“Obedience does not rob us of our freedom, rather it frees us to employ the full range of our gifts and talents in service to the Master.”
French archbishop Francois Fenelon said this about obedience.
“It is not the multitude of hard duties, it is not constraint and contention that advance us in our Christian course. On the contrary, it is the yielding of our wills without restriction and without choice, to tread cheerfully every day in the path in which Providence leads us, to seek nothing, to be discouraged by nothing, to seek out duty in the present moment, to trust all else without reserve to the will and power of God.”
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In 1971, quarterback Roger Staubach led the Dallas Cowboys to a world championship. The head coach at the time was Tom Landry. While it was common at the time for quarterbacks to use their own initiative and calls their own plays during a game, that was not Landry’s way. Landry called every play. He told Staubach when to pass and when to run. Only in the case of an emergency could Roger call his own play and hr knew that he had better be right when he did so.
This was a source of severe trial for the quarterback. Even though he considered the coach a genius, he still thought that he should be able to call his own plays and manage his team during the game.
In an interview Roger Staubach said, “I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.”
God calls us to use our gifts and talents to help others find their way back to Him. Being obedient to His word is far easier than having to face the consequences and responsibilities of disobedience.
From the very beginning in the garden, our willingness to obey has been tested.
In the First Book of Samuel, Hannah desired to be a mother so that she could return that child to God. She returned to God the son she asked for, the son received from Him. Hannah points ahead not only to Mary’s sacrifice but also serves as a model for all Christian families who are often called to return one child, if not more, to God.
As children of God we are called to be obedient to God the Father. The Holy Family exemplifies this for us. Joseph accepts the child as his own. He must do this to obey God’s will and for the child to be a true son of David. Mary has been told that a sword will pierce her heart, and she has already given her son back to the divine Father. And Jesus recognizes the will of the divine father to such a degree that, when His parents feared him lost, Jesus seems puzzled that Mary and Joseph did not know where to find him.
Obedience to God is at the heart of the Holy Family. It holds us together even more tightly than familial bonds. Jesus returns with Mary and Joseph and is obedient to them while he continues to grow in wisdom and favor. But obedience to God is primary.
Obedience does not come up too often in the creative community. Since the so-called Age of Enlightenment, artists have been encouraged to express themselves, to dig deep into their emotional well and produce work that is often incomprehensible. Obedience is often seen as a hinderance to creativity. But this is not really the case. Ask a painter, or a songwriter, or a poet to create anything they want and they will most likely agonize for hours over what they should do. But ask a painter for something that includes a horse, a songwriter to write a song about love, or a poet to craft a poem about death, and they will more often than not dive into the work, excited by the challenge provided by a simple directive.
Scottish theologian Peter T. Forsythe put it this way.
“The first duty of every soul is to find, not its freedom, but its Master.”
Obedience does not rob us of our freedom, rather it frees us to employ the full range of our gifts and talents in service to the Master. History has proven this. What are generally regarded as the greatest works of art are not the result of the artist indulging in his own whims or ego. Instead our greatest artistic treasures were created under obedience to a patron. And more often than not that patron had in mind a work to honor God.
G.K. Chesterton gives us a wonderful example of the freedom that comes with obedience to authority.
“We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff’s edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased.” – G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
The Holy Family shows us the answer to the question God has posed to us from the beginning. Do we trust in Him? Are we obedient to His will?
Pax Vobiscum Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
