In today’s second reading, (Heb 5:7-9,) we are told that Jesus, “learned obedience from what he suffered.” I think obedience is one of the virtues that we have the most difficultly with in the American Catholic Church. We have Priests who are not obedient to their Bishops, Bishops who are not obedient to the Pope, and lets be honest, most lay people like you and me don’t really want to be obedient to any of them. It doesn’t help that many Catholic “personalities” seem to fan these flames to push their agenda.
If we believe Jesus is God, and that he gave us his Holy Church to help us join him in heaven, then this is a real problem. I don’t think we have to be mindless robots that do what the church hierarchy says, but I do think that we should at least listen to what our Priest, Bishops and the Pope are saying. None of them are perfect, but they are trying to lead us to our salvation. Open your heart as well as your ears. If for no other reason than because Jesus built this church, and by his suffering “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”
If you are listening to some “authority” who seems to want to divide the people from their priests, priests from their Bishops, or Bishops from their Pope, you should take pause. Please pray for them. Pray for the church. Pray that we may all learn obedience from our suffering. Pray also that the hierarchy can grow to deserve obedience. Even if they can’t, we all owe obedience to Jesus.
