OBEDIENCE IN EVANGELICAL COUNSEL
PAUL IKECHUKWU OGUJIOFFOR
Introduction
God is our Supreme Father in which we are obliged to obey. The will of God is that we ought to obey. In a society where there is no father, the children are untamed; hence nowadays we have youths who are irresponsible and untamed. In the religious settings, where the subjects or members refused to obey the norms of the religious congregations there is always problem; invariably they are disobeying God. Therefore, our life as Christians is that which ought to look up to Christ who is the model of obedience to the Father (cfr. Jn 6: 38) and our Blessed Virgin Mary, who was obedient to the Will of God by her word: Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum – Let it be done to me according to your words Lk 1: 38. Obedience gave birth to dialogue and it is a unique way of finding the Will of God and the Will of God ought to be under the Holy Spirit.
Obedience: Its etymology and nature
The word obedience comes from the Latin ob + audire which means to hear. It denotes a willingness to hear others and to do their will. For the believer, obedience refers to hearing God and obeying the divine will which may manifest itself in the will of others. The virtue of obedience is freely chosen and stable disposition to submit our will to others. The motivation for this submission is love of God.[1] Obedience in the spiritual life is a matter of receiving and responding appropriately to a message or Word from God. This essential connection between hearing and obedient response reflects the remarkable fact that ancient Hebrew contains no specific word meaning to obey. Shema, whether translated as to hear or to obey, implies that to hear God is, necessarily, to respond in love and gratitude to the divine initiative. Hearing is thus never neutral or passive. For Israel, to hear is to obey, and not to rebel.[2]
Christian theology sees the human person not as an isolated individual but as a member of a community and thus in relationship with others. Both by nature and through grace, we are made to grow in and through relationship. In the context of the community of believers, a person seeks to understand and to do God’s will. At times this will, can be obscure and the members help one another to discern the Spirit’s call, to understand its meaning and to will its accomplishment. Calls to obedience can come through the humblest of the members of the community, as well as through its leaders. Obedience as a virtue is not robot-like but a consciously willed and free choice. It forms the character of the believer to a sensitivity and docility to God’s call in a variety of circumstances, though this can be a slow process. An attitude of obedience can come to penetrate one’s whole life. Such obedience is ultimately a manifestation of Christian charity.[3] This Christian charity is a remote cause of our involvement in making this virtue part of us.
Hence, obedience is a supernatural, moral virtue which inclines us to submit our will to that of our lawful superiors, in so far as they are the representatives of God.[4] Obedience rests upon God’s sovereign domain and upon the absolute submission creature owes him. St. Thomas said that after the virtue of religion, obedience is the most perfect of all the moral virtues, for the reason that it unites us closer to God than any other virtue, inasmuch as obedience detaches us from our own will, which is the main obstacle to union with God.[5] Obedience is beside, the mother and guardian of the other virtues, and transforms our ordinary actions into so many virtuous acts. Obedience unites us to God and makes us habitually share in His life[6]
Obedience subordinates our will directly to that of God and thereby all our other faculties, inasmuch as they are in turn subordinated to the will. This submission is all the more meritorious because it is freely made. Through obedience our wills are sacrificed. Thus man enters into communion with God, since he has no longer any other will but God’s will. Since the will is the master-faculty in man, by uniting it to God, we unite to him all the powers of our soul. Such a sacrifice is greater than the sacrifice of external goods made by the virtue of poverty, greater than the sacrifice of bodily pleasure entailed by the practice of chastity and of mortification. Obedience is, in all truth, the highest sacrifice we can make: For obedience is better than sacrifice I Sam 15: 22.[7] Obedience is logically the mother and the guardian of all the virtues as St. Augustine beautifully expresses it: In a rational creature, obedience is, as it were, the mother and guardian of all virtues.[8] Obedience makes us practice the other virtues, inasmuch as they fall under a precept or a counsel.[9] All acts of virtue come under obedience, inasmuch as they are contained in a precept.[10]
