What Sort of Culture of Obedience?

The case of Jean Vanier, writes Leon J. Podles, has opened the eyes of France to a secret world of heresy and abuse which the Vatican first encountered in the 1950s. Céline Hoyeau has documented and analyzed this world in "The Betrayal of the Fathers".https://t.co/hplyxG3LUH

— Catholic World Report (@cworldreport) May 17, 2021

Just One Man's Opinion

Not universally true, and maybe not even true for the limited cases to which it applies. Pulling Christian teaching from quotes of individual saints is not moral theology, and even what is taken to be the result of the sanctified, connatural wisdom of a saint must be tested against Tradition and a proper moral theology.

“The more contemptible is he who commands, the more pleasing to God is the humility of him who obeys.”

-Saint Francis of Assisi (as recorded by Saint Bonaventure, “De Legenda Sancti Francesci”, ch. 6)

— Fr. Thomas Aquinas Pickett, O.P. (@ThomasAquinasOP) October 30, 2020

What Checks Against Absolutism?

The integralist understanding of authority is anti-liberal, but it is also against modern state-absolutism and totalitarianism. This is true not only of contemporary integralists, but has been true throughout integralist history.

— Pater Edmund (@sancrucensis) April 22, 2020

The integralist understanding of authority is anti-liberal, but it is also against modern state-absolutism and totalitarianism. This is true not only of contemporary integralists, but has been true throughout integralist history.

Integralists can say that they are opposed to modern state-absolutism and totalitarianism, but what safeguards would they advocate? What forms of resistance by the Church and citizens (or subjects) are possible, and how are they to be reconciled with integralist claims regarding authority? Where is their development of "just resistance theory"? And to which Latin theory of the origin of authority do they subscribe?

A Latin View?

First Things: Embracing the Kind of Redeemer God Appointed by George Weigel

Animals feel pain, John Paul noted, but only men and women suffer. So suffering, even great physical suffering, has an inner or spiritual character; suffering touches our souls, not just our nervous systems. That is why the Bible is “a great book about suffering” (in John Paul’s striking phrase). And while the Scriptures contain many accounts of profound suffering, the Bible also teaches that “love . . . is the fullest source of the answer to the question of the meaning of suffering.” That was the truth to which Isaiah prophetically pointed in the “Suffering Servant” songs. To grasp that truth fully, however, humanity needed more than images or arguments; a demonstration was required.

That demonstration, Salvifici Doloris teaches, was what God ordained “in the cross of Jesus Christ.”

There the Son, giving himself without reservation to the Father’s plan of redemption, took the world’s evil upon himself and immolated it in perfect self-sacrifice to the divine will. On the cross, theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote, the Son freely bore “all that the Father finds loathsome,” and did so in order to “clear out all the refuse of the world’s sins by burning it in the fire of suffering love.” At Calvary, the divine wrath at the world’s wickedness coincides with the divine mercy, determined to heal all that evil has broken or disfigured. On Calvary, the purifying fire of divine love reaches into history and transforms everything in this world that seems to stand against love, including suffering and death. 

To embrace the cross is to embrace the logic of salvation as God has established that logic, not as we might design things. God’s “demonstration” does not end on Good Friday, however. It continues through Holy Saturday until the full meaning of “redemption” is revealed on Easter. 
There, in the Risen Lord who manifests what Benedict XVI called an “evolutionary leap”—a new and supercharged mode of human life—we encounter the supreme demonstration of the divine logic of redemption. There, in the “Lamb . . . [who] had been slain” (Revelation 5:6) but who is now gloriously, radiantly alive, we meet God’s triumph over death itself and over all that is death-dealing in the world. There, we meet the redeemer God ordained.

Jesus . . . has become a high priest forever. . . . For all eternity he lives and intercedes for us . . . there is no limit to his power to save all who come to God through him (First Responsory,  Office of Readings for Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent, from Hebrews 6:19–20, 7:24–25). 

What is the Greek for "intercedes" here? ἐντυγχάνειν

Who intercedes? Only Jesus as man? Or the Son of God, in the loving conversation with the Father? The Word of God, who creates anew?

What does God find "loathsome" or "hateful"? Not sin. But the consequences of sin, the ways in which His creation has been damaged or marred because of sin? God does not want suffering.

