The spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius : $b adapted to...

POINT I. Consider that all human beings must obey. A wise God must establish order in all His works; hence the maxim: “Order is Heaven’s first law.” The material universe obeys the law of gravitation, the moral universe obeys the law of subordination of wills of inferiors to superiors, that is the law of obedience. Common sense teaches all mankind that children must obey their parents, servants their masters, subjects their lords, etc. When God came to share your nature, He put Himself to obey, and carried this virtue to the highest perfection, “becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Phil. ii, 8). In positive legislation God has made this law universal. The Fourth Commandment directly enforces it (Ex. xx, 12). The law of Deuteronomy is still more forcible, saying: “He that will be proud and refuse to obey the commandment of the priest who ministereth at the time to the Lord thy God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die, and thou shalt take away the evil from Israel” (xvii, 12); and laying down the law for sacred services, God inflicted a sudden and disgraceful death on two young priests for using common instead of sacred fire (Levit. x, 1-3). He wished to set an example for all future ages.

POINT II. Obedience is the characteristic virtue of our Society. At the time of the Protestant Reformation there was a widespread spirit of rebellion against the authority of God; independence replaced obedience. The Holy Ghost then inspired St. Ignatius to institute a religious Order whose characteristic virtue should be that of obedience. He had been a brave soldier, and he wished to assemble a band of men, a company obeying orders with the promptness, punctuality and generosity of soldiers ever in active warfare. “Especially I desire,” he writes, “to see you most perfect in the virtue of obedience.” His letter on Obedience is the greatest masterpiece written on this matter, and his Institute is the most perfect exhibition of this virtue in action. It is, in fact, a close imitation of the obedient life of the God Incarnate. None but very obedient men are true Jesuits. Father Franciosi, in his work “The Spirit of St. Ignatius,” has collected thirty pages of eulogies pronounced by the Saint on this his favorite virtue (pp. 61 to 92). He calls it “the noblest and most beautiful virtue,” “the sweetest sacrifice, most pleasing to the Divine Majesty,” “a kind of martyrdom.”

He writes: “Obedience ennobles and elevates man greatly above his condition, causing him to put off self and to put on God, the sovereign good, who is accustomed to fill the soul so much the more as He finds it less occupied with self-will; so that those who have reached this state may truly, provided they obey from the bottom of their hearts, say with the Apostle: ‘I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.’”

I. In the execution, it must be prompt, leaving even a letter unfinished; exact, rendered with military precision; generous, shirking no difficulty; universal in all things commanded and even at a mere sign of a superior’s will without an express command; without show of reluctance, as a corpse is moved or an old man’s staff employed.

3. In the judgment, “as far as a devout will can bend the understanding,” says St. Ignatius, which can always be done when there is no compelling evidence to the contrary. Hence never any criticism, but such docility as the child Jesus showed when taught by St. Joseph the rules of his trade without suggesting any improvement.