> [[at-sl-22|← Prudence]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-24|Fortitude →]] # Art. II. The Virtue of Justice [2] After briefly recalling the theological doctrine on justice, we shall treat of the virtues of religion and obedience, which form parts of this virtue. ## § 1. Justice Properly so Called We shall explain: 1° its nature, and 2° the principal rules to be followed in its exercise. 1\. Nature of Justice 1037\. 1° Definition. The word justice often stands in Holy Writ for the sum-total of Christian virtues. Thus, Our Lord proclaims blessed those who hunger and thirst after justice,[3] that is, after holiness. However, in the strict sense in which we employ the term here, it designates that moral, supernatural virtue, which inclines the will to render unto others at all times what is strictly their due. This virtue resides in the will and regulates those duties which we are strictly bound to discharge towards the neighbor. It is distinguished from the theological virtue of charity which bids us regard others as brothers in Christ and inclines us to render them services not otherwise enjoined by strict justice. 1038\. 2° Excellence of this virtue. Through justice, order and peace reign in the lives of individuals as well as in society at large. In that it respects each one’s rights, it makes for honesty in the affairs of men, it restrains deceit, it protects the rights of the helpless and the lowly, it checks the rapacity and injustice of the powerful, and thus it establishes social order.[1] Without justice we should have anarchy, warfare between rival interests, oppression of the weak by the strong, the triumph of evil. If such is the preëminence of natural justice, how much more excellent must Christian justice be, which is a participation in the very justice of God. The Holy Ghost in communicating it to us, makes it enter into the inmost recesses of the soul and renders it resolute and inaccessible to corruption, inspiring us at the same time with such regard for the rights of others, that we not only loathe injustice, properly so called, but stand in horror of the least unfairness. 1039\. 3° The principal kinds of justice. They are chiefly two: social justice, which bids us render to society what we owe to it, and individual justice whereby we render to individuals what is their due. a) The first is called legal justice, because it is based on the exact observance of laws; it obliges us to acknowledge the great benefits which we derive from society, by accepting our share of the lawful burdens it imposes upon us, and by rendering to it the services it expects of us. Since the commonweal takes precedence over individual welfare, there are instances when citizens must sacrifice part of their goods, of their freedom, and even risk their lives in defence of the country. But society likewise has duties to discharge towards its members. It must effect the distribution of social advantages and social burdens, not according to the moods and whims of favor, but according to the capacity of each citizen and in keeping with the rules of equity. To all, society owes the full protection and aid needed for safeguarding the essential rights and interests of every citizen. Favoritism towards some and persecution of others are abuses opposed to distributive justice, which society must observe towards its subjects. 1040\. b) The second kind of justice, called individual justice, regulates the rights and duties of individuals towards one another. It respects all rights, not only the right of ownership, but the right to bodily or spiritual goods, to life, liberty, honor and reputation. We cannot in this place enter into all the details which we have explained in our course of Moral Theology.[1] It will suffice for our present purpose to recall the principal rules by which we must be guided in the practice of this virtue. II\. Principal Rules Governing the Practice of Justice 1041\. 1° Principle. It is evident that devout laymen, religious and priests are obliged to practice the virtue of justice more perfectly and more scrupulously than the rank and file of persons in the world. Their duty is to set the good example in matters of honesty as well as in all other virtues. To act otherwise would be to set a stumbling-block for the neighbor, and furnish our enemies with a pretext to denounce religion. It would constitute an obstacle to spiritual progress, for an All-just God cannot have for intimate friends those who glaringly violate His formal commands regarding justice. 1042\. 2° Applications of the Principle. A) One must, first of all, respect the right of ownership in what relates to temporal goods. a) Hence, one must scrupulously shun petty thefts, which often and easily lead to graver forms of injustice. This principle should be instilled into children so that they will instinctively recoil with horror from the slightest infraction of justice. All the more must one avoid such thefts as are committed by dealers and manufacturers, who habitually defraud both as to the quality and the quantity of their goods, under the pretext that their competitors do likewise; who sell at too high a price, or buy at a ridiculously low one, taking advantage of the simplicity of those with whom they deal. One must keep clear of wild speculations, of those questionable transactions in which one’s fortune is risked along with that of others with the hope of making huge profits. b) One must carefully avoid contracting debts, when