ON THE VIRTUE OF OBEDIENCE

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

ON THE VIRTUE OF OBEDIENCE

"Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered. And having been
perfected, He became the author of eternal
salvation to all who obey Him" [Hebrews 5:8-9].

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ "learned obedience" (v.8) in his human will, with which continually and freely submitted to the Divine will. In the agony of injustice and in physical pain He submits to the will of the Father. This perfecting of human activity in communion with God shows Christ alone to be the Savior (v.9).

The ancestral sin which was the first sin committed by Adam and Eve was the sin of disobedience. Saint Cyril of Alexandria expresses the Orthodox teaching on the transmission of ancestral sin: "What has Adam’s guilt to do with us? Why are we held responsible for his sin when we were not even born when he committed it? Did not God say: "The parents will not die for the children, nor the children for their parents, but the soul which has sinned, it shall die" (Deuteronomy 24:16)? We have become sinners because of Adam’s DISOBEDIENCE in the following manner…After he fell into sin and surrendered to corruption, impure lusts (of pleasures) invaded the nature of his flesh, and at the same time the evil law of our members was born. For our nature contracted the disease of sin BECAUSE OF THE DISOBEDIENCE OF ONE MAN, that is, Adam, and thus many became sinners. This was not because they sinned along with Adam, because they did not then exist, but because they had the same nature with Adam, which fell under the law of sin. Thus, just as human nature acquired the weakness of corruption in Adam because of DISOBEDIENCE, and evil desires [or passions] invaded it, so the same natur was later set free by Christ. Who WAS OBEDIENCE TO GOD THE FATHER AND DID NOT COMMIT SIN".

According to Saint John Climacus, "Obedience is a total renunciation of our own life, and it shows up clearly in the way we act. Or, again, obedience is the mortification of the members while the mind remains alive. Obedience is unquestioned movement, death freely accepted, a simple life, danger faced without worry, an unprepared defense before God, fearlessness before death, a safe voyage, a sleeper’s journey. Obedience is the burial place of the will and the resurrection of lowliness. A corpse does not contradict or debate the good or whatever seems bad, and the spiritual father who has devoutly put the disciple’s soul to death will answer for everything. Indeed, to obey is, will all deliberateness, to put aside the capacity to make one’s own judgment."

In his excellent article entitled, "The Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity," Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia, of blessed memory, makes several lucid points regarding the relationship between a Geronda [Elder] and his spiritual child and the subject of obedience. Metropolitan Kallistos writes: "Three points must be made. In the first place, the obedience offered by the spiritual son to his Abba (Father, IS NOT FORCED, but willing and voluntary. It is the task of the starets to take up our will into his will, but he can only do this IF BY OUR OWN FREE CHOICE WE PLACE IT IN HIS HANDS. HE DOES NOT BREAK OUR WILL, but ACCEPTS IT FROM US AS A GIFT. A submission that is forced and involuntary IS OBVIOUSLY DEVOID OF MORAL VALUE; the starets asks of each one that he offer to God his heart, not his external actions.

The voluntary nature of obedience is vividly emphasized in the ceremony of the tonsure at the Orthodox rite of Monastic profession. The scissors are placed upon the Book of the Gospels, and the novice must himself pick them up and give them to the Egoumenos (Abbot). The Egoumenos (Abbot) immediately replaces them on the Book of the Gospels. Again, the novice takes the scissors, and again they are replaced. Only when the novice gives the scissors for the third time does the Egoumenos (Abbot) proceed to cut hair. Never thereafter will the monk have the right to say to the Egoumenos (Abbot) or the brethren: ‘My personality is constricted and suppressed here in the monastery, you have deprived me of my freedom.’ No one has taken away his freedom, for IT WAS HE HIMSELF WHO TOOK UP THE SCISSORS AND PLACED THEM THREE TIMES IN THE ABBOT’S HAND.

But this voluntary offering of our freedom is obviously something that cannot be made once and for all, bhy a single gesture. There must be a continual offering, extending over our whole life, our growth in Christ is measured precisely by the increasing degree of our self-giving. Our freedom must be offered anew each day and each hour, in constantly varying ways, and this means that the relation between starets and disciple is not static, but dynamic, and unchanging but infinitely diverse. Each day and each hour, under the guidance of his Abba (Father), the disciple will face new situations, calling for a different response, a new kind of self-giving."

"Let this mind be in your which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF AND BECAME OBEDIENT TO THE POINT OF DEATH, EVEN THE DEATH ON THE CROSS" [Philippians 2:5-9]. Our Lord God Jesus Christ, used to say characteristically, that absolute obedience saved him. He lived as if what his Elders said was according to Divine Dispensation, relinquishing every personal "right," desire, and high mindedness.

Again in the Orthodox Christian tradition, obedience is a fundamental virtue that is necessary for spiritual growth or development and a relationship with the Almighty God. The Holy Fathers of the Church, such as Saint John Climacus, have taught that obedience is NOT just a matter of submissiveness, but rather a virtue that takes place within a context of trust and love between two people in Christ. They also emphasize that obedience is given to specific people, not to abstract concepts. The word used here is υποτακτικός, which literally means a "submissive worker" or "underline." When the Orthodox Christian adheres to the teachings of the Church and has a spiritual father or father confessor it is understood that he or she will have obedience to his spiritual guidance and advice. It is not enough to go to him and recite a number of his/her transgressions like a robot and then leave. When one has an illness and goes to his/her physician he or she does not simply explain the symptoms of his/her illness and leaves but awaits for the physician’s diagnosis and his advice on how to cure this illness, even if it takes surgery. He or she trusts his/her physician and places his/her life in his hands, trusting in his judgment and solution. The spiritual father is no different, having years of experience, understanding, knowledge and practice. But again it is voluntary and not done by force.

"…This blessed obedience benefited me a great deal." Saint Porphyrios of blessed memory said, "because it changed me. I became alert, swift, and stronger both in body and soul… I bowed down before obedience and pored over it. All the rest, which God brought about into my life, came on its own. The gift of foresight, additionally, was given to me by God on account OF MY OBEDIENCE." Here, the Geronda (Elder) certifies with his own life, what Saint John Climacus writes in the Ladder of Divine Ascent: "From obedience comes humility. From humility comes discernment, as Saint Cassian has said and from discernment comes insight, and from insight comes foresight."

"Obedience," Saint Porphyrios said, "illustrates one’s love for Christ. And Christ particularly loves those who are obedient. This is why He says: "I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me diligently will find Me" [Proverbs 8:17).  Everything is written in the Holy Bible, but such things are concealed."