Volume III, Treatise V, Chapter III

~ of the First Degree of Obedience

St. IGNATIus, speaking of this virtue in the third part of his Constitutions, says, that it is much to our purpose, and very necessary for our spiritual advancement, to propose to ourselves a perfect and entire obedience; and afterwards, declaring in what this obedience consists, says, that we are not only to obey in the exterior, that is, in barely doing what is commanded us (which is the first degree of obedience), but we must also obey interiorly, by making the superior’s will our own: and this conformity of our will is the second degree of obedience. But the saint not thinking this enough, bids us advance still farther, and conform our judgment also to our superior’s, making his sentiments ours, and believing all to be good and just which he commands, in which consists the third degree of obedience. When our exterior actions, when our will and judgment all agree, and equally conform to what is commanded, then obedience is most perfect and entire; which it can never be, so long as any one of these three conditions is wanting. To begin with the first degree: I say, that a great diligence and exactness is required in the performance of what obedience prescribes us. St. Basil says that we are to act in this, asa man that is extremely hungry does, in order to satiate his hunger, or as a man that is much in love with his life does, in things relating to the preservation of it. Nay, says the same saint, we ought to show far more earnestness and zeal than these do, since eternal life, which is the reward of our obedience, is infinitely more noble and excellent, than this present life is, which the others are so careful to preserve. St. Bernard gives us this description of an obedient man. “He does not know what it is to delay and put off the business till to-morrow; he is an enemy to all kinds of demurs;

he prevents his superior, and even gets the start of his commands. His eyes and ears are still open to the least sign given him; all his other senses and every part of him faithfully wait the motion of his superior. He does what he is bidden, goes where he is commanded, and is always ready to receive and execute every order of obedience”—Serm. de Obed.

Our holy founder, speaking of the punctuality with which we ought to obey, says, that when the clock strikes, or the superior commands, we must be as ready to obey as if Jesus Christ himself called upon us, and at that very instant lay by what we are doing, and even leave a letter of a word, which we have begun, unfinished. This rule doubly instructs us; first, to look upon the striking of the clock, or a word from our superior, as the real voice of God himself. To do this the better, we may piously consider and represent to ourselves the disposition of mind which the eastern sages had when they saw the star; and say with them, “This is the sign of the great king, let us go pay him homage, and offer gold, incense, and myrrh to him”. This is the voice of God that calls upon us, let us make haste and obey it. Secondly, it instructs us to quit at that very moment the employployment we are about, and even leave a letter half formed. We cannot do better than to follow in this point the examples of some ancient fathers, whose obedience Cassian recommends to us. Speaking of what they did, he says, they were continually employed. One wrote books of devotion, another meditated, some translated spiritual books, others were employed in manual works, And they no sooner heard the clock strike, or the superior’s call, but they even strove who should be first out of his cell; and their haste was so great, that he who was writing would not allow himself time to finish the letter he had begun. Thus you see how they preferred obedience before all other duties whatsoever, even their spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, and all other works of piety. Here you see what it was that made them such exact observers of obedience; you see here their punctuality and readiness, such as if God himself had given the word of command. St. Bennet recommends this kind of obedience very earnestly in his rule, and it is from him and other ancient fathers that our holy founder took his perfect model of obedience, as it is set down in his Constitutions,

God has been pleased. to show by miracles how pleasing to him this éxactness in obedience is. There was a good religious (S. Cath. de Sien. wn suis Dial., c. lxv.) employed in copying out sume written paper; he was no sooner set to it, and had made only one letter, but the clock struck: to comply with the call of obedience he left it in that manner, and when he returned found it all written in letters of gold”—AHist. Ord. S. Fran., 6, p. 1. 7. c. xxxix. Our Saviour himself appeared once to another religious, in the shape of a little child, who was no sooner come, but the bell rung to vespers, with which call the religious complying, he left little Jesus all alone. At his return’he found him still in his cell, to whom the Divine Infant spoke thus:—Your going was the cause of my stay; if you had staid, I should have gone away. Rusbrochius (Tract de precip. quibusd. virt., c. ix. p. 243) tells us of another religious, who, being favoured with the like apparition, left the little Infant Jesus to comply with obedience, and, at his return to his cell, found him in the shape of a young man. Christ said to him, Behold how much I am grown since you left me, and so much I am also grown in your soul, upon the account of your punctual obedience. The Devil, on the contrary, is such an enemy to obedience, and so jealous of our spending any time in it, that when he cannot rob us of all, nor cheat us into a total disobedience, he endeavours to deprive us of some part of it, by making us less punctual and observant. For example, the bell that calls you up in the morning has rung, and you heard it, but the Devil strives to keep you still in your bed. When you are writing, the bell rings again to call you to some duty, and he endeavours to maxe you stay and finish the letter you had begun, and sometimes to write out the whole line, if not, to end the period; or to conclude your discourse, under pretence of not forgetting some fine thought that offers itself. He is always desirous to have the first fruit and flower of our actions; wherefore, on the contrary, we ought to make it our business to give them all to God, the blossom as well as the fruit; and thus they will be more acceptable to him. The first as well as the last part, nay, even the whole action, is to be given to God, without reserve, if we desire to make him such a present as may please him.

