“The service of authority and obedience”

(28 May 08 - RV) “The service of authority and obedience” is the title of an Instruction from the Congregation of Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life published today by the dicastery and presented to an assembly of superiors and superior generals at Rome’s Salesianum.


The 50 page document underlines that the “roots of obedience” are found “in that search for God and His will which is also the will of believers”. This is why all people are called to obey “first and foremost, authority”. “Christian and religious obedience therefore, is not simply a question of observing Church rules or laws, instead it is part of our search for God, listening to His Word and recognising his loving plan”.

The text also addresses the issue of “difficult obedience”, when “the demands made on the religious are particularly hard to meet” or when- in the words of St Francis of Assisi - the person who must obey feels that there are “better or more useful things for his soul than those ordered him by his superior”. In these situations we appeal to “Christ first among the obedient” who “learned obedience through all he suffered”.

 
The document also refers to the possibility of objection of conscience, stating that “the conscience helps us understand obedience not as something that is simply passive or a carrying out of orders, but as a conscious assumption of ones responsibilities, to be embraced with awareness that these are concrete achievement of God’s will”.

The function of authority is presented through the category of “human mediation” of God’s will. The document goes on to clarify that this does not mean “the will of the superior coincides perfectly with God’s own will”. When, however, a person in religious life is faced with a legitimate order from a superior, the Lord asks him or her to obey the authority which in that moment represents Him”.


The Instruction also highlights religious community, as a place in which “under the guidance of the superior, decisions are made for the life of the community”. Nonetheless, it concludes, the represented authority’s decision is final”.