Marianist Vows: Obedience

Father Marty Solma, SM offers the third in a series of blog posts focused on the Marianist Vows and how they apply to both vowed and lay Marianists—especially our PULSE volunteers. Marianist PULSE's Spectacle of Saints blog welcomes Father Marty's wisdom once again, as he writes on the vow of obedience:

This is the third reflection in a series about the traditional vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and how they can speak today to young people, especially members of PULSE. If chastity involves our relationships as sexual beings and points to the ultimacy of God; and if poverty points to our relationship to the “beautiful things” of the Created universe; obedience touches, perhaps, the most personal dimension of our human experience: self-determination and life trajectory

As many know, “obedience” comes from two Latin words: “ab”, meaning “to or toward” and “audire”, meaning “to hear.” Obedience is about “listening”: to the world around us, to ourselves, to others and to God. To make decisions for oneself, to chart one’s direction in life, to embrace the meaning of one’s life is, in the American culture, the expression of freedom. For many, the ability to choose, unhindered, from an array of possibilities is what it means to be free.

For people of faith, centered on Christ and the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the meaning of obedience and freedom is much different...and much more.  Knowing that the “beautiful things” of this world will never ultimately satisfy the restlessness of the human heart and knowing that even the most satisfying relationship does not fill the “hole in the heart” that only God can fill, our self-determination, our freedom, our ability to choose are doomed for emptiness unless they are centered on God’s call to each of us as the unique and unrepeatable persons He has created. To “listen” to that call is to be obedient. And, this obedience leads to real freedom: not the freedom to choose in my autonomous self but the freedom to give myself away in love and service.

Baptismal obedience gets expressed differently in different Christian vocations. In marriage, “listening” is done between the spouses and within the family unit. For religious, “listening” is done within one’s community and with one’s religious leaders. For single Christians, “listening” is done within the context of their life’s work or project and with trusted friends. Jesus said that His “meat” was to do the will of the One who sent Him. The same is true for all of us, and discerning that “will of God” leads us to obedience, to our “vocation”, to our call from God. It will also lead us to unexpected places and surpassing blessings.

An illustration. In 1981, I was teaching at Purcell Marian High School in Cincinnati, a school I liked very much and a community of Brothers I found life-giving and zealous. On the evening of Halloween, I received a call from the Assistant Provincial, asking me to accept a three year assignment at the Marianist Novitiate in Ekpoma, Nigeria. What?  Going to Africa was absolutely the last thing on my radar. I’m ashamed to say that accepting this invitation took me too long and involved too much hesitation and doubt. I will forever be grateful to God, however, for the request that was made and for the eventual freedom to say “yes,” to be obedient.

Father Marty (third from left) in Nigeria

This unexpected request opened up levels of experience and life that I could never have imagined: a hundredfold as promised over the next 27 years. I would never have done this on my own. What I have learned from this experience has shaped my life: the willingness to accept a surprising request, the availability to serve in unexpected ways, the courage to allow my life to be shaped by God’s call and by my religious vocation have been a huge blessing, one I could never have envisioned. I cannot imagine myself, at this point in life, without this formative period of grace.

We are all called to be “obedient”: obedient to our baptism into Christ, obedient within our vocations, obedient to the voice of God that comes in sometimes dramatic, sometimes unexpected and sometimes mundane ways.  The virtue of obedience deepens our willingness and broadens our availability, all by God’s grace.