himself without any mental reservation to the will of God as expressed by his Superior. Such difficult obediences are, in fact, the only real test of a subject's will, for it is no test when one is assigned the work that naturally pleases him. Hence it follows that those are praiseworthy who are fearful of being set to perform a task that accords with their own taste and inclination; and who, on the other hand, rejoice when told to do that for which they have an aversion, being satisfied in such a case that it is not their own will that they are seeking. It is not always, however, that the commands given under Obedience are repugnant to the natural man. In the activities of the Religious Life certain men must be brought into prominence, and given assignments that even the world would regard as posts of honour. Under such conditions one has to be even more vigilant lest the natural spirit prevail. These conditions were taken cognizance of at an early period in the monastic development in the Church. St. Gregory the Great teaches: When success in this world is enjoined, when a high rank is commanded to be taken, he who obeys these commands makes void for himself the virtue of his Obedience if he is eager for these things with longing of his own. For he guides not himself by the rule of Obedience who, in attaining to the good things of this life, gives way to his own natural desire of ambition.”1 It follows further that those who take pleasure only 1 St. Gregory Mag., Moral., Lib. xxxv, cap. xiv. Migne, P. L., Tom. lxxvi, col. 766. in what their own wills approve have not in any way approached the degree of Obedience which we are considering; nor have they indeed entered in any measure upon the life of Obedience. Such souls have ever been the bane of Religious communities. They wish only for commands that please them, and employ artifices to bring the Superior to direct what they themselves wish. Of these St. Bernard says: that either openly or covertly endeavours to have his Superior command him what he has a mind to himself, is much deceived if he pretend to any merit from such obedience; for he does not obey his Superior, but rather does his Superior obey him." The Superior who yields to the machinations of such spirits is not able to maintain any logical or consistent plan or policy whereby the community might glorify God in its life and labour, but must be continually occupying himself to find out what each one desires, and must accommodate himself to every man's humour and whim; whereas they ought to seek to know his will and to anticipate it. They do not come to Religion to make the Superior submit and conform to their desires, but rather to live in humble submissiveness of will. The good Religious wills only what his Superior wills, and rejects only what he rejects. XI. Of the Third Degree of Obedience The third degree of Obedience consists in a conformity of the judgment to that of the Superior. 1 St. Bernard, Serm. de Divers, xxxv. Migne, P. L., Tom. clxxxiii, col. 636. It was a saying of Saint Ignatius that he who submitted his will, but not his judgment, to his Superior, had but one foot in Religion. In order to cultivate the spirit of submission to the judgment of our Superior, First, we must frequently remind ourselves that God gives to those on whom He lays the responsibility of deciding and directing, special grace and guidance which those who have not such burdens cannot expect. Secondly, we should cultivate a sense of the limitations of our knowledge of even external matters and treasure up instances in which our assured judgment has proved wrong. "How many things have we believed," says Rodriguez, "how many things have we given out for certain and infallible, which when afterwards being disabused, we have found to be otherwise; and we have met with the confusion which rashness and too much credulity bring along with them. If another person should deceive us twice or thrice, we should never trust him more; why, then, do we still trust our own judgment that has so frequently imposed on us? "'1 This degree of obedience therefore is designed of God to protect us from our own errors of judgment. Even if the Superior's judgment be wrong, that is no affair of the subject. As we have considered elsewhere, matters involving discretion, judgment and prudence, are not for the decision of subjects, but for Superiors. Confusion would quickly ensue if those who should obey and execute, undertook to review and revise the judgment of their Superior. Such a 1 Rodriguez, op. cit., Vol. iii, p. 269. course would not be tolerated in worldly business; much less, then, should it find place among those who have undertaken to live a life of Obedience. Intellectual pride is the last foe to be vanquished, and the Religious who would make progress in this degree of Obedience must be alert against temptation. St. John Climacus advises those who are tempted to question the judgment of their Superiors, to treat such assaults as they would those against chastity or faith, that is, not dwell upon them, but fleeing from them, to use the occasion the more to abase and humble themselves. This is also the teaching of St. Francis de Sales.1 The zealous Religious will not be content, however, with dealing with such temptations when they come, but will desire to go behind the temptation and cut away the root that produces it; this root is private judgment. "The exercise best fitted to destroy private judgment is the cutting off of all sorts of discourses and occasions where it would make itself the master, and making it feel that it is only a servant. For it is only by repeated acts that we acquire virtues. When, then, you feel a desire to judge whether a thing is well or ill ordered, deprive your own judgment of that discussion."2 "The sole and only remedy for private judgment is to neglect what comes into our thoughts, and to apply ourselves to something better.” 1 St. Francis de Sales, Spiritual Conferences, xiv, p. 218. XII. Of Blind Obedience What is known as blind obedience pertains to the third degree of this virtue. Much misunderstanding has arisen among the uninstructed from the mistaken notion that blind obedience involves the delivery of one's conscience into the hands of a Superior. This quality in obedience has no reference whatever to conscience. It refers only to the judgment and understanding. The authorities distinguish in relation to the submission of judgment two kinds of Obedience, that which is imperfect, which is said " to have eyes to its own advantage";1 and that which is perfect. The one discusses the Superior's commands, summoning them before the tribunal of its own judgment; the other obeys without stopping to reason. The rule for the exercise of this perfect type of obedience is that "in all things where there appears to be no sin, we ought not to discuss the case, but to obey with a holy simplicity of heart, concluding our Superior's command to be conformable to the law of God, and making this command, and obedience itself, the sole motive and reason why we obey." St. Basil, in his Longer Rules, forbids Religious to investigate curiously the reasons why a Superior gives this or that direction.3 Cassian records that this quality of obedience was required of the monks of the desert in the fifth century. They yield, he says, "unhesitating 1 Rodriguez, op. cit., Vol. iii, p. 245. 2 Ibid. 3 St. Basil, Regulae Fusius, 48: |