This weekend I was away at a brief men's retreat in Pendleton, OR (www.gowestcatholicmen.com). The retreat began on Friday evening and went nearly all day Saturday. Bishop Carey from the Diocese of Bend celebrated our two Masses and gave a talk on Friday night. We were also graced to have confessions available the whole time, talks by three other priests, and a magnificent holy hour to conclude the weekend.
I wanted to offer a few reflections from the weekend...
-The Hispanic youth group from a neighboring parish came to do a living Stations of the Cross. I thank Mel Gibson for his work on the movie "The Passion." For all the controversy surrounding him and the making of the movie, there are some very moving and beautiful scenes. I'm very thankful for the movie! One of my favorite scenes is Jesus encountering His Mother while carrying His cross. In the movie, Mary sees Jesus fall and has a flashback of watching a five year old Jesus trip and fall. It was very tender and an insight into the mind of a mother. At the living stations on Friday, I couldn't help but recall that scene from the movie as Mary came running to Jesus and embraced His legs. Our Lady is a great model for us in the love she has for Jesus.
-One of the priests, Fr. Robert Greiner of the Diocese of Bend, spoke about Catholics in the modern world. Specifically, he confronted every single uncomfortable Church teaching and reminded us: if we believe the Catholic Church was instituted by Christ, these matters of faith are there for us to believe. Period. The Church's teachings on contraception, abortion, euthanasia, and homosexual unions aren't unclear because of something the Church did/said; the Church is very clear. The problem is with the minds of believers, taken in by the world's opinions. Those that dissent from the Church's teachings might have the best of intentions; they might be brilliant intellectuals; they might have less than pure reasons for turning away from the Catholic faith. Wherever they are on that spectrum, they lack one thing: obedience.
Obedience is a dirty word in American culture. It has connotations of subservience, inferiority, blind submission... and in religious circles (not just Catholic, I'm guessing) it can come across as checking your brain at the door and believing "because the Bible/Church/Pastor/etc. says so." If that were truly the case, why would the Catholic Church bother to have a Catechism, a summary of its belief? Why would the popes have issued volumes of encyclicals? Why would the Church councils have published their decrees? Wouldn't it have been easier for Pope Benedict to say, "Your concern is to believe X, Y, and Z. Do not trouble yourselves with why."
Actually, I think those Catholics that hold to that negative definition of obedience are stuck in the past. Obedience to Church teachings as something robotic and archaic? Really? Have they read anything by John Paul II or Benedict XVI? Do they see how the Church has published the contents and reasons behind her faith for all the world to see? Obedience is a dynamic virtue, not a passive one. The Catholic faith makes demands on our intellect and does not seek to destroy it. (check out the old Catholic Encyclopedia article on obedience)
I think the final word on obedience rests on one central question: is Jesus really Who He said He is?
Great reflections on obedience! i would have loved to hear his talk. Thank you for sharing.
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