one is not sure of being able to pay them, and one must make it a point of honor to pay at the earliest possible moment those that have already been contracted. c) We should treat a borrowed object with still greater care than if it were our own property, without ever forgetting to return it in due time. Much unconscious injustice is committed by those who neglect these precautions. d) Any damage voluntarily caused must be repaired. If involuntary, one is not strictly bound to make restitution, yet those who aim at perfection will do so according to their means. e) Should one be the recipient of trust-funds to be devoted to good works, one must take all the legal safeguards required, so that in case of death these funds may be applied according to the intentions of the donors. This holds especially in the case of priests who receive Mass stipends or alms. They must not only keep their accounts up to date, but must also provide a legatee or executor in the person of a priest who will attend to such Mass intentions and other obligations. 1043\. B) Respect for the good-name and the honor of the neighbor is no less essential. a) Rash judgments must be avoided. To censure others on mere appearances or for reasons more or less trivial, without knowing fully their motives, is nothing less than to arrogate to oneself divine rights, the rights of Him Who alone is the Supreme Judge of the living and the dead; it is an act of injustice against the neighbor, who is thus condemned without a hearing, without the knowledge of the unseen determining motives of his actions, and oftener than not, under the influence of prejudice or passion. Both justice and charity demand not only that we abstain from judging the actions of others, but that we interpret them in the best possible light. b) Graver reasons bid one refrain from slander, which makes known to others the faults or the secret defects of the neighbor. These defects are real, but as long as they are not generally known, one has no right to reveal them. By speaking of them, one grieves the neighbor; and the dearer he holds his reputation, the more he is grieved. One lowers him in the estimation of his fellows, and one undermines his prestige, the good standing he needs in order to conduct his affairs and exercise his rightful influence. Thus, one may cause at times a damage that is well-nigh irreparable. It is of no avail to argue that the person whose faults are thus made known has no right to his good name. This right remains as long as his faults are not public; and after all, one must not forget the Savior’s word: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.”[1] The Saints are extremely merciful; they seek in every possible way to safeguard the reputation of their fellow-men. We cannot do better than follow in their footsteps. c) Thereby we shall more safely avoid indulging in calumny, which by false imputations charges to our neighbor faults he has never committed. This kind of injustice is all the more serious since it is often born of malice or of jealousy. The evils that follow in its wake are numberless. Such talk is, alas, all too welcome, and making the rounds from mouth to mouth, ruins the reputation and the prestige of its victims, and at times causes them considerable harm even in temporal matters. 1044\. There exists, therefore, a strict obligation of repairing slanders and calumnies. No doubt, this is difficult, for it is painful to recant, and besides, the retractation, no matter how sincere, but covers up the injustice committed. A lie, even when retracted, often leaves ineffaceable traces. This, of course, is no reason for not repairing the injustice committed; on the contrary, the greater the harm done, the more earnestly and persistently must one work at undoing it. The difficulty of such reparation ought to restrain us from whatever could, either proximately or remotely, expose us to a fall so grave. This is the reason why those who tend to perfection cultivate not only the virtue of justice, but also that of charity, which by causing us to see God in our neighbor, makes us avoid whatever may sadden him. We shall return to this later on. ## § II. The Virtue of Religion [1] 1045\. This virtue is related to justice, because it makes us render to God the worship that is due Him; but, since we are unable to offer to God the infinite homage to which He is entitled, our religion does not comply with all the requisite conditions of the virtue of justice, and thus it does not, properly speaking, constitute an act of this virtue, though it is closely related to it. We shall explain: 1° the nature, 2° the necessity and 3° the practice of religion. I. Nature of the Virtue of Religion 1046\. Religion is a moral, supernatural virtue that inclines the will to render to God the worship due Him by reason of His infinite excellence and of His sovereign dominion over us. a) This is a special virtue, distinct from the three theological virtues, which have God Himself for their immediate object; the object proper to the virtue of religion is the worship of God, whether interior or exterior. However, it presupposes the virtue of faith, which enlightens us as to God’s rights. When religion has attained its perfection, it is animated by charity and becomes but the expression and the manifestation of the three theological virtues. b) Its formal object or motive is the acknowledgment of the infinite excellence of God, the first beginning and last end, the perfect Being, on Whom all things depend and towards Whom all things must gravitate. c) The acts to which religion inclines us are interior and exterior. 