With a black bandana tied around my face, I was mildly amused that if I lifted my cowl over my head I’d look a lot like Storm Shadow from the G.I. Joe cartoons of my youth. It was absurd. However, I got to look really cool for about 20 seconds as I traveled from the car in the parking lot to the table in the restaurant. At this point, some would object, “Fr. Gabriel, you already look cool! You don’t need to wear a mask to be cool.” My simple response would have been, “I know; you’re right. But, obedience is cooler.”
The Catholic spiritual tradition has always understood obedience as one of the most important virtues. After all, our blessed Lord said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Additionally, in the Rule of St. Augustine it states, “It is by being more obedient, therefore, that you show mercy not only toward yourselves but also toward the superior whose higher rank among you exposes him all the more to greater peril.” The importance of the virtue lies not simply in the satisfaction of justice. Rather, its high value is how obedience, both the call to obedience and the gift of obedience, is an act of charity for both the one who commands and the one commanded.
I can already hear the preliminary objections. “That’s fine for you Fr. Gabriel. You took a vow of obedience. I didn’t.” True, true. I have taken religious vows of obedience. This means that my obedience, and those to whom I am obedient is additionally governed by those religious vows. However, we should not confuse a vow of obedience with the virtue of obedience. Virtues are not respecters of persons. They apply to all of us because of our common human nature. Through the assiduous practice of the virtues the human person flourishes. Through the neglect of those virtues the human person flounders. Obedience is a difficult virtue to practice. It feels like weakness. After all, obedience is gifting one’s will to another. This is dangerous and scary. We are always on the lookout to revoke our obedience whenever we believe that this most precious gift is going to be misused, abused, trampled, and trod under foot.
Our vigilance may be even more heightened in the current social climate. We are living in a time where we no longer know who to trust. All our civic institutions have betrayed us. The halls of science are no longer hallowed sanctuaries of bias free conclusions (if they ever really were). The news media, and its voice of objectivity, has become almost as untrustworthy as the US Congress. Religious institutions and clergy are not in any way exempt from this mistrust either. This lack of trust in the organs of society serves to reinforce modern notions of radical autonomy as we hoist the Gadsden Flag to firmly fly over our hearts.
St. Thomas Aquinas, however, reminds us that for civil society to function it is imperative that some people are subject to others (ST, II-II q 104, a 5). Granted, he also argues that we are only bound to be obedient to God in all things. However, this doesn’t mean that we get to simply follow our own internal inspirations, or what we might simply perceive to be the will of God if we don't like what we are told to do. Rather, we are to be obedient in all things that do not require us to sin and obedient in all things within the legitimate authority of those imperfect human persons who govern us whether we voted for them or not.
In the Catholic mind, the secular authorities exist to care for the common good. Their first duty is to ensure the health and safety of the populace over whom they have jurisdiction. This being the case, they have the right to regulate the behavior of their subjects so that the common good might be preserved. I may disagree with how they chose to exercise their authority in any particular case. However, unless they act outside of their lawful authority or command us to sin, we are bound, by the virtue of obedience to comply with those directives. So, silly as it was, I wore a mask from the car to the table and back again. I recommend that you do the same if you have been so directed. I don't make this recommendation because you agree with the command or because of science. Rather, I recommend it to you as the same call to obedience that St. Peter himself advises: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right … Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor" (1 Peter 2:13-14,17).
