Abbey-Roads2

The readings from Mass today spoke to me of obedience, which not only means to fulfill certain duties or actions, but as its Latin root defines, it means “to hear” - to listen.  Strikingly, the people of Nazareth would not listen to Jesus and intended to throw him over the brow of the hill, headlong.  Yet Jesus walked in peace through the midst of them.

The story of Naaman the Syrian is one of dashed expectations and obedience as well.  Naaman expected something wonderful and dramatic from Elisha, instead he was told to wash in the Jordan seven times.  How lowly and mundane for a great General. The prophet wouldn’t even come out to see him, and he was expected to remove all of his clothing and bathe in a river, in front of all his retinue.  It took his servants to convince him to do as Elisha instructed, and only then was he healed.

Unless you become like little children…

Oftentimes we expect from God great signs and wonders, healings, and reversal of misfortune in our lives.  Or accolades for our intelligence, great piety and spirituality.  Yet God seems to leave us in our humble conditions, limping along in our spiritual life, experiencing our misery.  Sometimes it is the reverse, our pride wells up and we may rebel against our circumstances, our responsibilities and duties.  Unaware that envy and jealousy foment hostility and malice towards those who reject us, or make demands upon our freedom.

Naaman’s final obedience reminded me of the ridiculous things asked of the saints by their superiors during their formation in religious life.  St. Rita of Cascia especially came to mind.

St. Rita’s superior, to test her humility and obedience, gave her an obedience to water a dried up, dead tree in the cloister.  Rita had been a married woman and mother in the world, called to cloistered life after the death of her family.  She was only allowed to enter the monastery after miraculous intervention, as the nuns would not accept widows, and did not want Rita in their company.

To test her vocation, she endured many trials.  The superior wouldn’t have told her that the watering of the dead tree was a test.  I’m sure, Rita, a practical woman of the world, who would have raised a family and ran a household, must have thought the exercise foolish, although she obeyed.  Temptations to murmuring certainly would have accosted her, reason alone would suggest watering a dead tree was of no use, while the other nuns, single women with little education or life experience, must have looked on with amusement.

Nevertheless, Rita obeyed, and the tree miraculously came to life.  It’s not a fairy tale either, since the tree is still living today.  Obedience makes what is impossible, possible.

“To ecstasy I prefer the monotony of sacrifice.” - Therese of Lisieux

The example of Naaman and St. Rita demonstrate the value of obedience in little things. The monotony of daily life, the fulfillment of the duties of one’s state in life, despite all of our shortcomings and prideful rebellions, is the little way to find the wholeness God wills for us.  So often we can’t see our lives as God does, we see little fruition of our prayer and good works, and we become discouraged.  We want to be saints in a day, we want to be healed instantly, or we want to live in some sort of ecstasy of spirit - while our patience grows thin with God.  Yet sanctity and union with God is found in the ordinary, the everyday, ever present moments of life, even if we must perform them 7 times 70 times a day; it is our obedience to these things God asks for.

If we consider the townsfolk of Nazareth, rejecting and protesting the utter ordinariness and familiarity of Jesus - if we consider these folks to be representative of our thoughts of pride and impatience, murmuring with ourselves; or learn to recognize in them those around us who may annoy or dislike us - and yet walk in peace through the midst of them- faithful to our ever so mundane duties, then we have accomplished something wonderful and great.  Perhaps even heroic.

God’s ways are not man’s ways.