Second Sunday after Epiphany

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
18th January 2015

Obedience of the Intellect by Fr. John A. Hardon S.J.

There are three degrees of obedience, according to St. Ignatius. The first and lowest is the obedience of execution which carries a command into external effect, but without internal submission of the intellect and will. This, says Ignatius, scarcely merits the name of obedience. The second degree, or obedience of the will, is praiseworthy and highly meritorious because it involves the sacrifice of human freedom for the love of God. At the highest level stands obedience of the intellect which is possible because, except in the face of intrinsic evidence to the contrary, the will for its own motives can bend the understanding; it is reasonable because nothing could be more intelligent than submission of our minds to infinite wisdom; it is necessary to insure proper subordination in a hierarchical society and protect the subject from internal conflict; and it is perfect because it immolates our noblest faculty and thereby renders the greatest glory to the divine majesty.

Just as a religious in obedience to his institute can be satisfied with external observance, or can rise to conformity of his will and intellect with the Superior, so a Catholic of whatever rank may adopt the same three attitudes regarding the commandments of the Church. And if he rises to the degree of intellectual submission, his obedience has reached its highest perfection, within the ambit of divine precept as distinct from the evangelical counsels.

When St. Ignatius urges obedience to the precepts of the Church, he recommends this third degree, which requires a conformity of the whole man with the dictates of authority: of his body for external execution, his will for internal submission and his mind for perfect consent. The function of the mind "is to find reasons to defend" the Church's commandments against an unruly tendency to disobedience partly occasioned by the nature of the Christian religion, and partly determined by the character of the precept and the attitude of the person affected. For example, the Church tells me to assist at Mass on Sunday under penalty of mortal sin. The human mind, no matter how intelligent, will never see on purely rational grounds why the Sunday precept should be so grave or even why hearing Mass is important. Apart from revelation, a man has no motive for going to Mass on Sunday and he will naturally rebel against the imposition unless he has faith and acts on the reasons that faith proposes for submitting to the obligation. The fundamental reason is the Church's divine mission, given to her by Christ, to establish laws and prescribe their observance under pain of sin. The same applies to all the commandments of the Church, and not only the universal precepts but every command, even personal, made by valid ecclesiastical authority.