Suffering With Joy

Sabbath Moments

April 17, 2010

Sabbath moments are the moments we rest in God, when we take time to just be with God rather than Do.  Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this Saturday theme so we can join her in her virtual living room and read about others’ Sabbath moments, too.

I love Pope Benedict.  His talks and writings are so clear that I never fail to find a thought to ponder when I read his work.  On April 15th the Holy Father gave a sermon in the Pauline Chapel to the Pontifical Biblical Commission and only today did I find it.

The Pope is so humble.  After apologizing for not having time to prepare a “true homily” he proceeds to speak extemporaneously on “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29), the words of St. Peter to the Sanhedrin.  My Sabbath moment today is time with the Pope as Christ’s Vicar as he points me to living right in God.  A couple of excerpts:

Here it is important to emphasize that this is a matter of obedience, and that it is precisely obedience that gives freedom. The modern age has spoken of the liberation of man, of his full autonomy, and therefore also of liberation from obedience to God. It is said that obedience should no longer exist, man is free, he is autonomous: nothing else. But this autonomy is a lie: it is an ontological lie, because man does not exist on his own and for himself, and it is also a political and practical lie, because collaboration, the sharing of freedom, is necessary. And if God does not exist, if God is not an imperative accessible to man, what remains as the supreme imperative is only the consensus of the majority. As a result, the consensus of the majority becomes the last word, which we must obey. And this consensus – we know this from the history of the last century – can also be a “consensus in evil…“

Today, thank God, we do not live under dictatorships, but there exist subtle forms of dictatorship: a conformism that becomes obligatory, to think the way everyone else thinks, to act the way everyone else acts, and the subtle forms of aggression against the Church, or even the less subtle ones, demonstrate how this conformism can really be a true dictatorship. What matters to us is this: we must obey God rather than men. But that supposes that we truly know God, and that we truly want to obey Him. God is not a pretext for one’s own will, but it is really He who calls and invites us, if it is necessary, even to martyrdom. Therefore, confronted by this word that begins a new history of freedom in the world, let us pray above all to know God, to know God humbly and truly, and, knowing God, to learn the true obedience that is the foundation of human freedom.

St. Ignatius of Loyola (detail), c. 1610, Juan Martínez Montanes, b. 1568, Alcala la Real, d. 1649, Sevilla, Polychromed wood Chapel, Seville University

The Pope’s statement about martyrdom reminds me of the “Act of Resignation” prayer in my St. Andrew’s missal in the “Thanksgiving After Mass” section:

O Lord, my God, from this moment do I accept from Thy hands, with a quiet and trusting heart, whatsoever death Thou shalt choose to send me, with its pains and griefs.

Along with this prayer, in the spirit of obedience the Pope speaks of, is an oblation from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who was both a Spanish soldier and a true Soldier of Jesus Christ:

Take, O Lord, into Thy hands my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my will.  All that I am and have Thou hast given me, and I surrender them to Thee to be so disposed in accordance with Thy holy will.  Give me Thy love and Thy grace, with these I am rich enough and desire nothing more.

Tags: Pope Benedict XVI