becoming obedient - 5th sun lent B (2nd reading)

Today as we end the school year I would like to reflect with you on this last benediction for the school year on the obedience of Christ.  We learn the virtue of obedience by looking at how Christ became obedient even unto death, because Son though he was, he learned obedience.

Obedience is not taken lightly in the letter to the Hebrews and in the whole the bible for that matter.  We only have to recall the letter of Paul to the Romans when he asserted “For as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”  Adam was disobedient and so we were all made sinners, but Jesus was obedient, obedient even unto death and so we are saved.

How do we become obedient?  How do we recover obedience?

First to become obedient we have to recover reverence.  One of the observations of your teachers is that some of you seemed to have lost a healthy sense of fear – daw wala na gid nahadlok.  You do not bring your notes to class, daw sa wala lang.  You are late or absent, ara na ang teacher sa sulod nga nagahulat, daw sa wala lang.  Reverence is a combination of respect and awe.  In Jesus there is respect and awe to the Father.  Jesus was heard because he has reverence – he has reverential fear to the Father because he knew that the Father can do all things.

Do you have reverence?  Do you see your formator as somebody who can help you or is he someone nga dapat ko malutsan?  Do you see your teachers as somebody who can guide you and lead you to a better future or do you see them as obstacles to your happiness as blocks to your freedom.  If your answers are the latter then you cannot obey because there is no reverence in your heart in the first place.  Recover reverence.

The second, we have to recover submission. In Jesus there is humble submission.  We read that he offered to God petitions and supplications.  The word supplication in Greek means to hold an olive branch with a white wool tied to it to signify that the person is approaching is a suppliant.  This I think is the origin of the white flag of surrender.  To supplicate therefore means to submit, to humbly submit, acknowledging that I am in the presence of someone who can help me, I am in the presence of someone who can guide me.  To supplicate means to acknowledge that on your own you cannot do it – you cannot learn, you cannot grow, you cannot pass, you cannot be good, you cannot become a holy priest.  Jesus submitted himself to God the Father because he realized that only God could help him in his trials, only God can strengthen him in his sufferings, and only God can raise him from the dead.

Can you humbly submit?  Do you have that self-knowledge that alone you cannot do it?  Can you acknowledge that on your own you are incapable, on your own you cannot reach your goal, on your own you cannot be happy?  Do you ask for help or are you so sure of yourself?  Do you see the help of of others as an intrusion to your capacity.  or are you happy that you are being helped.  Again recover humble submission.

The third and last attitude in order to learn obedience is to trust.  I remember when I was still prefect years ago I often told seminarians that if they could no longer trust me there are only two choices left for us – either you go or I go.  If you could no longer trust your formators what’s the point?  If you are no longer trusted what’s the point.  Obedience is entrustment – it means I believe that you have my highest good in mind.  Jesus trusted the father that is why he was obedient even in suffering, and he remained obedient even unto death.  Father I am in pain now but I continue to believe that you have my highest good in mind.

Can you trust your formators as having only your highest good in mind?  Or do you see them as somebody who hates you, somebody who is out to get you, somebody who have absolutely no care for you, somebody who wish only all the bad for you?  If that is how you see your formators, then you could not obey them because you could not trust them. Or it can happen that that is really how your formators are – they really hate you, they are out to get you, they do not care for you, they only wish all the bad for you.  Then those formators should not be obeyed because they cannot be trusted.  Recover trust.

Jesus Son though he was learned obedience from what he suffered.

Jesus has reverence that the Father can do all things that is why he was obedient.  Jesus humbly submitted to the Father acknowledging that without Father he cannot do anything, thus Jesus became obedient.  Jesus trusted that the Father whom he believe has only his highest good in mind and thus he became obedient to the Father.

Be obedient.  When you become a priest you obey.  Obedience is not slavery, it will not stifle your happiness.  Jesus was obedient and because of that he became the source of salvation for all of us.