The theme of this Sunday’s Gospel was obedience. As a fundamentally disobedient person, I reflect on this issue quite a lot!
In my parish, the homily yesterday reflected this theme: you can listen to it here. In it my Parish Priest says that to obey means to submit my will to a higher authority. He quotes St Thomas in saying that “the road to holiness is our willingness to obey others.” I have to admit that I can’t find that reference, though I have looked, and St Thomas seems to say something different to me in Question 104 Article 5 of his Summa:Accordingly we may distinguish a threefold obedience; one, sufficient for salvation, and consisting in obeying when one is bound to obey: secondly, perfect obedience, which obeys in all things lawful: thirdly, indiscreet obedience, which obeys even in matters unlawful.St. Thomas teaches discernment, and that we are to be obedient insofar as we are being obedient within the parameters of competence for any specific authority.
My Parish Priest’s absolutely correct conclusion is that our God-given freedom to choose means that making the choice to be obedient to God is always the right decision, because He is not self-interested (St Thomas does address this in the article referenced above) and therefore that obedience leads us to happiness and it leads us to Him for whom we were created. I’m not sure I agree with the idea that it “hurts” to obey. I think it is a virtue, an honour and a privilege to obey an appropriate precept from an appropriate authority. It is an honour to serve a just ruler because in such service you are assisting in bringing about the good willed by that authority for the benefit of all. Although I recognise that we can be asked to fulfil a difficult or dangerous duty at personal cost.