Pray, Pay and Obey

Embracing the virtue of obedience

 ACTS of the apostles 15:22-31

The Apostles and presbyters, in agreement with the whole Church, decided to choose representatives and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.  This is the letter delivered by them: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you keep free of these, you will be doing what is right. Farewell.” And so they were sent on their journey. Upon their arrival in Antioch they called the assembly together and delivered the letter. When the people read it, they were delighted with the exhortation.

            You know that most priests and monks and nuns take the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.  Now which of these three do you think is the hardest?  Most people would probably answer, “chastity,” the vow that priests cannot get married.  But every time I visit my brother and see them trying to raise their four crazy kids, I think, “You know, chastity doesn’t look all that bad!”  Now, Archbishop Fulton Sheen said something different.  He believed that each of these vows was hard at a different stage in our life. While we are young chastity is the hardest, in middle age obedience is toughest, and in our golden years poverty is hardest.  There’s a lot of truth to that.

             This Sunday is my ordination anniversary and I’ll have been a priest for 18 years.  In my opinion the hands-down hardest vow is obedience.  In 18 years as a priest, I’ve served in 15 parishes, and that constant change and upheaval is extremely hard.  And so, my basic philosophy as your pastor is twofold: (1) don’t screw things up, and (2) stay off the bishop’s radar.  And hopefully I won’t get moved.  But every time I have been moved, it’s been a blessing.  I’m very blessed to be at I.C. now.  You see, obedience is hard, but it’s a very important virtue, and a crucial vow: it shows we trust God more than ourselves, and that is the heart of Christianity.

            In the first reading today, we see the virtue of obedience in full flower in the church in Antioch.  The Apostles, led by Peter, in Jerusalem have sent a letter regarding how they should treat the Gentile converts.  You can be sure that letter ruffled a few feathers among the Jewish converts.  But how did the church in Antioch react?  It says, “When the people read it, they were delighted with the exhortation.”  In other words, they were humble and obedient.

            My friends, obedience isn’t just for priests and nuns, it should be the badge of honor of every Catholic, even though it’s hard.  It’s hard when the bishop takes up a second collection, it’s hard when the bishop moves your pastor, it’s hard when the bishop champions issues you disagree with.  But that’s precisely when the virtue of obedience has to kick in and we trust in God more than we trust in ourselves.  It used to be said that all a Catholic had to do was “pray, pay and obey.”  Well, a Catholic has to do more than that, but obedience is always at the heart of Catholicism.

            In the end, the undoing of the Church will not be due to promiscuous priests, and it won’t be because of greedy priests.  The greatest damage to the Church has always been inflicted by disobedient priests, who trusted in themselves more than in God.  That’s why obedience is not only the hardest virtue, but, for my money, also the highest virtue.

Praised be Jesus Christ!