Obedience is salvific, but some questions arise here: how should we prepare for obedience? What is the relationship between the obedient and leaders? What happens when we take obedience off the monastic, spiritual level and transfer it to the civic, political level?
You can find answers to all these questions by watching this episode.
Enjoy!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and now and ever and unto the ages and ages. Amen
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen
Today we are going to talk a little bit about obedience and I want to tell you that with the gift of God, I once had a… discovery, so to speak, God enlightened me a thing that is, of course, known in the Church, but, well, that I have also come to feel it, somewhat. I knew it, rationally, but God enlightened me for the prayers of our fathers’ saints. But I wanted to ask someone if that was the case, if what I was feeling inside of me was true.
The good God then ordained me to meet with Father Rafail Noica and I said I would ask him. My question was big, for me at least and because of it, I was afraid to ask him as I had it inside of me.
The question was, “Is the obedience the way of existing of beings?” And I feared, somehow, I said, “Obedience is way of existing of beings… … created?”. Do you understand? I added and created at the end.
And then Father Rafail replied “No, only of created beings – see, we do not know what is in the Holy Trinity; the only thing we know is that there is obedience there.”
It really is. Obedience is the mode of existence of beings. Of all beings. And of the created and the uncreated.
So even though we’ve talked about obedience before, we’re still going to talk because it’s our way of being.
The better we do obedience the better we exist. The devil exists the least because he is the least obedient being.
Obedience is the practical incarnation of love, just as Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God the Word. God who is, Love is, and therefore to exist, we must be united as much as possible with Him through love, and between us through love that is transposed in a practical way, through obedience.
In order to be able to obey, however, we must alienate ourselves from the world, a theme that we have addressed at length in past episodes.
Man alienated from the slime of the passions of the flesh with the alienation of either the body or the soul is free to obey God, to the unspeakable sighs of the Spirit, to the sacrifice of the Son, and to the enlightenment of the Father.
If we are full of worries and personal interests, we will not be able to obey others, brothers. We’re trying to do obedience, we’re going to listen to a lot of people, and in the end we’re not going to listen to anybody.
Thus, through these two virtues – obedience and alienation – the pious soul ascends to heaven, like a dove with the golden wings of humility, as St. John the Ladder says.
It is very beautiful the obedience to the beginner if he leaves everything and is estranged from all his own.
For this flight we need the shield of faith in God and the spiritual leader must instill in us this faith in God and faith in him. He needs to inspire us, we need to be inspired.
Beyond the shield of faith that the Apostle Paul reminds us of, we also need the breastplates of patience – also the Holy Apostle Paul – and this patience must be mainly in the face of the protections and rebukes that come from the spiritual leader. And of course, patience must be gentle, it must not be an animalistic patience that hides a growl on our tooth. We must be meek! That’s why we need this patience like a breastplate.
On the other hand, to continue the analogy with the famous quote from the Holy Apostle Paul, we need and even have the helmet of salvation that is the covering of the prayers of our spiritual leader.
You must know that here is a great mystery, brothers, because you see that at every service we say “For the prayers of the Saints of our Fathers…” And you see that I always start my little word with “For the prayers of the Saints of our Fathers…”. So this covering of the prayers of the spiritual leader, of the Saints of our Fathers, is huge to the brethren, and it is one of the greatest, if not the greatest wealth, of the true Church of Christ, of the Orthodox Church.
Because it is about the inheritance of grace that comes through the prayers of the Holy Fathers. Do you understand? It is very important.
So the mystery of obedience is a great, enormous mystery. It is the mystery of restoring the unity of the original Adam in the unity of the Holy Trinity. We’ve talked about this many times before, because Adam is one as God is one. God is One in Three Persons, Adam is one in many persons. Remember we’ve talked about this, I’m not going to go back here. Of course, we do not have the consciousness of this unity because we are fallen, we are imbued with sin.
So since we have this immense mystery of obedience, of restoring Adam, the global one, then although it is possible that the spiritual measure of the leader is not special – the leader may not be a covetous monk or professionally he may even be a factory manager, the parents… but if we obey for Christ’ sake, we still feel the cover of grace. We will still feel the prayers of the Saints of our Fathers. Do you understand?
