THE OBEDIENCE OF JESUS IN HIS HIDDEN LIFE
“He was subject to them” (Luke 2, 51).
First Prelude: Represent to yourselves our Blessed Saviour at Nazareth, rendering the most perfect obedience to His parents.
Second Prelude: My Jesus, teach me by Thy example to esteem and love obedience, so that by the practice of the same I may safely attain to the perfection of my holy calling.
First Point
HOW JESUS LOVES AND PRACTICES OBEDIENCE
In the few words: “He was subject to them,” the Holy Ghost wished to sum up the whole life of the Saviour until His thirtieth year in order to instill into us a high esteem for the virtue of obedience. This virtue includes, in a certain sense, every other virtue, the consummate sanctity of the God-Man, Whom we are to imitate. Let us, therefore, contemplate how the Divine Saviour, our sublime model, makes the practice of obedience His chief employment. The Eternal Word of God, the Supreme Wisdom, the Creator and Lord of all things, to Whom everything owes submission, renders obedience to His creatures, allows Himself to be guided and led like a child which is not yet capable of guiding itself. With loving cheerfulness He hastens to carry out what Mary and Joseph commission; He even forestalls their wishes and this not only as long as He is a child, but even, still, when He has reached manhood. One easily perceives that it is His Heart which obeys and that, in whatever He does, He is motivated by love.
What was it that impelled our Divine Saviour to obey so perfectly? It was the desire to acknowledge the divine supremacy, to tender the Divine Majesty the tribute of homage, and to glorify the same by the most perfect execution of the Father’s Will. Jesus obeyed His heavenly Father in the person of His parents and that, too, with the purest and most ardent love, so that all His acts of obedience were the expression of the most perfect love. This is, then, the true, supernatural obedience, the obedience of faith, which is deduced from the principle that the invisible God wills to guide men through other men, as His visible representatives. For this reason He invested them with His authority, so that it is said of them: “He that heareth you, heareth Me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me” (Luke 10, 16). To obey from this motive is great, honorable, and meritorious, for it implies absolute dependence on God in the person of our superiors.
O my Jesus, I thank Thee for the sublime example Thou hast given me by Thy humble obedience. Grant me the grace, in the practice of the holy obedience I have vowed, to be imbued with Thy sentiments.
Second Point
FRUITS OF RELIGIOUS OBEDIENCE
We have seen in our Divine Model that through the perfect obedience which Jesus practiced, His heavenly Father was most highly honored and glorified. In like manner, religious can not honor God more worthily than by uniting their dependence on their superiors with the submission of the Divine Saviour. To glorify God means to acknowledge His unlimited authority. How could we better evidence this than by offering to Him what is dearest and most valuable to us, namely, our free will? This generous abandonment of truly obedient religious procures for them the generosity of God and disposes Him favorably to grant all their petitions. If we give to the Lord all that we have how could He refuse us anything? St. Augustine notes: “A single petition made by a submissive soul is more readily granted than ten thousand petitions made by a recalcitrant one.” What progress in perfection does an obedient religious make within a short time! Self-will retreats entirely to give place to the Will of God, Who governs and directs his entire course of action, regulates his words and deeds, and thus in a certain sense divinizes his whole life.
In obedience one finds peace of soul, which is by far the most precious treasure one can possess here on earth. How delightfully consoling is the thought: I am where God wills me to be; I do what He wills I should do. He Himself has selected for me the place at which I now find myself as well as the work which has been assigned to me; and this choice He has made in consideration of His greater honor and my salvation. Provided I obey He assumes complete charge of everything and I am relieved of all responsibilities. O my God, how great is Thy goodness, which makes the path of holiness so easy for us! Truly, they who faithfully persevere in the practice of obedience, exercise constantly the purest love of God; the treasure of their merits increases uninterruptedly. Through the continued exercise of good works their predestination is made more secure hour by hour, their crown becomes more brilliant, their eternity more blissful. Can one conceive a more encouraging thought?
Affections: On the day of my profession I surrendered myself to Thee, O my Jesus, and vowed solemnly to obey Thee constantly in the person of my religious superiors. Oh, how often have I failed to remember that Thou dost abhor rapine in the holocaust; how often have I taken back my own will and disposed of myself as though I still belonged to myself! How frequently have I by resistance, by vacillation, by human considerations, considerably diminished the merits of my obedience in Thine eyes. Pardon, O my Jesus, the unfaithfulness of Thy spouse. I renew gladly the sacrifice of my will and all my inclinations. I wish to model my obedience after Thine and to repeat to Thee the words of complete surrender: “Do with me what Thou willest and as Thou willest for I know that Thou lovest me.”
Resolution: In all my actions I will unite myself with the obedience of Jesus.
Spiritual Bouquet: “He was subject to them.”
Prayer: Take, O Lord . . .
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