In trying to buttress the fact of obedience, scholastic theology provided a rational argument to support obedience, arguing that it was necessary at large and in smaller communities. Because it is subordinate to virtue of justice, obedience is most perfectly and authentically practiced when it proceeds out of justice through love. It is justice, in fact, that requires giving absolute obedience to God; and human happiness is ultimately impossible without such obedience.[11]
Jesus Christ: Source and model of Religious Obedience – A Scriptural overview
In the Scripture, the Word of God always requires a decisive response, the requirement of obedience serves as a kind of spiritual test for both the individual and the nation, and is thus closely associated with faith. In the New Testament it is Mary’s youthful obedience, offered despite the painful and even life-threatening social humiliation it entails, that makes possible God’s entrance into human history through incarnation. She too, has no way of foreseeing the ultimate significance of her act, that it will finally guarantee the future that Abraham believed he was sacrificing, yet she recognizes, in this great invitation of Grace, that her obedience is somehow inextricably connected to the fruition of that same promise of salvation (cfr. Lk 1: 46-55). Finally, it is in Christ’s obedient surrender to the Father, obedience unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 2: 8) that the Christian practice of obedience is rooted and derives its true meaning. The humility of God in the work of atonement reminds Christians that their own obedience, in matters great or small, is always a derivative or borrowed obedience.[12]
Obedience is deeply rooted in scripture. The morality of both the OT and NT is a morality of obedience. In the OT the Israelites seeks to obey God’s will (cfr. Deut 1-4) in the context of covenant, You shall be my people and I will be your God (Jer 11: 4). NT obedience focuses on Jesus. Jesus not only called for a deeper adherence to the spirit of the law but exemplified obedience in his life. His life was dedicated to doing his Father’s will (cfr. Lk 2: 49). He withstood the temptation to do his will (cfr. Mt 4: 1-11), gave an example of selfless service (cfr. Jn 13: 1-17). The Christian is baptized into a community (1 Cor 12: 13) and is animated by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. A Christian when filled with faith and love is able to obey, even in suffering.[13] The opposition Jesus encountered in being faithful to God actually bound him closer to God; hence, Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered (Heb 5: 8). Jesus’ obedience was centered in prayer, a habit of living in union with God. He was known to be a joyful person; he emptied himself, yet was not depleted as a person.[14]
Jesus’ obedience was the fruit of his intimate friendship with the Father. He loved to go to isolated places and commune with the Father. Prayer for him becomes the life-blood of his ministry. He lived in constant company with him who sent him, listening to his words, discerning his loving will, and carrying it out.[15] Jesus’ obedience was motivated by love for he is love himself. Through his obedient love, he reestablished between man and God the community of love which was disrupted by sin of disobedience of our first parents. Our supernatural capacity for love derives from the act of obedience of the new Head of the human race.[16] Religious life has its supreme purpose and its profoundest meaning in love. Its highest mission is to prove this love in the test of obedience. On the most exalted level, love and obedience are one.[17] Obedience of love is surely more comprehensive than mere legal obedience, for mere observance of the law is the lowest degree of obedience. On the contrary, love by its very nature strives for the highest and best and seeks the most perfect manifestation of its ideals in actions.[18] Satisfaction in vow of obedience is with total union with God and this is a true search of meaning of an obedient religious because love is present. Hence, love looks upon every command as an invitation of love and responds with love in obedience.[19] Be it as it may, the central message of Christ’s teachings and the synthesis of the Decalogue is love. For Jesus said: The world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me (Jn 14: 31). In view of this, Jesus commanded his apostles to Love one another as I have loved you (Jn 13: 34).
