The fourth commandment, Obeying parents, is the only mandatory commandment in the Ten Commandments. If you want to live long on earth, you must obey your parents. But obedience must not be blind, nor servitude. If my father gives me a poisoned drink and tells me to drink it in the name of obedience, I am not obliged to obey. Then obedience requires my intellect and mind.
Obedience, as taught by the Church Fathers, is good only when it is practiced for God’s sake. The will to make free and rational decisions is God’s greatest gift to man. The Church Fathers say that only the devil does not have the will to choose right. All his actions are ungodly. The virtue of obedience flourishes in the freedom of the mind.
In the words of the Church Fathers, without a Christ-centered relationship, only ego comes from authority and guilt from obedience. All the virtues in the church are active in the light of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Paul the Apostle says, “You shall not weaken the Spirit.” Do not despise prophecies. Check it all out. Hold on to the good ones. Abstain from all evil (1 Thessalonians 5:20-22). Blind obedience without testing is antithetical. That is slavery.
In the Bible, it is clear that authority comes from God. Obedience is added to authority in its highest state, when he who receives it regards it as divine. Whenever the authority corrupts, God sends his messengers, the prophets, to rebuke and correct the authorities. The great King David was a shepherd boy. It was from there that God raised David to be the king of Israel. But when he took power, David did what he expected. God corrected David through Nathan the prophet. A rich man who had many sheep and goats came to his house and told the story of how he caught and killed the only sheep owned by a poor neighbor and prepared food for the guests. David was enraged and shouted that the wrongdoer should die. Then Nathan pointed to David and shouted, “You are the man.” David repented by wearing sackcloth and ashes.
Today’s authorities cover up their mistakes in celebration. Their glories are proclaimed everywhere by their hymn-singers. They are constantly attacking the prophets who point out the error. They are labeled as rebels and isolated through social media to maintain their power. Leadership has become so rotten that even the word obedience is not authentic at church levels. The Lord did not follow the ways of the Pharisees and scribes who were the spiritual authorities of Christ’s time and He openly declared woes once morest them because of their iniquities. You are told not to call anyone on earth your father or your teacher (Matthew 23:13-35). Authority is seen as the active breath of the Spirit in the church. It is possible not in dictatorship but in family. It is in this sense that the obedience of the priest must be interpreted. The Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the vow of obedience given by priests to the bishop at the time of their ordination and the kiss of affection offered at the end of the Tirupatta Sushrasha mean that the bishop regards them as his colleagues, sons, brothers and friends, and that they are bound to love and obey him in return (1567).
The Second Vatican Council’s decree on bishops states that bishops should treat bishops as children and friends. Therefore the bishops must demonstrate a willingness to listen to them and show them a friendly relationship of confidence and accelerate all the pastoral activities of the diocese (Bishops 16). The present crisis in the field of obedience is that the qualifications cited here are lacking in many of today’s authorities.
It is said in the Bible that obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Sam 15,22). But it is dangerous to interpret God’s Word without understanding the context. God commanded King Saul to defeat the Amalekites and destroy all their possessions. But when Saul destroyed the Amalekites, he kept the good oxen and sheep that he took from the Amalekites under the pretense of sacrificing them to the Lord. It was when they showed false behavior in the name of sacrifice that God said through the prophet Samuel that obedience is better than sacrifice. It is wrong to interpret God’s Word out of context.
Today, even church leaders are proving that they can show any falsehood even in sacred disputes. They stand on the premise that they will do anything to achieve their narrow goals by dishing out lies upon lies.
In the Catholic Church obedience to the decision of the Pope on matters of faith and conduct must be declared. Apart from that, there is no need to weigh the decision taken by the sword of obedience without consulting the people and the Jews and misleading even the Pope with the arrogance of power in matters that are not important and vary according to the region. The priests of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese oppose the practice of untruth and injustice here with the adornment of obedience, using their prophetic mission. Is it not better for believers to do virtue through disobedience than to commit sin through obedience? The Proverbs say that when the wicked are in power, violence abounds. The righteous shall see their downfall (29:16).
Rev. Dr. Paul Chitinappilli
(Writer’s Phone: 9447578176)