Obedience

“Like obedient children”
1 Peter 1:14

Obedience is not a trait that one who grew up in the sixties and seventies accepts easily. Our high school and college years saw one incident after another i.e. Viet Nam, Watergate etc. and we saw that blind obedience was not always a good thing. It can be the same today. For instance, in today’s business world we see blind obedience to short term profit and the disastrous effect that it has had on people’s lives. But yet, as I read the scriptures and absorb the Christian and Catholic traditions and heritage, I see the benefit of proper obedience. Obedience today does involve the sublimation of the ego. Something that I will say is not my strength. I know that in the Sprit of Jesus, I do owe obedience to some of man’s institutions in this world. I owe obedience to the institution of marriage and therefore to a person, my wife. I owe obedience in many situations to the President of the Untied Sates as my civic leader. I owe obedience to the bishop in matters of peace and justice. I owe obedience to the various groups that I am in. I owe obedience to the well being of my children and to their individual development. I owe obedience to my boss as long as that obedience compliments my prime obedience to the Spirit of Jesus.