Obedience as a Religious Vow
The covenant Law governed all of the life of Israel and was to be obeyed. This included obedience to civil officials whose authority comes from God. Filled with faith and love Christians are to obey, even in suffering. This obedience includes to human authorities (cfr. Mt 22:21) but is ultimately directed to God.[20] Christ’s obedience is the source of our salvation. All obedience is founded on the authority that is understood to be derived from God and ordered to the good (cfr. Jn 19: 11). Therefore, obedience to God includes obedience to duly established human authority. Since human authorities share God’s authority in different ways, obedience to such authorities takes on different forms and is subject to differing requirements, conditions and limits. In the Church religious men and women vow obedience in imitation to Christ crucified.[21] Therefore, all claims to authority, whether religious or civil, derive their credibility from divine authorization and must be tested in terms of this standard of prior obedience and self-emptying of God.[22]
It suffices to note that, as with other vows, the vow of obedience is vital to the life of religious consecrated to Christ in perfect charity. Vowed obedience is preeminently and mysteriously the seal placed on the totality of response to the Lord who calls. The vow of chastity is solidly based in conciliar and post-Conciliar teaching, in Church tradition from the early centuries, and in Christ’s resolute and unrelenting pursuit of obedience with its climax on the cross. The sections on religious obedience in the documents of and after the Second Vatican Council – Lumen Gentium, Perfectae Caritatis, Evenagelica Testificatio, Redemptionis Donum, and Vita Consecrata - invariably begin with Christ’s obedience unto death as the source of religious obedience, and the recent instruction Faciem tuam, in section 21, grounds the superior’s role in the humility of Jesus: Whoever wishes to be first among you must be a slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but t serve and give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20: 27-28).[23]
The decree Perfectae caritatis identifies and proclaims the example of Jesus Christ to be the motive and the power behind humble, self-sacrificial religious obedience: “In professing obedience, religious offer the full surrender of their own will as a sacrifice of themselves to God and so are united permanently and securely to God's salvific will. After the example of Jesus Christ who came to do the will of the Father (cf. John 4:34; 5:30; Heb. 10:7; Ps. 39:9) and "assuming the nature of a slave" (Phil. 2:7) learned obedience in the school of suffering (cf. Heb. 5:8), religious under the motion of the Holy Spirit, subject themselves in faith to their superiors who hold the place of God. Under their guidance they are led to serve all their brothers in Christ, just as Christ himself in obedience to the Father served His brethren and laid down His life as a ransom for many (cf. Matt. 20:28; John 10:14-18). So they are closely bound to the service of the Church and strive to attain the measure of the full manhood of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Religious, therefore, in the spirit of faith and love for the divine will should humbly obey their superiors according to their rules and constitutions. Realizing that they are contributing to building up the body of Christ according to God's plan, they should use both the forces of their intellect and will and the gifts of nature and grace to execute the commands and fulfill the duties entrusted to them. In this way religious obedience, far from lessening the dignity of the human person, by extending the freedom of the sons of God, leads it to maturity”.[24]
Obedience goes even further. It brings into submission not solely to God, but to Rules and to Superiors, that which we cling to most tenaciously, our own will. By his vow the Religious pledges himself to obey the commands of his lawful Superior in all that concerns the vows and constitutions. Here it is question of formal commands, and not mere advice. Such a command is recognized by the formulas employed by the Superior, for instance, when he commands in the name of holy obedience, in the name of Our Lord, or when he uses any other equivalent expression making clear that he means to give a formal order. Of course this power of the Superiors is limited. They are to command according to the rules, not going beyond what is expressly or implicitly contained therein, that is, the constitutions, the statutes legally designed to ensure their observance, the penalties sanctioned to punish transgressions and prevent further infractions, and whatever relates to the fulfillment of the different duties and to an efficient and fair administration.[25]
The ultimate motive of religious obedience is a loving desire, after the example of the Son, to do the Father’s will. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandment and remain in his love (Jn 15: 10).[26] Pope Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation Evangelica Testificatio, calls religious life, particularly the imitation of the suffering Christ in religious obedience: What has been said indicates what degree of renunciation is demanded by the practice of the religious life. You must feel something of the force with which Christ was drawn to His Cross--that baptism He had still to receive, by which that fire would be lighted which sets you too ablaze something of that "foolishness" which St. Paul wishes we all had, because it alone makes us wise. Let the Cross be for you, as it was for Christ, proof of the greatest love. Is there not a mysterious relationship between renunciation and joy, between sacrifice and magnanimity, between discipline and spiritual freedom?[27]