True obedience has, as the St. John the Ladder says, has two sides: service and prayer.
Prayer is paramount because it provides us with the patience and enlightenment of the mind necessary to keep us constant in our obedience and love over time. Because in time the devil is going to fight fiercely to get us out of obedience, out of this unity, out of this restoration of the global Adam.
He who does not have the proper spiritual measure, brothers, will not be able to do his obedience. Do you understand?
Obedience lies in denying one’s soul – that is, the selfish will, the self-will that engulfs the man, takes him away from the global Adam and leads him to hell because hell is eternal loneliness.
If someone denies their soul and selfish will, then you will see that the body is very alive. So if one mortifies his soul, the body will be very alive in serving others. That is, we do as soon as the one who leads us says. “Yes, be blessed, as you wish!”
Of course, one can also analyze the problem from the opposite side: that is, the denial of the body through living, awakening thinking, through the liveliness of thought. I mean, we don’t do anything that we’re not told. I mean, the body is going to be mortified, it’s not going to move if we don’t get the commandment, if we don’t get the word. And for that we have to have an awake attention, we have to be very awakening, you understand, so that we don’t dare to get out of the unity of obedience.
Because very easily we can take initiative that is not stamped, sealed with the grace of obedience. Do you understand? Very important!
Let’s take care that when we do obedience many times, incomprehensible things will appear, because in fact that means listening and we will have to cut off our will. So obedience is not when I am in agreement and I always do what suits me because it happens to be in agreement with the one who gives me the command.
True obedience is when I have to cut off my will.
It is precisely because of this that we obey: because the will of each of us is distorted and leads us to the hell of our loneliness. You can see that I’m repeating myself because they’re the same and the same things from any point, we’re going to see it that’s where we go.
So let’s not be surprised that at some point we’re going to have trouble listening. Of course it should not be so, but this is yet another proof of our fall, of the death within us, of the breaking of this unique Adam that we are in these shards, in the constituent individuals.
In this moment when we come to do disobedience, so in the moment of temptation, of disobedience – we must make up our soul to receive danger without care. That is, not negligently, but not to be troubled, not to worry about obedience – that what it’s going to be, how it’s going to be, but if you do that it’s not going to succeed and so on. But let us move forward as the one who gives us the commandment told us. No worries, brothers. We don’t worry. Because the grace of obedience is going to solve them all.
And you’re going to see that if we move forward with this courage, we’re going to see beyond the death that the distorted vision of our will shows us, we’re going to see miracles, we’re going to see our resurrection. We will see the resurrection in Christ and have the clear experience of the triumph of victory against death.
We’re going to feel that inside of us. We must have this courage to go through fear, through death. You must know that every man needs this experience of victory, but this need for victory can only be fulfilled through resurrection, by overcoming death by obedience to the one that God validates before us.
Otherwise, brothers, in any victory even at the Olympics we will still not be fulfilled. Only in the victory against death, that is, only the resurrection will fulfill man.
This sense of total victory against death is also accentuated by the fact that we will not look for what answer to give to God, that is, we do not care what we are going to say to God. Why? Because the answer is simple: the responsibility lies with the one who gave us the command. Whoever commanded us will give an account. Our life, thus, becomes very quiet – like a journey into sleep, as St. John the Ladder says. I mean, it’s all very good, very nice.
A small problem may arise here. We have to be careful that others may think of us as fools, that we are debilitated, that we are manipulable, all this… but this seemingly stupidity is the greatest wisdom. Why? You see that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself came from Heaven to obey the Father who sent Him. You see, brethren, the 4th Gospel, the Theological Gospel of the New Testament, of St. John the Theologian proves that Jesus the son of Mary is the Son of God not on the basis of miracles, for he says, “And he did many other miracles, that if it had been written in this book, it would not have fit.” Something like that.
Where else do you put that there are omitted and some very great miracles related to the Savior such as the Annunciation, His Birth. So St. John the Theologian does not prove on the basis of miracles that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. St. John the Theologian proves that Jesus is the Son of God through His perfect obedience to the Father who sent Him. It is a recurring expression that appears in St. John the Theologian.