"There the Son, giving himself without reservation to the Father’s plan of redemption, took the world’s evil upon himself and immolated it in perfect self-sacrifice to the divine will." Here is something akin to the obedience which St. Augustine and Joseph Ratzinger would emphasize as being integral to the sacrifice of Christ. Does such a view find parallels in the East, whether Greek or Syriac? There is definitely scriptural warrant for this, for example St. Paul, Hebrews 5:8-10, Romans 5:19. And this is probably the primary way in which the satisfaction of Christ should be understood, as it is His obedience or "righteousness" which enables us to be obedient or "righteous."

My question is whether this obedience is the main or even the first part of how we should understand the sacrifice of Christ.

A Defense of Integralism

Church Life: Integralism and the Logic of the Cross by Edmund Waldstein, O.Cist

Too much favoring of monarchy and the mixed regime that has monarchy at its center? The essay doesn't touch upon what qualifications are necessary for the one to rule, and what is to be done for the unjust ruler.

Year A of the 3-Year Lectionary Cycle?

The Latins are currently on Year C.

I am guessing this reflection was written a while ago, for Year A.

Tale of Two Adams: Scott Hahn Reflects on the First Sunday of Lent

Formed from the clay of the ground and filled with the breath of God’s own Spirit, Adam was a son of God (see Luke 3:38), created in his image (see Genesis 5:1-3). Crowned with glory, he was given dominion over the world and the protection of His angels (see Psalms 8:6-8; 91:11-13). He was made to worship God—to live not by bread alone but in obedience to every word that comes from the mouth of the Father.

Is Adam (son) of God? It would seem so. But is he a son of God in the same way that we are, having been reborn in Christ in Baptism and Chrismation? I don't think so. I don't think anyone was an (adopted) son of God in the Son before the Incarnation. Or if the righteous of the Old Testament were to be accounted sons of God, their sonship or their adoption was incomplete, until Christ had conquered death and was risen?

As for the question of obedience, which Adam failed to give -- the obedience that is essential for us to the glorification of the Father, is that the same as the sacrifice of Christ, or is it a part or consequence of the sacrifice (and thus not wholly identical with sacrifice)?

Because People Are Still Interested in Ignatian Spirituality?

To know and do God’s will: A short Ignatian primer by Fr. Charles Fox

Latin Teachings on Authority

A product of papal centralization -- so do they reflect a second millenium claim about episcopal (or papal) authority and the attendant obligations of the Christian faithful?

What is included in the deposit of Faith for a bishop? Only that which has been explicitly determined to be a part of the deposit of Faith? Or do theological conclusions count as well? Or are such conclusions to be taken to be opinion until agreed upon by the Church Universal? What about laws or precepts? Which laws are to be made by a bishop for the good of the local Church? Which precepts are not laws that are binding but only recommendations or suggestions? (Does a bishop really have the authority to set laws pertaining to diet, for example)

On non-infallible teachings of the Magisterium and the meaning of “obsequium religiosum” by Dr. Jeremy Holmes
Sometimes “religious obsequium” is translated “religious assent,” at other times “religious submission,” and at other times “religious respect”. What exactly are we being asked to do?

Fools for Christ

Related:

Another Nugget from Fr. Ciszek

Modern and Ignatian?



But there's this:

Submission or Obedience

Monastic Obedience

"Obedience, which is one of the basic principles of our monastic order, is nothing but love put into practice."

Posted by Orthodox Christian Network on Thursday, January 21, 2016

"Obedience, which is one of the basic principles of our monastic order, is nothing but love put into practice."

Posted by Orthodox Christian Network on Thursday, January 21, 2016

Been Thinking About a Related Question

That is, is obedience owed to an authority absolutely? Or only when it is legitimate or exercised legitimately?

Is Every Political Authority Sanctified?

Dominicana: De Veritate

There has been much attention given to the recently published doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women’s Religious (LCWR). The document, produced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), identifies several problems, including dissent from Church teaching (e.g., concerning the reservation of priestly orders to men), the inviting of speakers who ignore or contradict the teaching of the Church, and the justification, by some speakers, of dissent against the Magisterium as a “prophetic office.”


There are two common responses to this document, both of which focus on authority. Some who oppose the assessment see it as an oppressive action by a male hierarchy, a reactionary effort to deal with the perceived threat of progressive women religious. Some who support it, on the other hand, cheer it on, thinking that the Vatican has finally dropped the hammer on these wayward sisters. Both of these responses are unsatisfactory.