Christ is both the exemplar and the mystical wellspring of the dynamic charity whereby the religious is able to make a total offering of the will.[28] Furthermore, the more you exercise your responsibility, the more you must renew your self-giving in its full significance. The Lord obliges each one to lose his life if he is to follow Him (Lk 2: 23-24). You will observe this precept by accepting the directives of your superiors as a guarantee of your religious profession, through which you offer to God a total dedication of your own wills as a sacrifice of yourselves. Christian obedience is unconditional submission to the will of God. But your obedience is stricter because you have made it the object of a special giving, and the range of your choices is limited by your commitment. It is a full act of your freedom that is at the origin of your present position: your duty is to make that act ever more vital, both by your own initiative and by the cordial assent you give the directives of your superiors. Thus it is that the Council includes among the benefits of the religious state liberty strengthened by obedience, and stresses that such obedience does not diminish the dignity of the human person but rather leads it to maturity through that enlarged freedom which belongs to the sons of God.[29]
In any authentic following of Jesus in religious life, authentic obedience is learned through the cross. Of the three vows, obedience resembles most closely the self-emptying sacrifice of Christ, since the call to the evangelical counsel of obedience derives from this obedience of Christ unto death.[30] Inasmuch as the consecrated life is dedicated in as a special way to the service of God and the Church, are subject to the supreme authority of this same Church in a special manner. Individual members are also bound to obey the Supreme Pontiff as their highest superior of the sacred bond of obedience.[31]
In the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, John Paul II explained that; Obedience, practised in imitation of Christ, whose food was to do the Father's will (cf. Jn 4:34), shows the liberating beauty of a dependence which is not servile but filial, marked by a deep sense of responsibility and animated by mutual trust, which is a reflection in history of the loving harmony between the three Divine Persons. The consecrated life is thus called constantly to deepen the gift of the evangelical counsels with a love which grows ever more genuine and strong in the Trinitarian dimension: love for Christ, which leads to closeness with him; love for the Holy Spirit, who opens our hearts to his inspiration; love for the Father, the first origin and supreme goal of the consecrated life. The consecrated life thus becomes a confession and a sign of the Trinity, whose mystery is held up to the Church as the model and source of every form of Christian life. Even fraternal life, whereby consecrated persons strive to live in Christ with "one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32), is put forward as an eloquent witness to the Trinity. It proclaims the Father, who desires to make all of humanity one family. It proclaims the Incarnate Son, who gathers the redeemed into unity, pointing the way by his example, his prayer, his words and above all his death, which is the source of reconciliation for a divided and scattered humanity. It proclaims the Holy Spirit as the principle of unity in the Church, wherein he ceaselessly raises up spiritual families and fraternal communities.[32]
According to St. Benedict, the first step of humility is obedience without hesitation. This comes naturally to those who esteem nothing as more beloved to them than Christ. as soon as anything is ordered by the superior, it is as if it had been commanded by God himself, and they cannot bear any hesitation in doing it. Without doubt such as these embody that saying of the Lord which read: I did not come to do my own will, but that of him who sent me (Jn 6: 38). But this very obedience will be acceptable to God and sweet to men only if what is commanded is done, not fearfully, sluggishly, or lukewarmly, and neither with murmuring, nor with an answer showing unwillingness; for the obedience offered to superiors is given to God, just as he himself said: He who hears you hears me (Lk 10: 16).[33]
Obedience as mediated by a Superior
Superiors are obliged in virtue of their office to enforce the rules with care. The Superior, who would neglect to check transgressions of the rule, even slight ones, when they tend to become frequent, may be guilty of a grave fault, because he thereby encourages a gradual relaxation, which in a community constitutes a grave disorder. The true religious does not enter into distinctions. He observes the rules as perfectly as he can, knowing this to be the best way of pleasing God: Who lives by rules lives unto God.[34]
Faith is necessary in religious life because the will of God is made known by means of a human person, the superior. This person, however, has received from the Church the legitimate power to govern.[35] In order that these priorities not be understood as purely facultative, it seems appropriate to consider the particular characteristics of the exercise of authority according to the Code of Canon Law with regard to the governance of institutes.[36]
In it the evangelical traits of the power exercised by religious superiors on various levels are translated into norms:
a) The obedience of the superior. Moving from the characteristic nature of munus of ecclesial authority, the Code reminds the religious superior that he or she is first of all called to be the first one to be obedient. In the strength of the assumed office, he or she owes obedience to the law of God, from whom his or her authority comes and to whom he or she must render an account in conscience, to the law of the Church, to the Roman Pontiff, and to the proper law of the institute.