1047\. By the interior acts we subject to God our soul, with its faculties, chiefly the intellect and the will, 1) The first and the most important of these acts is that of adoration, in which we abase our whole being before Him Who is the fulness of being and the source of all the good that is found in creatures. It is accompanied or followed by the reverent admiration experienced at the sight of His infinite perfections. 2) Since He is the author of all the good we possess, we offer Him our gratitude. 3) Remembering that we are sinners, we enter into sentiments of penitence, to atone for the offences committed against His infinite majesty. 4) Because we stand in continual need of His help to do good and attain our end, we address to Him our prayers or requests, thus acknowledging Him as the source of all good. 1048\. These interior sentiments are manifested by exterior acts, which have all the more worth as the interior acts they express are more perfect. 1) The foremost among these acts is, without question, that of sacrifice, which is an exterior and social act, whereby the priest offers God, in the name of the Church, an immolated victim in order to acknowledge His supreme dominion, to repair the offence offered to His majesty, and to enter into communion with Him. In the New Law there is but one sacrifice, that of the Mass, which, renewing the sacrifice of Calvary, offers to God an infinite homage and obtains for men all the graces they need. We have already pointed out, in nos. 271-276, the effects of the Mass and the requisite dispositions to profit by it. 2) To this principal act are added the public prayers offered in the name of the Church by her representatives: the Divine Office, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, private vocal prayers; oaths and vows prudently taken in God’s honor and accompanied by all the conditions explained in the treatises of Moral Theology, supernatural exterior acts, done for the glory of God, which, according to the expression of St. Peter, are “spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God.”[1] We can conclude from this that religion is the most excellent among the moral virtues; for, by causing us to offer up divine worship, it brings us closer to God than do the other moral virtues. II\. Necessity of the Virtue of Religion To proceed methodically we shall show: 1° that all creatures must give glory to God; 2° that for man, this is a special duty; 3° that it is so, above all, for the priest. 1049\. 1° All creatures must glorify God. If every work must reflect credit on the doer, far higher must be the way in which the creature must proclaim the glory of its Maker! Man does not create things; he can but fashion them. This over, he has done with them. Now, God has not only formed his creatures, but He has drawn them out of nothing; He has not merely left the mark of His genius upon them, but also the reflection of His own perfections. Moreover, He preserves them, lending them His concurrence and His grace, so that they are utterly dependent upon Him. They must, therefore, more than the works of man’s creation, declare the greatness of their Author. Inanimate creatures do this after their own fashion; by revealing their beauty and harmony, they invite us to glorify God: “The heavens shew forth the glory of God.[1] He made us, and not we ourselves.”[2] This homage, however honors God but very imperfectly, since it is not free. 1050\. 2° It is to man, then, that the duty falls of consciously giving glory to God, of lending his heart and his voice to inanimate creation to render Him a free and rational homage. To man, therefore, the king of creation, it belongs to contemplate these wonders, to refer them to God, and thus to become creation’s own high-priest. Man must praise God, above all, in his owm name; for endowed with a higher perfection than irrational beings, created to the image and likeness of God, sharing in His life, man’s life should be one of perpetual admiration, perpetual praise, worship, thanksgiving, and love towards His Creator and Sanctifier. This St. Paul declares to us: “For of Him and by Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory forever![3] For whether we live, we live unto the Lord: or whether we die, we die unto the Lord.”[4] Reminding his disciples that our body as well as our soul is the temple of the Holy Ghost, he adds: “Glorify and bear God in your body.”[5] 1051\. 3° This duty is particularly laid upon priests. Unfortunately the majority of men, absorbed in business or pleasure, devote but little time to the worship of God. It was necessary, therefore, that from among them some special representatives acceptable to God be chosen, that they might, not only in their own name, but in the name of society, render God the religious duties to which He has a right. This is the role of the priest. He is chosen by God from among his fellows to be a mediator between earth and heaven, charged with glorifying God, with offering Him the homages of all creatures and with drawing down upon the earth God’s graces and blessings. This is his duty of state, his profession, a real duty of justice, as St. Paul explains:[1] “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins.” For this reason, the Church has confided to him two great means of exercising the virtue of religion, the Divine Office and Holy Mass. This twofold duty he must discharge with great fervor, for by glorifying God, he at the same time renders this Divine Majesty propitious to our supplications. In this way, the priest procures his own personal sanctification and that of the souls entrusted to his care (nos. 393-401). His prayers are all the more effective, since it is the Church, since it is Jesus Who prays with him and in him, and the prayer of Christ is always heard: “He was heard for his reverence.”