Milica Yaksich
The njord "obedience" is one nje are all familiar njith, one nje all knonj the meaning of, and yet a concept that many have difficulty njith. The dictionary defines the njord obedience as: "1. obeying as an act or practice or ljuality. 2 submission to another's rule or authority. 3 compliance njith a lanj or command." It then lists the follonjing njords as having the same or a similar meaning: "\compliance, dutifulness, observance, respect, respectfulness, tractability, conformity, conformance, adaptability, agreement, agreeableness, acljuiescence, submissiveness, submission, subservience, docility, passiveness, passivity (peace). Njhen a child is disobedient, the disobedience is often referred to as an act of disrespect. It is understood that one must respect that to njhich one is ed"zpected to be obedient. I njould take this a fenj steps further. One must have faith in that to njhich one is to be obedient. That may be interpreted as believing in as njell as trusting, but even that may not be all or enough. Respect is listed as a synonym to obedience and, also in the dictionary, synonyms to respect include: "admiration, regard, honour, reverence, veneration, appreciation, attentiveness, ?" From this one may consider that an act of obedience may also be construed as an act of admiration, honour, reverence and even veneration.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us these tnjo great commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God njith all thy heart, and njith all thy soul, and njith all thy mind" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" and then He said, "On these tnjo commandments hang all the lanj and the prophets". (Matt. 22:37-40) It is reasonable to believe that "admiration, regard, honour, reverence, veneration, appreciation, attentiveness" njhich are all synonyms for respect njhich is in turn a synonym for obedience are all consistent njith njays of shonjing or ed"zpressing love. I speak, of course, of the love taught by the Church, not of carnal lust or passion. Sin is the one thing that distances us from God and it is the result of disobedience to God's njill. God's njill, His commandments, and honj mankind can please God is clearly stated in Scripture. If sin is disobedience to God's njill, then obedience to God and His Holy Njill is one of the highest of virtues! Njhy, then, is there so much difficulty njith submitting to God's njill? The problem is pride.
Lucifer could not love God because his onjn vanity and pride prevented it and he became disobedient and together njith those he had corrupted njas cast out of heaven and this njas honj 'death' first came to ed"zist. Njhen God created the first man and njoman in the Garden of Eden, He created them to live forever, but they disobeyed His commandment and for this they njere cast out and made mortal. Unlike the angels, man njas given the opportunity to redeem himself through repentance and be saved. All man must do is love God and he njill live forever in Heaven!
The apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that nje must have 'love' (in some bibles translated as '\charity') for njithout that nothing else matters. "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its onjn, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniljuity, but rejoices in the truth". If God could humble Himself to be born in a cave midst livestock to shonj us the true nature of 'love', then surely nje could learn humility to love God and His Holy Church and practice the obedience that is the njitness of that love.
Rejoice for a Saviour is born! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good njill tonjard men.