So if you look at all the happenings in the Gospel of John you will see that the Savior refers to Himself as an obedient in relation to the Father.
This is also the purpose of the Gospel of John, as the author himself says: that they were written to believe that This (Jesus that is) is the Son of God and life into him to have. And this proves it – as I said – by his obedience, not by miracles.
So obedience is paramount, it is the way of existence of beings, as I said at the beginning of the word.
Now we must know that the beginning of obedience, the beginning of this transformation into resurrection is done with pain, because of the death within us, because of the fact that we are distorted. We are used to death, to disobedience, to sin, to distortion. We live in the shadow of death — as the Scripture says again — of separation, of disobedience.
The means of obedience – that is, of mortification after someone advances on this path of perfection is made sometimes with pain, other times without pain. Whereas the end of mortification, the end (before) our resurrection is shown by the total stillness of our members outside of obedience. Meaning, the man is totally mortified outside of obedience and does not feel any pain. He is very alive, very lively, very fast in listening, but outside of that he is not interested in anything at all. It is a crystalline silence and tranquility, an extraordinary isichia that delights the mind in the fullness of humility, which a great silence in which the mind prays incessantly to its Maker. Incessant prayer it only comes like this, brethren.
This happy living dead man feels toil and pain only when he does his will – when he is forced by situations to do his will because he has a decision-making position and so on because only then he has the awareness that he will be judged and fears the burden of his judgment. Then he’s insecure. When he is in obedience, he is the happiest man.
As you can see, obedience is very simple. That is, you have reached your destination immediately if you are careful, of course, to deny your judgments, you get to your destination, as I say, even before you start. Immediately, only to pay attention to what the other says, to catch the word on the fly from the mouth of the other, from the mouth of your spiritual leader.
That of course, just to leave our selfish will, to let our selfishness because it separates us from others, that’s our pain. Let’s transform our will from self-loving to brother-loving.
When the Holy Fathers say to cut off our will, I say to cut off our self-loving will, the distorted will and to turn it into a loving will of God and of brothers, by opening up to others. That’s heaven, brothers.
In fact, this opening is the way of heaven and closure is the way of hell. In fact, brothers, this is also the only danger for those who go on this road of obedience: closure – their own will, their own ordinance, idiohythmia as the Holy Fathers also say. We have to be careful to get rid of this, of our own will, of irrioditmy, once again we say: we must not believe our thought– as I have said many times– that is, brethren, not to believe in what we find good– but always to ask the one, the ones whom God validates before us.
As you can see, brethren, obedience is the shortest and safest, easiest, most saving way to the purity of the mind, of course. It’s the path that the many parents went on, the path that is recommended to all beginners (and not only) … but here’s a problem: it’s about the paramount importance of the leader. So we must wisely choose our spiritual leader when we begin to obey, when we decide to obey.
Because, of course, we have to do obedience from the bud, from the children age, then we cannot choose ourselves and because of this God gives us from the beginning people to obey and these are the parents. And children need to obey their parents. The whole tradition of mankind, not to say only of the human race, speaks of obedience to parents. So what is happening today that children no longer have to obey their parents that they are modern and so on is totally satanic, brothers. This is a given of God’s mercy, because, of course, we can’t choose, as I said, and God gives us as a gift: look, I’m giving you these people to obey.
When we grow up and mature, then we will choose who to obey – or a person of the opposite sex in the case of marriage or a spiritual leader in the mystery of monasticism or a professional boss or the laws of the state, the leadership of the state on the legal level, if you will.
Of course, obedience to the spiritual leader is also imposed in the world, but it is a little different as in monasticism. But of course in the world the obedience to the spiritual leader is not total, that’s what I mean. That is, we do not have to ask the confessor absolutely anything. We ask the confessor only in matters of sin and there we obey him. Do you understand?
We also need to listen, as I said, to the hierarchical boss on a professional level. The criterion to consider when choosing the hierarchical boss, because we choose him by hiring us, the criterion is this: can I make an obedience to the hierarchical boss that will lead me to God? That is, a perfect obedience. Of course, a perfect obedience in the case of a layman does not necessarily mean a blind obedience, let us understand each other. Can I listen to my boss? Let this be the criterion and not the money. Do you understand?