[2] III\. The Practice of the Virtue of Religion 1052\. For the right practice of this virtue, we must cultivate true devotion, that is to say, an habitual attitude of the will, wich causes us to lend ourselves readily and generously to whatever appertains to the service of God. This disposition is in reality but a manifestation of love for God, and it is in this way that religion is related to charity. 1053\. 1° Beginners practice this virtue: a) by the observance of the laws of God and of the Church regarding prayer, the sanctification of the Lord’s Day and holydays of obligation; b) by avoiding dissipation, interior or exterior, which is a source of many distractions during prayer. This is effected by being on guard against the pressing host of worldly amusements and empty day-dreams; c) by inward recollection before prayer in order to make it with greater attention, and by practicing the holy exercise of the presence of God (n. 446). 1054\. 2° Those advancing in the way of perfection strive to enter into the spirit of religion in union with Jesus, the supreme Worshipper of the Father, Who, in His life, as well as in His death, glorified God in an infinite manner (n. 151). a) This spirit of religion comprises two main dispositions, reverence and love. The former is a profound sentiment of respect mingled with awe whereby we acknowledge God as our Creator and Sovereign Master and rejoice in proclaiming our utter dependence upon Him. The latter is directed towards God, to the most lovable and loving Father, Who has deigned to adopt us as His children and forever surrounds us with His paternal tenderness. From these two sentiments all the others proceed; namely, admiration gratitude, praise. 1055\. b) It is from the Sacred Heart of Jesus that we seek to draw these sentiments of religion. This Divine Mediator lived only to glorify His Father: “I have glorified thee on the earth.”[1] He died to carry out His Father’s will, proclaiming by His death that nothing is worthy of life and being before the face of God. After His death He continues to glorify His Father, not only in the Eucharist where He unceasingly adores the Holy Trinity, but also in our hearts where, through His Divine Spirit, He produces religious dispositions like unto His own. He lives in the soul of every Christian, but especially in the soul of every priest, and through His priests He procures glory to Him, to Whom alone is due adoration and reverence. Through ardent desire, then, we must draw Him unto us and give ourselves to Him, that He may carry out the practice of the virtue of religion in us, with us, and through us. “He comes to us then,” says Father Olier[2] “and abides upon the earth as a sacrifice of praise in the hands of His priests, that He may impart to us His spirit of victim, have us join in the praise He offers, and make us inwardly share in His sentiments of worship. He diffuses Himself within us, He infuses Himself into us, He envelopes our soul and replenishes it with the intimate dispositions of His spirit of religion, so that His soul and ours form but one, animated by the same spirit of reverence, of love, of praise, of interior and exterior sacrifice of all things unto the glory of His Father.” 1056\. c) We must not forget, however, that Jesus requires our co-operation. Since He comes in order to make us share with Him in His condition and in His sentiments of victim, we must needs live with Him and in Him in the spirit of sacrifice, crucifying the ill-regulated tendencies of disordered nature, and yielding a ready obedience to the inspirations of grace. Then will all our actions be pleasing to God, then will they be so many sacrificial offerings, so many acts of religion, praising and glorifying God, our Creator and Father. We thereby proclaim the supremacy of God and the nothingness of the creature, since we sacrifice every part of our being, offer every one of our actions to the honor and glory of our Sovereign Master. d) This we do more particularly in those acts of religion properly so called, like assistance at Holy Mass, the recitation of liturgical prayers or other prayers, as explained in numbers 274, 284, 523. N. B.—Perfect souls practice this virtue under the influence of the gift of piety, of which we shall treat further on. ## § III. The Virtue of Obedience [1] This virtue is allied to justice, since obedience is a homage, an act of submission due to Superiors; but it differs from justice inasmuch as it implies an inequality between superiors and subjects. We shall explain: 1° the nature and foundation of obedience; 2° its degrees; 3° its qualities; 4° its excellence. I. Nature and Foundation of Obedience 1057\. 1° Definition. Obedience is a supernatural, moral virtue which inclines us to submit our will to that of our lawful superiors, in so far as they are the representatives of God. These last words are the ones that need to be explained first, since they are the foundation of Christian obedience. 1058\. 