“was obedient to them”
In today’s Gospel reading (Cycle C Reading), when Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the temple, we have the first recorded words of Jesus. What were they? “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” (Lk. 2:49) It shows Jesus was first and foremost concerned with the things of His Father. However, two versus later we read, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.” (Lk. 2:51), which also shows His obedience to His family.
Jesus asks us these same questions,. How do we answer Him? Why were you looking for me? Do we look for Jesus? Where do we look for Jesus? Why are we looking for Jesus? Is it for physical reasons or spiritual reasons?
Do you know I would be in my Father’s house? We can obviously look and find Jesus in the physical building of the Church. This question also directs us to the will of the Father. Jesus in the temple is accomplishing the will of the Father. Do we know the will of the Father? How do we discover the will of the Father? Are we doing the will of the Father?
What is so important about Jesus being “obedient to them”? Saint Bernard touches on the most profound idea in this Gospel reading. ” He says, “Who obeyed? Whom did He obey? God obeyed man! Yes, the God to whom the angels are subject…was subject to Mary, and not only to Mary, but also to Joseph. For God to obey a woman is humility without parallel… Learn then, man, to obey; learn, O earth, to be submissive. God subjected Himself to men; and do you desiring to rule others, place yourself above your Creator?” [1]
Saint Jose Maria Escriva also comments on this verse. “Jesus obeys, and he obeys Joseph and Mary. God has come to the world to obey, and to obey creatures. Admittedly they are very perfect creatures: Holy Mary, our mother, greater than whom God alone; and that most chaste man Joseph. But they are only creatures, and yet Jesus, who is God, obeyed them.” [2]
The family is the school of obedience, as each member of the family must be obedient to the others in some capacity. The father, as the head of the family, must be obedient to the needs of his wife and children and thus provide for them. The mother must be obedient to the needs of her husband and children. Finally, the children, as the offspring of love from the parents, must be obedient to them.
Obedience is necessary in all vocations; therefore it is necessary for children to learn this virtue first at home, so that it will serve them well throughout life and into whatever state in life God calls them to. In marriage, they will have to be obedient to their spouse. In religious life, they will have to be obedient to their superior. There is a beautiful story of Saint Teresa of Avila, who was in her room writing a letter when the bell for vespers (evening prayer) rang in the convent. She immediately put her pen down and went to the chapel. She was only one letter away from finishing her letter. In fact she was signing her name, which read, “Teres”. Her obedience to her superior was more important than finishing the writing of her name.
Why is Jesus so obedient? The Catechism has a few key passages that will help answer this question. The first is that Jesus is obedient because of humanity’s disobedience, “his hidden life which by his submission atones for our disobedience” [3] “Jesus’ obedience to his mother and legal father fulfills the fourth commandment perfectly and was the temporal image of his filial obedience to his Father in heaven. The everyday obedience of Jesus to Joseph and Mary both announced and anticipated the obedience of Holy Thursday: ‘Not my will…’ the obedience of Christ in the daily routine of his hidden life was already inaugurating his work of restoring that the disobedience of Adam had destroyed.” [4]
“During the greater part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labor. His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, a life in the community. From this whole period it is revealed to us that Jesus was ‘obedient’ to his parents and that he ‘increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.’” [5]
What is obedience? Obedience is the “moral virtue that inclines the will to comply with the will of another who has the right to command. Material obedience is merely to carry out the physical action commanded; formal obedience is to perform an action precisely because it is commanded by a legitimate superior. The extent of obedience is as wide as the authority of the person who commands. Thus obedience to God is without limit, whereas obedience to human beings is limited by higher laws that must not be transgressed, and by the competency or authority of the one who gives the orders. As a virtue, it is pleasing to God because it means that sacrifice of one’s will out of love for God.” [6]
Who do we have to be obedient to above anything and anyone? God. “He must hold the first place in our lives, and we must obey Him regardless of all other considerations, even if it means sacrificing the rights of nature and of blood.” [7] Many times we are tempted to put “blood” or family before God, but as affirmed previously in this packet, putting family before God is a form of idolatry. Family, although important, is always subservient to God.
Why should we be obedient to God? God is always pleased with us when we are obedient to Him and His Church. Why do we have to be obedient to the Church? “We must be obedient to the Church, because Christ Himself with His holy Spirit lives in her, and governs her, and has said: Who hears not the Church, let him be to thee a heathen and a publican, therefore, shut out from eternal life. [8]
We too must obey our friends and family (assuming the actions are morally acceptable) Why do we have to be obedient to our friends and family? We must be obedient to our parents because God has placed them over us, and “we are indebted to them, under Him, for life and many benefits. Those children who do not assist their parents when they are old, poor, and helpless, or are ashamed of them, have reason to be afraid, since even Christ Jesus, the God-Man, was obedient and subject in all things to His poor mother, and to humble mechanic who was only His foster-father.” [9] “Giving precedence to the rights of God does not imply that we neglect our duties toward our neighbor. Today’s Feast calls our attention to these obligations, and especially to those concerning our family, natural or religious, inviting us to follow the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth.” [10]
What if our friends or family order us to do something bad? We ignore the order. If a family member, friends, or authority figure asks us to sin, we can and should ignore that order. “Yielding to relatives and friends is no longer a virtue – and may even be sinful – if it leads us away from the will of God or hinders its fulfillment.” [11] For example, if a parent was trying to force their child to be on birth control, the child can in good conscience refuse to take it, or if a coach demands that a teammate miss Mass to play a game, he or she should not listen to them and should fulfill their Sunday obligation to Mass. Although the government says abortion is legal, because we know it is a grave sin, we can peacefully protest it and not adhere to or support the law. However, when our parents tells us to clean our rooms, the local government tells us we must wear a seat belt, or our boss asks us to do extra work for an upcoming project (all morally acceptable requests), we should be obedient.
How do we remain obedient? Many people have a difficult time with obedience. Many think that if I am obedient than I am no better than a dog who is obedient to his master. What we must realize we are all obedient to someone or something. For us, we are obedient to God who does not treat us like dogs, but rather with dignity. We are created in His image and likeness. Jesus said to His apostles and says to us, “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” [12] If we feel like slaves rather than friends this might be because we are not listening or understanding the words that Jesus has spoken to us. When we know the will of God, then we know what our Master is doing and are no longer slaves but friends and can truly pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
“We have to love God so as to love his will and desire to respond to his calls. They come to us through the duties of our ordinary life – duties of state, profession, work, family, social life, our own and other people’s difficulties, friendship, eagerness to do what is right and just.” [13] We can remain close to Him by offering up our daily struggles for the true love and adoration for God. We must strive to live the life of Christ did as we read in the Gospel—to grow in wisdom and age in order to grow in favor with God and man. We do this by staying close to God, His Church, and our Family. Our obedience to Christ and His Church encompasses our worship at liturgies, morality, and studying/spreading the Church’s teaching.
[1] Divine Intimacy pg. 124
[2] J. Escriva, Christ is passing by, 17
[3] Catechism of the Catholic Church 517
[4] Catechism of the Catholic Church 532
[5] Catechism of the Catholic Church 531
[6] Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary pg. 384
[7] Divine Intimacy pg. 124
[8] The Church’s Year, pg. 72
[9] The Church’s Year pg. 72
[10] Divine Intimacy pg. 124-125
[11] Divine Intimacy pg. 124
[12] John 15:15
[13] J. Escriva, Christ is passing by, 17