Monday, May 30, 2011

Obedience

"Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." [Phillippians 2: 8].



We are still in the midst of the Easter season, and so, all these Easter and Resurrection themes remain in the forefront of my mind.



I have been meditating on Obedience lately. In this age of individual fulfillment and self determination, Obedience has come to be seen as an archaic concept. We strongly resist submitting to anyone's authority. How, we ask, can we essentially enslave ourselves to anyone else, even if that Person is God?! How dare anyone ask us to fulfill some duties; or to think first of the common good, before we think of ourselves?



These days, our foremost notion of God seems to be that He gave us free will and He made us unique and special creatures. All of this is true!



So our individual right to self expression is paramount, right? Only to a point. We do not need to transform this concept of personal uniqueness from the blessing that it truly is-- into a misguided worship of Self. To the exclusion of God.



Maybe it's because I have almost died so many times, by my last count about half a dozen times. I no longer take even my continued existence as a given.



Therefore I am here on this earth only by God's grace. That was true the first part of my life, and it will be so until the day I die. Everything I have, even my daily meals and my impossibly curly hair are gifts from God!



When I say my daily prayers, I say, God, I am here by your will. Here I am Lord, What will you have me do?



Far from being restrictive or even enslaving, this notion that I am here at the will of God, to fulfill His plan for me, is incredibly freeing! I watch God open doors for me and I ask myself, Do I dare to go through that door? If I do, what is on the other side for me? Sometimes this process is terrifying. I almost want to bargain with God and ask, Why me? Why now? How can You possibly think that I can do this?



The greatest critics of the Catholic Church say that we Catholics are all a bunch of sheep, blindly and gullibly following what the church leaders tell us to do. I completely disagree! When God calls me, I have to be bold to respond to the call. Not a blind follower. Not timid! Or I can choose to ignore the call. (I can tell you that ignoring it does not make it go away! God has a way of tracking me down).



When I was inspired to write this blog, I was given a voice. The voice I never had while growing up! In a few short months, this blog has gone from not even searchable on the web, to accessible on my parish web site, to instantly searchable on the most common search engine. When I dared to respond to the call, He opened doors!



I have told people that I feel like I lit a fuse.



I received validation for that feeling when I watched the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. In the homily, the priest quoted St. Catherine of Siena: "BE who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire!"



The message I get from Obedience is that you cannot build your personal fulfillment on human endeavor alone. But if you dare to respond to the doors that God opens for you, there will be no stopping you!



God, may I be bold enough to seek obedience to You, so that you may help me to become who You meant me to be!

(c) The Spiritual Devotional 2011. All Rights Reserved.

No comments:

Post a Comment