St. Ignatius would have this exterior obedience extend itself yet farther, and desires that we should-not only obey the bell, or the superior’s voice, with that exactness we have now spoken

of, but also even the least sign or intimation of his will. Let every one, says this great doctor of obedience, make it his care and concern to signalize himself in the practice of obedience, and not only in things of pure obligation, but in others also, when he has only a hint of the superior’s will, without an express order from him. “He that is truly obedient”, says Albert the Great, “does not wait for a command, but, as soon as he judges that his superior would have it done, he immediately falls to work without any further orders. And he adds, that this was what our Saviour himself practised; for, knowing that it would be grateful to his Eternal Father if he should die for our salvation, he turned that knowledge into a command. Cassian, speaking of the ancient hermits, says, that their obedience was so zealous and exact, that they did not only obey the superior’s voice, but even the least sign of his will, which made him think that they sometimes foresaw what was to be done; they frequently preventing their superior’s command, and performing what he had only resolved on, but not declared to them. From hence St. Bernard took the description of an obedient man, which was cited above, where he says, “that he gets the start of a command, and _ even prevents his orders by a prompt obedience”.

Our holy founder tells us of three sorts of obedience. The first is, when we comply with a precept of obedience, and this we are obliged to. The second is, when we do a thing for the least word’s speaking. This obedience is more perfect than the other, for he that obeys at a word is certainly more humble and submissive than he that waits for a command in virtue of holy obedience. The third is, when we perform the superior’s will upon the least sign of it being manifested, and without our being spoken to. The saint adds, that this last is the most perfect obedience of the three, and most grateful to God. A servant who upon the least hint given him sets himself to work, certainly pleases his master better than another that will do nothing without being desired; so in religion he that is ready to obey upon the least sign given him of his superior’s will, is most agreeable to God and superiors. St. Thomas says, that our knowledge of the superior’s will is a tacit order, and that our performance of it then is a proof of prompt obedience. This is the obedience we are to aim at; and the more so, because sometimes the superior will not lay an express command upon us, being desirous to treat us mildly, and not give us too great a mortification; or for fear we should not relish the command. So that, suppose you should know the superior to be thus inclined, you would do ill in not preventing him, and offering yourself to perform what he secretly wishes you should do. When God designed to send a messenger to the people of Israel, he spoke so that Isaias might understand his pleasure, ‘“whom shall I send, or will go as from me?”—Isa., vi. 8. The prophet took the hint immediately, and offered himself upon the spot; “here am I, Lord, please to send me”. In the same manner, we ought to present ourselves to our superior, upon the least notice or signification of his will.

I could produce many examples, to show the readiness and exactness with which we ought to obey, but I will content myself with two. The first is that of Samuel, who in his youth waited upon the high priest Heli in the temple. The Scripture says, that one night, as he slept in the temple, where the ark of God was kept, the Lord called upon him, and he immediately got up and ran to Heli, saying, “You called upon me; here I am”—I. Kings, iii. 5, etc. But Heli told him, “that he did not call him, and bade him go to bed again”. He did so, and was no sooner fallen asleep, but the Lord called him again. Up he. got, went to Heli and said, “You called me; here I am”. To whom Heli answered as before, ‘ Child, I did not call thee, go and sleep”. He obeyed, and God calling him the third time, he got up and went again to Heli, saying, as he had done before, “You called me; behold I am here”. Upon this Heli understood that it was God who had called upon Samuel, and therefore bade him “go back and sleep, and if any one should call him again, to say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears”. Samuel returned and lay down again, and God appearing to him, called twice upon him, to whom he answered in Heli’s words, ‘ Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears”. Upon which God told him, that the punishment he had threatened Heli with should very suddenly be inflicted upon him. Now let us consider a little Samuel’s very exact and ready obedience. Though Heli himself ‘tells him he did not call him, and bade him go take his rest; yet for all this Samuel never thought of any other person’s calling him there in the temple excepting the high priest; and therefore he got up three several times, and went to know his commands, Such ought to be our obedience towards our superiors. Our minds must, like his, be equally disposed at all times for anything which we think our superior would have us do. The second example is that of Abraham, whose readiness to obey, when commanded by God to sacrifice his only son, is an admirable model of punctuality and obedience. Abraham “got up in the night”—(fen., xxii. 3,—says the Scripture; he would not stay till it was daylight. Upon the receiving his orders, which were very severe for the father of an only son, he put himself in readiness to execute them without the least demur. The Scripture also observes, that he would not permit his servants to wait upon him at the place of sacrifice, but bade them stay for him at the foot of the hill: for no other end, without doubt, but that they might not hinder him from a punctual and faithful compliance with God’s commandment.

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