The Practice of Obedience

The specific observation has been made that the practice of obedience endangers the human dignity of the religious, hinders the full development of his personality and might even alter his orientation toward God alone. It seems that these objections are supported by certain disillusions experienced personally or noted in others, and that they are also related to various juridic considerations.

In order to dispel a feeling of sadness arising from a misinterpretation of the principles governing the religious life or from practical errors in their application, one must recall first of all the words of the Lord: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest . . . learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest in your souls" (Matthew 12 :29).

If the Lord thus exhorts men to take His yoke upon themselves, it is to teach them that beyond observance under law that can easily become costly and hard to bear, they must discover the meaning of real submission and Christian humility. Far from offending the dignity of the one who submits to them, the latter free him within and make him regard the acceptance of his state of subjection not as a constraint imposed upon him by external forces, but as an abandonment of himself into the hands of God whose will expresses itself through the visible authority of those whose mission it is to command.

The Superior, for his part, will exercise his powers in the same evangelical spirit: "Let him who is greatest among you become as the youngest, and him who is the chief as the servant" (Luke 22 :26). Necessary firmness will therefore always be allied in him to the profound respect and tactfulness of a fatherly heart.