b) The spirit of service. After having reaffirmed the charismatic origin and the ecclesial mediation of religious authority, it is reaffirmed that, as all authority in the Church, so too the authority of the religious superior must be characterized by the spirit of service, in imitation of Christ who came not to be served but to serve (Mk 10:45). In particular, some aspects of such a spirit of service are pointed out, whose faithful observance will assure that superiors, in fulfilling their service, will be recognized as docile to the will of God. Therefore, every superior is called to bring to life again, brother to brother or sister to sister, that love with which God loves his children, avoiding, on the one hand, any attitude of domination and, on the other, any form of paternalism or maternalism. All of this is made possible by confidence in the responsibility of the brothers or the sisters promoting the voluntary obedience of their subjects with reverence for the human person, and through dialogue keeping in mind that bonding must come about in a spirit of faith and love in the following of the obedient Christ and not for other motivations.
c) Pastoral care. The Code points out, as the primary goal of the exercise of religious power, that of building a community of brothers or sisters in Christ in which God is sought after and loved before all else. Therefore, in the religious community authority is essentially pastoral by its nature in that it is entirely in function of the building of fraternal life in community, according to the very ecclesial identity of consecrated life. The principle means that the superior should use to attain such a primary end can only be based on faith: they are, in particular, listening to the Word of God and the celebration of the Liturgy. Finally, some areas of particular care on the part of superiors as regards the brothers or sisters are singled out: they are to meet the personal needs of the members appropriately, solicitously to care for and visit the sick, to correct the restless, to console the faint of heart, and to be patient toward all.[37]
Faith is necessary in religious life because the will of God is made known by means of a human person, the superior. This person however, has received from the Church the legitimate power to govern. Superiors are to exercise their power, received from God through the ministry of the Church, in a spirit of service. Therefore, docile to the will of God in fulfilling their function, they are to govern their subjects as sons or daughters of God and, promoting the voluntary obedience of their subjects with reverence for the human person, they are to listen to them willingly and foster their common endeavor for the good of the institute and the Church, but without prejudice to the authority of superiors to decide and prescribe what must be done.[38] While maintaining the principle of authority vested in persons, the Church in the spirit of the Council calls for active participation on the part of all members of a religious congregation towards a relationship of collaboration, cooperation and mutual concern. Superiors are called on to listen to the will of God both personally and with the members of the institute so that their actions will always flow from God’s plan. Thus, authority and individual liberty go together in seeking and fulfilling God’s will.
Superiors are to devote themselves diligently to their office and together with the members entrusted to them are to strive to build a community of brothers or sisters in Christ, in which God is sought and loved before all things. Therefore, they are to nourish the members regularly with the food of the word of God and are to draw them to the celebration of the sacred liturgy. They are to be an example to them in cultivating virtues and in the observance of the laws and traditions of their own institute; they are to meet the personal needs of the members appropriately, solicitously to care for and visit the sick, to correct the restless, to console the faint of heart, and to be patient toward all.[39] This emphasized the pastoral role of the superiors towards the members of their congregation. The emphasis is on fraternal or sisterly caring rather than on a paternal or maternal superior role. Nevertheless, while all share in this responsibility, the superior is designated as having a specific role of leadership in building up the community.
