Gospel Reflection for the
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Christian Obedience Is Healthy
Obedience is not a value praised by popular culture these days. In our modern, democratic, individualistic mentality, we tend to be suspicious of obedience We think it is insulting to the creative powers of our humanity, as if we couldn’t figure everything out on our own. But we have no need to be suspicious of Christ’s obedience. It is not blind obedience; it is the obedience of love and wisdom. It is obedience that doesn’t resist the way things are.
We should think of it this way. If a scientist wants to cure a disease, or send a space ship to Jupiter, or discover a new energy source, what’s the first thing he needs to do? Understand the laws of biology, or physics, or thermodynamics. Obedience to those laws doesn’t inhibit a scientist’s freedom to develop his potential; it actually makes that freedom possible.
Likewise, Christ’s obedience to his Father’s will doesn’t lower our human nature, it repairs it. And when we allow that obedience to become our example and guide, we experience that reparation in our own hearts.
The obedience of Christ is the antibody to the spiritual virus of sin. That virus has infected all of us, but instead of causing a physical fever, it causes spiritual fevers: anxiety, inner conflict, self-destructive behaviors, injustice, depression, and fear.
Our faith in Christ, if it is authentic and healthy, is the fever-reducer, because it allows his obedience to flow into our spiritual veins, bringing interior peace, hope, and courage.
Blessed Pope John XXIII understood this principle well. That’s why he chose as his papal motto, “Obedientia et pax,” obedience and peace. We can’t have one without the other; that’s what Jesus teaches us by living out his motto:
“Behold, I come to do your will.”
(From ePriest, December 2024)