The Mystery of Obedience

Obedience is a bad word this days, it seems. Somewhere along the line, being obedient became equated with weakness, the prevailing notion being that if someone acts in an obedient manner they are somehow less of a person. Just one trip to the local book store and you’ll find dozens of self-help texts written by ‘experts’ who want you to believe that the world revolves around you, and that the only obedience you owe is to yourself. That’s not what the Church teaches, nor is it what Christ showed us as an example of how He wants us to live.

St Silouan the Athonite once said: “Rare are they who know the mystery of obedience”. The quote reveals two things: first that the presence of perfect obedience in a human being is uncommon, and secondly that obedience is a mystery. The word ‘Mystery’ (from the Greek mysterion) is commonly used in the Church, although the exact meaning of the word denotes something inexpressible. We use the word ‘Mysteries’ to describe our sacraments, in which case it refers to the way that we participate in our own salvation by partaking of them. Beyond the seven sacraments that we are already familiar with, the Church includes many aspects of our life in Christ, such as hospitality, the veneration of Holy Things, and the Jesus Prayer as being sacramental. Through the Mysteries, the saving action of God is revealed to us in a way in which we can understand, yet never fully comprehend.

In what way is obedience a mystery? The Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky writes that the answer lies in the fact that while there is unity in God, in Christ there are two Wills, both human and divine, with the human Will being in complete subjugation. The mystery of Christ’s obedience to the Father, he notes, is equivalent to the mystery of our salvation. In short, if we are to be saved, we are to be obedient.

Obedience means first and foremost that we are to be submissive to the Will of God. We have to take a serious look at ourselves and ask: when I pray, “Thy Will be done”, do I really mean it? Certainly Christ meant it, in His agonizing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, giving us an example of perfect obedience. But we don’t necessarily have to be in Gethsemane to learn obedience – practice makes perfect, and there are certainly plenty of ways to practice obedience in our daily lives and within our own families. If we practice simple acts of obedience even to those we don’t know, such as helping a stranger who asks us to assist him with a certain task, then we have already set ourselves upon the road of salvation. We owe obedience to our spouses, our superiors at work, and most importantly, to our spiritual father, as one who knows and cares for our individual spiritual needs. That is why it is essential to pray for him, and ask God to give him wisdom and spiritual discernment, so that he may not lead anyone astray though his human weakness.

Can obedience ever be bad? The answer is yes - since like every other good thing, obedience can be distorted by Satan and used against us. We can fall into the trap of being obedient to those who do not have our best interests in mind, or even into the pride of attempting spiritual feats beyond our reasonable capabilities. In every case, we must never trust our own judgment, but through constant prayer ask the Lord to direct our steps according to His Will. Only then will the Mystery of true obedience be revealed to us.