On the other hand, we must obey – as much as possible, of course, with discernment, that is, up to matters of sin – and to the state leadership, as St. Ap. Paul and St. Ap. Peter says., that we must submit to worldly dominions and so on, “even to the abominable.”
Here, however, we must thank God for enabling us to vote. You know very well that in the old days people could not vote and they had to listen to the head of state without being able to elect their heads of state.
Now, glory to God, we can vote, we can choose our leaders. Okay, now you’re going to say that yes, all sorts of things happen in elections, but brothers, don’t say these things we can’t do anything.
All this is not from God, it is from the enemy. First of all, going to the polls is a great confession to God that you want a certain leader to obey and God is going to heed your confession. So go vote, brothers! When they tell you not to go and so on, these are manipulations.
Always vote with Christ and the leader who can bring you closest to the Lord. Don’t say “I don’t have anyone to vote for” – that’s targeted manipulation on a certain segment of the electorate – because then, if you say you don’t have anyone to vote for, then those who you don’t want to vote for will have someone to vote for and their candidate will come out and you’ll have to obey who you don’t want. That, of course, beyond other things that are done during the election period.
Go and show your desire for betterment to God and then God will guard you, even if in His provision for the nation He may allow your favorite candidate to not come out. Do you understand? The sleep of the nation begets monsters – as someone said.
It’s very serious this problem of voting and listening to the head of state, to the leadership structure. Do you understand?
Why is that? Because always at the beginning of our entry into the stage of obedience we must be very thoughtful because we must examine to see if the teacher leads us to Christ, to salvation or to perdition, to salvation or shipwreck. A very beautiful picture of this with the ship -if it is the rudder or the last cadet because if we are not careful, then our shipwreck will be sure.
But once we have embarked on the ship of obedience, let us stop judging and not remember if we see in the captain, in the spiritual leader some small mistakes because then our drowning will be sure and will come from the fact that we will leave the ship without God’s will.
We have to be very careful here because it usually happens exactly the opposite. So at the moment of elections, people – especially young people – are full of such an easy and superficial enthusiasm, they immediately choose, and after that, after choosing, only then they begin to analyze and judge their life partner, whether he is an abbot, confessor, husband or wife or even – through extenso – head of company or state. Not like that brothers, it has to be right inside out.
The moment we embark on a road to take care on the one hand to be thoughtful at first and not to be too late because we lose the train, we lose the boat – this is what I say referring especially to those who delay marriage and fall into heavy sins or to those who do not start resolutely on the path of monasticism or profession and miss their career. You have forethought and you need determination, manhood. Manhood was and is a great virtue that today unfortunately is not taken into account. People have forgotten about manhood, forethought, right thinking.
On the other hand, however, the moment we embarked on this road, also with the same loving determination to have patience and with a lot of tact and discernment to advance on this road because if we get off the train at the first station we will never reach our destination again, brothers. Do you understand? You need determination and patience and obedience. Listening, listening. This is a law of nature, brothers.
All right, the Holy Fathers talk about it at length, whole tomes, stacks of books talk about it.
Let me give you an example now not from the Holy Fathers, but from one of the most enlightened minds on this planet. His name is Peter Norvig. He is director of research at Google. This man is, brothers. And he wrote a famous article: “How to become a good programmer in 10 years…” – “How to become a good programmer in 10 years…” .
Norvig was annoyed by all these books – to learn Java without a teacher in 10 days, to learn C+ + without a teacher in 5 days and things like that. And then he wrote an article for the whole software industry in which Norvig says: man, brothers, it’s not like that! You have to be patient; you have to obey! And in 10 years when you’re going to draw the line, you’re going to see that you’re going to be some specialist in the field. If you change direction every 5 minutes and every 2 seconds you will not listen, you will not get anywhere.
Brothers, it takes obedience, it takes courage, it takes perseverance, patience and especially prayer along the way, because the fickle and disobedient man has no value. May the good God to protect us and help us!
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us to be obedient! Amen
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