Therefore, let those who make profession of the evangelical counsels seek and love above all else God who has first loved us (cf. 1 John 4:10) and let them strive to foster in all circumstances a life hidden with Christ in God (cf. Col. 3:3). This love of God both excites and energizes that love of one's neighbor which contributes to the salvation of the world and the building up of the Church. This love, in addition, quickens and directs the actual practice of the evangelical counsels. Drawing therefore upon the authentic sources of Christian spirituality, members of religious communities should resolutely cultivate both the spirit and practice of prayer. In the first place they should have recourse daily to the Holy Scriptures in order that, by reading and meditating on Holy Writ, they may learn the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:8). They should celebrate the sacred liturgy, especially the holy sacrifice of the Mass, with both lips and heart as the Church desires and so nourish their spiritual life from this richest of sources. So refreshed at the table of divine law and the sacred altar of God, they will love Christ's members as brothers, honor and love their pastors as sons should do, and living and thinking ever more in union with the Church, dedicate themselves wholly to its mission.[40]
In the recent years, some have questioned whether superiors in fact hold God’s place and mistakenly equate compliance with obedience. They call for a theology of discernment and a theology of mediation, stating that each religious can best mediate her own situation and determine her own life, for a person chooses to shape his or her Christian discipleship within the framework of a particular state of life. Obedience is not conformity. Its exercise is voluntary and responsible. Acting in true obedience, the religious, far from being repressed and dehumanized, is exercising the most mature act that the will can make.[41] The Superior is looked upon as someone who has the authority to decide, to command, to interpret the will of God and channel it to the members, and has the gravest responsibility over the success and failure of the entire congregation. Hence, the Apostle warns: Now I have something to tell your elders, I am an elder myself, and a witness to the sufferings of Christ, and with you I have a share in the glory that is to be reveled. Be the shepherds of the flock of God that is entrusted to you, watch over it, not simply as a duty but gladly, because God wants it; not for sordid money, but because you are eager to do it. Never be dictator over any group that is put in your charge, but be an example that the whole flock can follow. When the chief shepherd appears, you will be given the crown of unfading glory (1 Pet 5: 1-4)
Eschatological hope of obedience
Through loving obedience, a person is opened up to the fullness of self-realization. Such realization is not in freedom from others but in free choices exercised with and for others. Obedience in its fullest sense involves self-fulfillment and self-sacrifice. Paradoxically, we are most free when we are most in compliance with God’s will. This can involve asceticism and crucifixion, as with Jesus himself.[42]
With obedience, it subordinates our will directly to that of God and thereby all other faculties, inasmuch as they are in turn subordinated to the will. This submission is all the more meritorious because it is freely made. Inanimate cratures obey God by an inn ate necessity of their nature, but man obeys by the free choice of the will. In so doing, man tenders his Sovereign Master the homage of what he holds most dear; he offers him a pleasing sacrifice. Through obedience our wills are sacrificed. Thus man enters into communion with God, since he has no longer any other will but God’s will. He can make his own the words of Christ in his agony: Not my will, but yours be done (Lk 22: 42). This is a most meritorious and a most sanctifying union since it unites the best that is in us, our, to that of God, ever good and ever holy. Obedience likewise constitutes the most abiding and lasting union. Through Sacramental Communion we effect a temporary union with God, but through habitual obedience we establish in our soul a species of spiritual communion which is permanent, which causes us to abide in God as he abides in us, since we will what he wills and nothing but what he wills. This is, as a matter of fact, the most real, the most intimate, and the most effective of all unions – unum velle unum nolle.[43]
Obedience offers us perfect safety. Left to ourselves, we would be wondering which would be the more perfect course to take, whereas obedience by determining what is our duty in every instance, points out to us the surest way of working out our sanctification. By doing what obedience prescribes, we realizes to the fullest possible extent the one essential condition of perfection, that is, compliance with God’s good pleasure: I do always the things that are pleasing to him (Jn 8: 29).[44]
Lastly, obedience transforms into virtues and merits the most common place occupations of life. Whatever is done in the spirit of obedience shares in the merit of that virtue, is acceptable to God, and will be rewarded by him. An obedient man each day though he sleeps, he is steadily making for port, and thus, without fatigue or preoccupation he reaches the desired goal, the heaven of blissful eternity.[45]
Conclusion
All are called to perfection of life because basically we are children of God and Christians as well. We ought to be perfect imitators of Christ. If we lack the virtue humility in us, it will be extremely difficult for us to obey. Obedience is not a concept to be rationalized in our thoughts but it is an actio which we ought to put into practice at all levels in our life, more so when we are leaders. The priestly and consecrated lives are so delicate an issue that once there is disobedience from any angle, there is shame over the integrity of these vocations. For those who always obey there is always tranquility of the self.