2° The foundation of this virtue. Obedience rests upon God’s sovereign domain and upon the absolute submission creatures owe Him. A) First of all, it is evident that we must obey God (n. 481). 1\) We must be entirely dependent upon the holy will of God since we were created by Him: “All things serve Thee.”[2] As rational creatures, we are all the more obliged to this submission because we have received more from Him; we have received in particular the gift of a free will, which we can best acknowledge by freely submitting it to the will of our Maker. 2) Being children of God, we must obey Our Heavenly Father as Jesus Himself did, Who having come into the world through obedience, through obedience went out from it: “He was made obedient unto death.”[1] 3) Redeemed from the bondage of sin, we no longer belong to ourselves, but to Jesus Christ, Who gave His blood to make us His own: “And you are not your own, for you are bought with a great price.”[2] We must, therefore, obey His laws. 1059\. B) For the same reason we must yield obedience to God’s lawful representatives. This point must be thoroughly understood. a) Because man is not self-sufficient for his physical, intellectual, and moral well-being, God willed that he live in society. Society, however, cannot endure without an authority which coördinates the efforts of its members towards the common good. Hence, it is God’s will that in society there should be superiors commissioned to command, and subjects whose duty it is to obey. In order that this obedience might be more readily practiced, God has delegated His authority to legitimate superiors: “For there is no power but from God.”[3] This is so true that to render obedience to lawful superiors is to render obedience to God, and to disobey them is to provoke condemnation: “Therefore he that resisteth the resisteth power, the ordinance of God. And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation.”[4] The duty of Superiors lies in exercising their authority solely in the capacity of God’s representatives in order to procure glory to God and to promote the general welfare of the community. Should they fail in this, they are responsible before God and their own superiors for such abuse of their authority. The duty of subjects is to obey God’s representatives, to obey them as they obey God Himself: “He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me.”[5] The reason for this is evident. Without such submission, there would be but chaos and disorder in each of the different parts of society to the detriment of all. 1060\. b) But, who are the lawful superiors? The answer is, those who are placed by God at the head of the different kinds of societies. 1\) In the natural order three different sorts of society may be discerned: domestic society or the family, at the head of which are parents, and especially the father; civil society, ruled by those who are the lawful holders of authority according to the different systems of government accepted in the different nations of the world; professional society, where we find employers and employees, whose respective rights and duties are determined by special, particular contracts.[1] 2\) In the supernatural order, the hierarchical superiors are: the Sovereign Pontiff, whose authority is both supreme and immediate over the whole Church; Bishops, who have jurisdiction over their respective dioceses, and, under their authority, pastors and curates, each within the limits determined by the Code of Canon Law. Moreover, there are in the Church particular communities with constitutions and rules approved by the Sovereign Pontiff or by the Bishops, and having superiors appointed in accordance with their Constitutions or rules. Here, again, we find legitimate authority. Therefore, whoever joins a community binds himself to keep the rules and obey the Superiors who command within the limits defined by the rule. 1061\. C) There are, then, limits set to the exercise of authority. 1\) It is evident that it is neither obligatory nor permissible to obey a superior who would give a command manifestly opposed to divine or ecclesiastical laws. In this case we should have to repeat the words of St. Peter:[2] “We ought to obey God, rather than men,” words that proclaim and vindicate Christian liberty against all tyranny.[3] The same would hold true, if what is commanded is clearly beyond our powers, for no one is held to do the impossible. In case of doubt, however, since we are prone to illusions, we must act on the principle: in doubt the presumption is in favor of the superior. 2\) If a superior should in commanding go beyond the limits of his authority, for instance, if a parent should oppose the duly considered vocation of his child, he would be exceeding his rights and the child would not be bound to obey. A similar case would be that of the Superior of a community who would give commands over and above what the rules and constitutions permit, for these determine the limits of the authority of Superiors. II\. The Degrees of Obedience 1062\. 1° Beginners apply themselves, first of all, to observe faithfully the Commandments of God and of the Church, and to conform to the orders of lawful superiors with diligence, punctuality, and in a supernatural spirit. 1063\. 