the general of the society, or particular superiors of houses, but also all those who derive authority under them; and that we must not regard the person of the superior whom we obey, but the person of Jesus Christ, for whose sake we obey, and to whom all the world owes homage and obedience. This furnishes him a secure and solid principle to enlarge on in the sixth part of his constitutions, where, treating expressly of obedience, he says, that if you desire to attain perfection in this virtue, “you must continually have before your eyes God himself, our Creator and Redeemer, for whose sake you obey”. The following supposition will show the efficacy of this means. Should Jesus Christ himself appear, and in his own person lay a command upon you, how readily, how submissively, with what satisfaction would you obey him! You would not weigh or examine his orders, nor have the least doubt of the equity of them, but blindly execute them, because it is God that commands, it is God that will have you do it, and by consequence the best thing you can possibly do is to obey him. You would think yourself happy to be thus employed by Almighty God, and the command most difficult to be executed would be deemed the greatest favour. Now, this is exactly the means we propose. St. Basil lays down the same in his rule, and to raise in us a just esteem of it, he says thus: “Do not think that I presume of myself to make this comparison. No; I take it from our holy faith, and the authority of Christ himself, who says, he that hears you hears me, that is, he that obeys you, obeys me”. All the holy fathers give the same interpretation of these words, and say, that they are to be understood not only of the apostles, but of all superiors and spiritual directors; and ‘this doctrine was so generally received amongst the ancient fathers of the desert, that they looked upon the command of their superior to be the command of God himself. They did not, in the person of their superior, regard man, but God himself, whose place he held; and the same is expressly recommended to us by our Saviour, in these words: “The Scribes and Pharisees sit upon the chair of Moses; observe and do all they shall say to you, but do not do as they do” —Mat., xxiii. 2.

All therefore that we have to consider when we obey, is the will of God; for whether it be declared to us by himself, by an angel, or by any one whomsoever, we are always obliged to a submission to his orders, let the instrument he uses to signify them to us be what it will. St. Bernard, discussing this subject, cites St. Bennet’s words, which are the same in substance with those already mentioned. ‘ The obedience”, says he, “which we render a superior is paid to God, who says, he that hears you, hears me. So that whatever he who holds the place of God commands, supposing it to be not evidently contrary to God’s will, is to be received by us as if it came from God himself. For it is the same thing to know his will either from his own, from an angel’s, or from a man’s mouth”. St. Bernard also, in the same place, cites a maxim generally admitted by holy men. “Let it be God himself or his vicegerent that commands us anything, we must execute it with equal care, deference, and respect, so long as man commands nothing that is repugnant to the law of God”. We must not for the future expect that God should work miracles for us, nor pretend that he should come in person to declare his will and pleasure—‘‘he has already spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2) “The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of his Eternal Father, has told us what we are to do”’—John,i. 18. He left Heaven and lived with us upon Earth, to instruct us when there was a necessity for it. But those days are past: God at present requires that we live and act by faith, and that those whom he has given us for superiors should be the interpreters of his will.

St. Austin says, that God intimated all this to us in the order he observed in converting Cornelius the centurion. This man was a heathen as to his religion, but otherwise, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, a very good man, and a great almsgiver, and one that prayed very much. God, in order to convert him and instruct him in the Catholic faith, sent an angel to him with this message: “Cornelius, thy prayers and alms-deeds have ascended to the presence of God, and he is mindful of them; therefore despatch a servant to Joppa for one Simon surnamed Peter. He lives in the house of one Simon, a tanner, nigh the sea: he will instruct thee and tell thee what thou art to do” (Acts 10:4), etc. Whence comes it, says St. Austin, that God did not appoint this same angel to instruct him? ‘“Was it because the angel was not capable?—Without doubt he was able to do it”. Notwithstanding, God would have him make his address to Peter. He would not undertake it himself, nor commission an angel to do it, but commits him to man’s care, thereby to honour mankind, for who sake he himself became man, and paid obedience to man, as the gospel states in these words, “and he was subject to them” (Luke 2:5) St. Bernard makes a similar remark upon St. Paul’s conversion. Though Christ appeared to him, yet he would not declare his will himself, but remitted him to another, saying, ‘“Go into the city, and there thou shalt be told what thou must do” (Acts 9:7) ‘‘ How admirable is your wisdom, O God”, says St. Bernard upon these words, “that so sweetly disposes all things to their end. You are pleased to send him whom you spuke to yourself, to a man for farther instructions, thereby to show the advantages derived from living in society. You send him to a man, to honour man the more, the better to show his authority, to make us respect him as your vicegerent, and to oblige us to receive the orders of our superiors as coming from yourself”.

Nor is our present condition inferior to theirs, whom God has vouchsafed to speak to in person. On the contrary, as our faith is more meritorious when we believe what we do not see, than when we believe what we see, according to the words of our Saviour to St. Thomas: “Thou hast believed, Thomas, because thou hast seen. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29) Even so, if we by way of faith look upon the command of a superior to be a declaration of God’s will and orders, we in some manner merit more than if we paid our obedience to Christ himself in person. Holy doctors say the same of alms when given for the love of God; and does not Christ say in the gospel, “verily I say to ye that what ye have done to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”? (Matthew 25:40) So that here Jesus Christ pledges himself to reward a charity done to a poor body, as much as if it were done to himself. Nay, there are some holy men who say, that he who gives an alms to the poor for Christ’s sake, does more than if he bestowed it upon Christ himself. Just as when one receives an acquaintance of his friend, and entertains him hospitably for his friend’s sake, he gives greater proof of friendship than if he paid all this civility to his friend himself, for it would be looked upon as due to the person and merit of his friend; but when he does to all that have any dependence upon him, or belong to him, as he would do to himself, he certainly gives a greater demonstration of his kindness, and this is what we do by an act of true obedience. Hence St. Bonaventure says, that it is a great act of obedience to obey God, when he himself commands us, but a far greater to obey man for God’s sake. And the latter has often more merit, and consequently a greater reward annexed to it; because when we obey man for God’s sake, we thereby more debase and humble our- _ selves, and show a greater denial of our own will by a perfect resignation of it to God’s. Should God in person command you ‘anything, your most ready compliance would not be wondered at; but should you for God’s sake comply as readily with the command of a man like yourself, and submit your will and judgment to him with the same deference as to God, it would certainly be an act of greater merit and of greater value.

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