The Virtue of Obedience
June 27th, 2020
Meditation of the day of Pontiff Samuel
(Draft)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today I want to meditate, with you, on the virtue of Obedience. The virtue that characterised the entire life of Maria Giuseppina Norcia and that characterised the 5 July 2008: the Feast of the Living Obedience, when She, in Obedience to the Father, renewed Her ‘Yes’ for the last time, fulfilling the Lord’s will through to the end.
Obedience is a great virtue that every Son of God must know how to embody and to become one with it. True Obedience is achieved in freedom and love, as Jesus did in His relationship with the Father. The Father never forced Jesus to obey Him, He invited Him to Obedience, He invited Him to do His will to the end, and Jesus, in freedom and out of love, gave Himself entirely to the Father. So did the Maiden of God who always remained faithful to Jesus, obeying His every request perfectly and promptly, loving and desiring to fulfil the will of Her Lord with all Her being. She never disobeyed the Lord, not even when some men would have wanted to force Her to disown, in the Name of God, what God Himself had asked Her to announce and to proclaim to the whole world.
The Maiden of God was strong in remaining faithful and obedient to God, even at the cost of being despised by men, by those men. But those who have known Her, from that moment onwards, have appreciated Her even more. Those who do everything for the love of God, those who live to be faithful to God, those who wish to obey His will, do not fear human judgement nor their contempt. Those who give themselves to God out of love and in freedom, do not withdraw from the gift given by God but thank God every day for the call they have received, desiring to remain faithful to Him in order to do His will every day, whatever the cost.
We are all called to account to God, likewise the apostles Peter and John did, who remained faithful to God and in the face of the accusations of the priests of that time, they manifested the Truth, proclaiming to prefer obeying God first and then men.
The virtue of Obedience is closely related to two other virtues: that of Pureness and that of Humbleness. One cannot, indeed, be obedient if he is not pure. Humbleness is the central phase of the other two virtues. Those who therefore wish to be pure must primarily learn how to be obedient. The spirit must be trained, every day, by practising the virtue of Obedience. Starting from the little things of their everyday life to then come to live Pureness in plenitude. Those who, instead of obeying God, prefer to obey their ‘self’, prefer to listen to their ego, will hardly succeed in being pure and will hardly succeed in being humble. But those who with love and in freedom, will know how to practise meekly the virtue of Obedience, will experience the joy and the candour of living in holy Pureness that frees the heart from all covetousness, from all malice and from all human lust.
This is the example that Mary Most Holy gave us and this is the example that the Maiden of God gave us and still gives us, She who always obeyed Jesus in freedom and with love, remaining pure, pure, totally pure.
As Jesus teaches us, seeing His authority in those called to be responsible of His things means living in obedience and, above all, is a help to grow. Jesus wants to help His sons, now as then. May the Maiden of God obtain for us on this day, the grace to be obedient to Jesus in perfection, just as She did throughout Her whole life, and therefore, by practising the virtue of Obedience and consequently by desiring to be pure in heart and desiring to remain profoundly humble, everything can be done for love of the Lord, for love of the Lord and for love of our neighbour, just as the Maiden of God taught us throughout Her whole life.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.