2° More advanced souls: a) carefully ponder the examples given by Jesus from the very first moment of His existence, when He pledged Himself to fulfil in all things the will of His Father, until the last instant of His life when He died a victim of obedience. They pray Him to come and live within them in that same spirit of obedience, and they strive to unite themselves to Him in submitting to their superiors, just as He was subject to Mary and to Joseph: “He was subject to them.”[1] b) They submit their wills even in things that entail hardship and go against their preferences. They do so whole-heartedly, without complaint, even with joy at being able to imitate more perfectly their Divine Model. They avoid especially taking any steps that would lead the superior to conform to their desires, for, as St. Bernard remarks: “You need not flatter yourself with the idea that you are truly obedient, if, when you desire something, you strive either openly or covertly to have your spiritual father command it to you. In this you only deceive yourself, for it is not you that obey the superior, but the superior that obeys you.”[2] 1064\. 3° Perfect souls go even further. They submit their judgment to that of their superior, without even considering the reasons for his command. St. Ignatius gives an excellent explanation of this degree of obedience.[3] “If, however, one wishes to make the perfect sacrifice of self, one must, after having submitted one’s will to God, consecrate to Him one’s understanding in such a way as not only to will what the superior wills, but to be of the same mind also, and to submit one’s judgment to that of the superior to the extent that an already obedient will can sway the mind.” Our judgment as well as our will can go astray in the things that touch us closely, and therefore, just as we conform our wills to that of the superior to prevent it, as it were, from losing its bearings: “so, lest our judgment go astray, we must likewise make it conform to that of the superior.” The Saint adds, however, that “should another view come to our mind differing from that of the superior, and, if after having consulted the Lord in prayer, it seems to us that the same should be made known to him, we may well tell him. Still, lest our self-love and our own opinions deceive us, it is proper to take the precaution of maintaining a perfect evenness of mind both before and after disclosing our opinions, ever ready not only to undertake or to relinquish the purpose in question, but even to approve and acknowledge as the best course the one to be determined by the superior.” This is what is termed blind obedience which places us in the hands of superiors “after the manner of a staff… after the manner of a corpse.”[1] This obedience, however, if explained with the reservations of St. Ignatius and those we have noted above, is not unreasonable, since it is to God that we subordinate our will and our intellect. III\. The Qualities of Obedience In order to be perfect, obedience must be supernatural in its motive, universal in its extent, and entire in its execution. 1065\. 1° Supernatural in its motive, which means that we are to see God Himself, or Jesus Christ in the persons of our superiors, since they have no authority except from Him. Nothing can render obedience more easy, for who would refuse to obey God? This is what St. Paul recommends to servants: “Be obedient to them that are your lords according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your heart, as to Christ: not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but, as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with a good will serving, as to the Lord, and not to men.”[2] In the same tenor St. Ignatius wrote to his Religious of Portugal: “It is my ardent desire that you should carefully strive in all earnestness to see Our Lord Jesus Christ in your superiors, whosoever they may be, and, in their persons, reverently offer the Divine Majesty the honor due to Him… Let them not consider the person whom they obey but let them see in that person Jesus Christ, for Whose sake obedience is given. As a matter of fact, we are bound to obey a Superior not on account of his prudence, of his goodness or of any other personal qualities wherewith God may have endowed him, but because he is God’s representative… Even if he should seem to lack in prudence and wisdom, this is no reason for failing in exact obedience, since in his capacity of superior, he represents a Person, Whose wisdom is infallible and Who will Himself provide for all those things in which His minister falls short, be it virtue or any other quality.”[3] Nothing could contain greater wisdom than this principle; for, if to-day we obey our superior because his qualities please us, what shall we do to-morrow if we have another superior who seems to us to be devoid of such qualities? Besides, do we not forfeit the merit that should be ours, by subjecting ourselves to a man whom we esteem instead of submitting to God Himself? We must not, therefore, dwell upon the defects of our superiors, a thing that would render our obedience more difficult, nor yet upon their personal qualities, a thing that would render it less meritorious, but we must consider God living and commanding in their persons. 1066\. 