[1] Crossin J W, “Obedience” in Komonchak et al, The New Dictionary of Theology, The Liturgical Press, Minnesota
[2] Maas R, “Obedience” in Downey M [ed], The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality, The Liturgical Press, Minnesota, 1993, 709.
[3] Crossin J W, “Obedience”, Op.cit, 720-721.
[4] Tanquerey A, The Spiritual Life: A Treatise and Mystical Theology, Society of St. John the Evangelist, Tournai-Belgium, 1923, n. 1057.
[5] Cfr. S.T IIa IIae, q. 104, a.3.
[6] Tanquerey A, The Spiritual Life, n 1068-1069.
[7] Ibid, n. 1069 a-b.
[8] St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, I, XIV, c.12.
[9] Tanquerey, n.1071b.
[10] S.T, IIa IIae, q. 104, a. 3, ad.2.
[11] Maas R, “Obedience”, Op. cit, 710.
[12] Ibid, 709-710.
[13] Crossin J W, Op.cit, 720.
[14] Merkle J, A Different Touch: A Study of Vows in Religious Life, The liturgical Press, Minnesota
[15] Lozano J M, Life as a Parable: Reinterpreting the Religious Life, Claretian Publications, Bangalore, 1986, 159.
[16] Haring B, “Authority, Conscience and Love” in Daughters of St. Paul, Comps., Obedience the Greatest Freedom, St. Paul Publication, Pasay City-Philippines, 1968, 164.
[17] Ibid, 164.
[18] Ibid, 165.
[19] Ibid, 169.
[20] Crossin J W, Op. cit., 720.
[21] McBrien R P [ed], Encyclopedia of Catholicism, Hapers Collins Publishers, SanFrancisco, 1995, 927.
[22] Maas R, “Obedience”, Op. cit, 710.
[23] Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, The Foundation of Religious Life, Ave Maria Press, Notre dame-Indiana, 2009, 103.
[24] Perfectae Caritatis, 14
[25] Tanquerey A, n. 371.
[26] Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, 104.
[27] Paul VI, Evangelica testificatio, 29.
[28] Ibid, 23.
[29] Ibid, 27.
[30] John Paul II, Redemptionis donum, 13.
[31] Code of Canon Law, 590.
[32] John Paul II Vita Consecrata, 21.
[33] Dysinger L [Transl], The Rules of Saint Benedict: Latin and English, Source Books, California, 2003, chapt 5.
[34] Tanquerey A, Op. cit, n.376.
[35] Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, 106.
[36] Code of Canon Law, 617-640.
[37] Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Faciem tuum, 14.
[38] Code of Canon Law, 618.
[39] Ibid, 619.
[40] Perfectae Caritatis, 6.
[41] Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, 107.
[42] Crossin J W, Op. cit, 721.
[43] Tanquerey A, Op. cit, n.1069 a-c.
[44] Ibid, n.1972c
[45] Ibid, n.1073.
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