Blessing is in Obedience

It was my last class of my senior year of college, and I listened intently as my professor wrapped up his final lecture. I sat amongst my fellow Catechetics majors, all of us eager to begin setting the world on fire with love for the Lord. All semester, our professor had been teaching us how to handle various situations we would encounter in our ministry, whether it be a parish, school, or some other religious education setting. Now, at the end of our formation as catechists, our professor declared, “If you remember anything from this class, remember this…”. My ears perked up. This was going to be good. He was certainly going to unlock the secret of boldly conquering the world for Christ.

“If you remember anything from this class, remember this:”, he said, “Blessing is in obedience.”

“That’s it?” I thought, “That’s so simple”. And as I sat there repeating the phrase over and over in my mind, the truth of it sank deeper into my heart, and completely altered the way I see the world.

As humans, and particularly as Americans, we often believe that our way of thinking, our opinion, and our way of doing things is the most correct. We tend to struggle with humility and taking direction, especially if it conflicts with our own preferences. When someone in authority over us makes a request or demand of us that we do not personally care for, our initial reaction is to list off all the reasons why they are wrong and we are right (unless you’re a saint, then you can stop reading this because you’ve got it all figured out; but I am not that, so I trudge onward).

But blessing is in obedience. Even if what is asked of us is annoying, inconvenient, or inefficient.

When we are obedient to those who are in proper authority over us, we grow in great humility and love. We obey  our earthly authorities out of love for our ultimate Authority.

Jesus even backs this whole notion that blessing is in obedience. In many of His apparitions to different saints, particularly in His chats with St. Faustina, Our Lord describes how much obedience please Him. Not only does obedience to Him merit us great grace, but obedience to those in charge over us pleases the Lord more than if we were “correct” or “better”. We honor the Lord when we are properly ordered, when we recognize true authority and seek to humble ourselves to accept whatever is requested of us.

Because blessing is in obedience.

Sometimes we are asked to obey in massive ways, like when our parish priest begins an initiative that doesn’t seem important to us, or when our confessor assigns us a penance that we don’t think will be very fruitful, or when our spouse declares that it’s time to have another child when we don’t think we’re ready.

These pills are hard to swallow, but blessing is in obedience.

Most of the time, however, we have the opportunity to obey in many small ways each and every day. We obey the law by driving the speed limit, even if we are in a hurry to get somewhere. We work diligently on the task entrusted to us at work, even if we believe it’s meaningless. We suck it up and do that thirteenth load of laundry in one day, even though we’re certain suds are coming out of ears.

Because blessing is in obedience.

Finally, and this is perhaps my favorite, we are able to grow in virtue by applying the above truths to things that are asked of us by those who are not in authority over us. For example, heeding the “Enter” and “Exit” directives at your local grocery or retail store. There are doors that you are meant to enter through, and doors you are meant to exit through. Isn’t it tempting to go in through the exit doors? Isn’t that the quickest and easiest way most of the time? And let’s face it, we could do that and get away with it. Wal-Mart doesn’t have authority over me, they’re not going to punish me if I go through the wrong door. But by simply being obedient in small matters, we are training ourselves to be obedient in the great ones.

You see, the tiny, seemingly insignificant moments in our day to day life are constantly forming the disposition of our hearts.

So let’s strive to happily complete what is asked of us, both by proper authority and TJ Maxx, because these are the acts that lead to great love. These are the barely detectable hands of the Potter making us into saints; and that, my friends, is the blessing that flows from obedience.