2° Universal in its extent, in the sense that we are to comply with all the commands of a superior as long as he commands lawfully. St. Francis de Sales[1] says: “Obedience lovingly undertakes to do all that is commanded it with simplicity and without ever considering whether the command is good or bad, provided that the person who orders has authority to order, and that the command serves to unite our mind to God.” He adds, however, that if a superior orders what is evidently against the law of God, it is one’s duty not to submit. Such obedience, St. Thomas[2] says, would be injudicious: “Obedience in unlawful matters is injudicious.” Aside from this case, the truly obedient person does not go astray even when the superior is wrong and commands what is less good than what we ourselves would choose. Then as a matter of fact God, to Whom the submission is given and Who sees the heart, rewards this obedience by assuring success. St. Francis de Sales,[3] commenting upon the words, “the obedient man shall speak of victory”, says: “The truly obedient man will come out the conqueror in all the difficulties into which he may be led by obedience, and with honor from all the roads he has traversed, however dangerous.” In other words, a superior may err in commanding, but we make no mistake in obeying. 1067\. 3° Entire in the execution, hence prompt, without reservations, persevering and even cheerful. a) Prompt; for love, which is the prime mover of perfect obedience, makes us obey with readiness: “The obedient man loves the command, and as soon as he is aware of it, whether it be to his taste or not, embraces it, caresses it, and cherishes it tenderly.”[4] This is just what St. Bernard says: “The truly obedient man knows of no hesitation; he has a horror of procrastination; he ignores delays; he anticipates orders; his eyes are on the lookout, his ears on the alert, his tongue ready to speak the word, his hands ready to act, his feet ready to start; he is all intent on knowing the will of him who commands.”[5] b) Without reservations; for to make a choice, to obey in some things and disobey in others is to forfeit the merit of obedience; it is to show that we submit in what pleases us and, therefore, that our submission is not supernatural. Let us, then, remember what Our Lord says: “One jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.”[1] Perseverance is likewise required of us. This is one of the great merits of the virtue of obedience, “for to do a thing cheerfully which we are only commanded to do once, costs nothing; but when our superior says to us: You will do that always, and all through your life, there lies the virtue and there also the difficulty.”[2] c) Cheerful, “for God loveth a cheerful giver.”[3] In those things that entail hardship, obedience cannot be cheerful, unless it be animated by love. In fact, nothing is painful to him who loves, because he thinks not of the suffering undergone, but of the person for whose sake he suffers. Now, if we see Our Lord in the person of him who commands, how can we fail to love Him, how can we fail to offer with our whole heart the trifling sacrifice that He demands, Who died a victim of obedience for our sake! This is why we must always return to the general principle we have established, that is, to see God Himself in the person of our Superior. IV\. The Excellence of Obedience 1068\. The excellence of obedience flows from all that we have said of this virtue. St. Thomas does not hesitate to say that, after the virtue of religion, it is the most perfect of all the moral virtues, for the reason that it unites us closer to God than any other virtue, inasmuch as obedience detaches us from our own will, which is the main obstacle to union with God.[4] Obedience is, besides, the mother and guardian of the other virtues, and transforms our ordinary actions into so many virtuous acts. 1069\. 1° Obedience unites us to God and makes us habitually share in His life. a) It subordinates our will directly to that of God and thereby all our other faculties, inasmuch as they are in turn subordinated to the will. This submission is all the more meritorious because it is freely made. Inanimate creatures obey God by an innate necessity of their nature, but man obeys by the free choice of his will. In so doing, man tenders His Sovereign Master the homage of what he holds most dear; he offers Him a pleasing sacrifice: “Through obedience our wills are sacrificed.”[5] Thus man enters into communion with God, since he has no longer any other will but God’s will. He can make his own the words of Christ in His agony: “Not my will, but thine be done.”[6] This is a most meritorious and a most sanctifying union since it unites the best that is in us, our will, to that of God, ever good and ever holy. b) Since the will is the master-faculty in man, by uniting it to God, we unite to Him all the powers of our soul. Such a sacrifice is greater than the sacrifice of external goods made by the virtue of poverty, greater than the sacrifice of bodily pleasures entailed by the practice of chastity and of mortification. Obedience is, in all truth, the highest sacrifice we can make: “For obedience is better than sacrifices.”[1] c) Obedience likewise constitutes the most abiding and lasting union. Through Sacramental Communion we effect a temporary union with God, but through habitual obedience we establish in our soul a species of spiritual communion which is permanent, which causes us to abide in God as He abides in us, since we will what He wills and nothing but what He wills. This is, as a matter of fact, the most real, the most intimate, and the most effective of all unions—unum velle unum nolle. 1070\. 2° Obedience is logically the mother and the guardian of all the virtues, as St. Augustine beautifully expresses it: “In a rational creature, obedience is, as it were, the mother and guardian of all virtues.”