April 2007 - Vol. 7

Is obedience an out-dated virtue?
Obedience is not particularly esteemed in this day and age, and consequently, it is not much thought about. But Father Raniero Cantalamessa directs our attention to it in his book Obedience, and he calls the Christian people to a renewal of obedience. 

Father Cantalamessa, a Capuchin friar who has been professor of history at the Catholic University of Milan, is well known in Europe as a preacher and speaker at charismatic renewal events. He is perhaps even better known as “preacher to the papal household.” His message on obedience is one that he considers to be a word for now.

We live in a time in which obedience is tolerated by many only as a necessary restraint on the adult exercise of human freedom. We adults need to obey the law so that we don’t harm one another. We Christian adults need to obey God’s law for much the same reason. Obedience is something like respect for traffic regulations: They protect our lives while we go where we ourselves wish to go.

Are we free to abandon personal obedience?
The modern mentality considers personal obedience to be only for children. Even then, the imposition of the will of an adult can only be justified by the fact that children are not yet fully capable of directing their own lives. Drawn out to its conclusion, this line of thinking says that the sooner children can make up their own minds, clarify their own values, and make their own choices, the better off they will be, and the better their lives will go. Obedience is an old-fashioned virtue that is out of style today.

Father Cantalamessa strongly disagrees. Obedience may not be considered fashionable by many, but it is scriptural, and therefore, enduring. The gospel message and the teaching of Scripture as a whole cannot be rightly understood without seeing the centrality of obedience. Jesus is “the Obedient One,” and the new Christian order is based on his becoming “obedient to death” (see Philippians 2:8): We cannot abandon personal obedience without abandoning Christianity

Obedience renewed by grace and by the Holy Spirit
Yet Father Cantalamessa’s message is more than just a call for a return to obedience—it is a call for a renewal of obedience “in the Holy Spirit.” Too often obedience has been a matter of externalism, conformity to Christian patterns and institutions. Too often it has been legalism, simply following rules, adhering to “the letter of the law.” The obedience we are called to must be a renewed obedience, renewed by grace, renewed by the Spirit of God.

A renewed spiritual obedience goes back to the center of obedience, the obedience we see in Christ himself. It is the obedience that comes from love of God and desire to do the Father’s will. It is obedience to the written word of God, which teaches us the Father’s will. It is also an obedience of personal call. And it is, in every case, the surrender of our own will so that we might do God’s will.

We can delude ourselves on this point: There is, after all, a “spiritual” way of wanting one’s own will. The desire for spiritual growth, for instance, can be a desire to become what we want to be with God’s help, rather than a desire to do God’s will, to surrender our lives to the good of others and to the glory of God.

The obedience of faith
Faith, too, can be a substitute for obedience. It can be a way of getting what we want or believe we need rather than a trusting response to God and a willingness to accept what he wants for us. “Faith,” as it is sometimes preached, can be a means to vainglory or greed or personal comfort. Yet, Scripture speaks of “the obedience” of faith (see Romans 1:5). Faith that does not come out of obedience and lead to obedience is not fully the faith that comes from the Spirit of Christ, the Obedient One. Renewal in obedience is rooted, as Father Cantalamessa stresses, in a deeper obedience to God. And there is a connection between obedience to God and to human authorities: authorities in the church, in religious communities, and in the secular government. As Father Cantalamessa writes, “Disobedience to God is at the root of every disobedience, and obedience to God is at the root of every obedience” (p.16). The renewal of human obedience is renewal in obedience to God.

“Spiritual obedience to God, rather than detracting from obedience to visible and institutional authority, actually renews it. It strengthens and unifies it to the point that obedience to man becomes the criterion for judging whether obedience to God exists or not and whether it is genuine or not” (p. 48). This does not happen automatically. One can take refuge in human obedience to avoid obedience to God. There is much to learn about spiritual obedience. Yet “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:21).

Obedience, authority, and faithfulness
The complementary truth is also important. Authority should not be “bare authority” Those in authority themselves must obey God and seek to do his will. The more they find God’s will, the more authoritative their authority will be. Obedience is a human relationship that can be spiritual. The more each side of the relationship approaches the relationship in a spiritual way, the more spiritual the relationship will be.

Obedience, authority, and faithfulness are not as highly valued among Christians today as they have been in the past. Within the charismatic renewal, influences that come from the more fundamentalist wing of the Christian world tend to equate authority with control, to exalt individual freedom over community, and even to put faith at odds with faithfulness. In the Catholic Church, traditional respect for order and the value put on religious communities is in a process of renewal that makes the ways of obedience uncertain. In such times, Father Cantalamessa’s message reminds us to seek out the basics and calls us to see the special questions of obedience in that light.

[Steve Clark is the President of The Sword of the Spirit. This article originally appeared in New Covenant Magazine, April 1990.]