The Difficulty of Obedience

Yesterday we celebrated the memorial of St Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order. Obedience is not a popular word in our modern society. It comes with all sorts of negative images of suppression etc. There is a dangerous anti-institution attitude permeating the culture of suspicion we find ourselves in today. But, anarchy and autonomy are getting us nowhere along the pathway to perfection. St Bruno taught us that obedience is at the heart of the contemplative life. He said it was the 'key and seal of all our spiritual effort.'

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. The rosary could be seen as the 'hand of Mary' which leads us to the throne of her Son to see his magnificent light through her eyes. She is the icon of obedient love. It is so easy for us to desire to flee obedience. In my spiritual reading from the Carthusians this morning I read the following that requires us to examine our own consciences.

It is so easy to flee from the reality of obedience, contenting ourselves
with fine theories about it. It is so easy to evade it, claiming the right to
affirm our personality on the grounds, we say, that we have received from the
Lord. In reality, when we are honest with ourselves, we cannot but admit that
obedience is not easy. There is a great risk of forgetting this, especially for
us solitaries. Left to ourselves, and living in the sight of God alone, his
light should be our sole guide; but often, the absence of friendly feedback from
our brothers or from those on whom we depend, leaves us drifting at the mercy of
self-will. Why is it that we do not manage to attain to the beautiful
transparency with regard to God that Bruno's first companions had? We would then
be ready for the finger of God to engrave all the secrets of his holy law in our
own hearts as well. Is it not because we turn obedience into somthing
complicated, even repulsive perhaps, instead of looking at Jesus in order to
learn the meaning of it?