[2] a) Obedience really becomes one with charity, for, as St. Thomas teaches, love effects primarily a union of wills.[3] And is not this the doctrine of St. John? After declaring that he who pretends to love God and keeps not His Commandments is a liar, the Apostle adds: “But he that keepeth His word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected; and by this we know that we are in Him.”[4] And this is the teaching of the Divine Master Himself. He tells us that to keep His commandments is to love Him: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”[5] True obedience, therefore, is in reality a genuine act of love. 1071\. b) Obedience makes us practice the other virtues, inasmuch as they all fall under a precept or a counsel: “All acts of virtue come under obedience, inasmuch as they are contained in a precept.”[6] Thus, obedience makes us practice penance and mortification, so frequently prescribed in the Gospels, as well as justice, religion, charity, and all the virtues embodied in the Decalogue. More, obedience likens us to the martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for God, as St. Ignatius[7] explains: “Through it, self-will and self-sufficiency are ever being immolated and laid as victims upon an altar, in such wise that instead of man’s free-will there remains but the will of Jesus Christ Our Lord, made known to us by him who commands us. Nor is it merely the desire to live that is sacrificed by obedience, as happens in the case of martyrdom, but here all our desires are sacrificed at one and the same time.” The same thought was expressed by St. Pacomius to a young monk longing for martyrdom: “It is far better to live in obedience and to die daily to self by mortifying our own desires, than to suffer martyrdom in imagination. He who mortifies himself, dies a martyr’s death as far as need be; it is a far greater martyrdom to persevere in obedience all through life, than to die in a moment by a stroke of the sword.”[1] 1072\. c) Obedience offers us perfect safety. Left to ourselves, we would be wondering which would be the more perfect course to take, whereas obedience by determining what is our duty in every instance, points out to us the surest way of working out our sanctification. By doing what obedience prescribes, we realize to the fullest possible extent the one essential condition of perfection, that is, compliance with God’s good pleasure: “I do always the things that are pleasing to him.”[2] From this arises a sense of profound and abiding peace: “There is great peace for them that love thy law, O Lord.”[3] When we are desirous of doing only the will of God as manifested through superiors, we are not preoccupied about what is to be done nor about the means to be employed. All that we must do is to receive orders from him who holds God’s place in our regard and to carry them out as best we can. Providence takes care of the rest, demanding of us, not success, but simply the effort to fulfil the orders given. Besides, we may rest assured of the final result. It is clear that if we do God’s will, He will take care of doing ours, that is to say, of granting our requests and fostering our designs. Obedience, then, means peace on earth, and at the end of life’s journey, it is obedience that opens for us the gates of Heaven. Lost through the disobedience of our First Parents and regained through the obedience of Jesus Christ, Heaven is reserved for those who allow themselves to be led by the human representatives of our Divine Savior. There is no Hell for the truly obedient: “What else does God loathe or punish except self-will? Let self-will cease, and Hell shall be no more.”[4] 1073\. 3° Lastly, obedience transforms into virtues and merits the most commonplace occupations of life: meals, recreations, work. Whatever is done in the spirit of obedience shares in the merit of that virtue, is acceptable to God, and will be rewarded by Him. On the other hand, whatever is done in opposition to the will of superiors, no matter how praiseworthy in itself, is in reality an act of disobedience. The obedient man is therefore often likened to the traveller who goes aboard a ship that is in charge of an expert pilot. Each single day, even though he sleeps, he is steadily making for port, and, thus, without fatigue or preoccupation he reaches the desired goal, the haven of a blissful eternity. 1074\. We end with the following words addressed by God to St. Catherine of Sienna:[1] “How sweet and glorious is this virtue which in itself embodies all the others! It has been conceived and begotten by charity. Upon it rests the foundation of divine faith… It is the very center of the soul, which no tempest can reach… Privation causes it no affliction, for obedience has taught it to desire nothing outside of Myself, Who am able, if I will it, to fulfil all its desires… O, Obedience! thou dost accomplish the journey without fatigue, and reachest the haven of salvation without mishap! Thou identifiest thyself with the Word, my Only-begotten Son. Thou sailest on the bark of the most hallowed Cross, ready to suffer all things rather than depart from obedience to the Word and infringe upon His teaching! How great does thy long perseverance make thee! So great that thou reachest from earth to heaven, since it is by thee and by thee alone that it can be laid open.” --- ![[maps/bibliography#^biblio-tan]] > [[at-sl-22|← Prudence]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-24|Fortitude →]]