When I was discerning seminary, there was a platitude that I heard from almost every priest and seminarian I had the chance to talk to that I didn’t believe even for a second. Whenever I asked about the challenges and sacrifices in the life of a priest, the vast majority of them said that it isn’t celibacy that proves to be the biggest challenge; it’s obedience. I wrote it off as nonsense. Sure, it must be tough to not always have the final say in where you go or what you do, but that can’t possibly compare to giving up having a wife and kids, right?

After five years of celibacy and even more years of watching my friends raise families, I am now in the position of telling incredulous would-be seminarians that it’s the truth. Obedience is the big one. Yes, there are times when thoughts drift to what could have been if God had called one to marriage, but given the sacrifices that good and holy moms and dads, husbands and wives make every day, obedience has proven to be a cross that points me towards holiness and sacrifice almost constantly.
 
But the solemn vow of obedience isn’t the only way we encounter it in the life of the disciple. Husbands and wives must learn some form of obedience to the demands of their vocation and even the capricious whims of their babies.
We must learn obedience to the plan that God puts in our lives. A significant struggle that many people try to bypass nowadays is to humble ourselves enough to submit to what the Church teaches and the high bar to which she calls us.

In this modern, “enlightened” world, most people pride themselves on being independent, self-formed thinkers. We don’t rely on the opinions of others to choose how we see the world. But taking her cue from the Gospel, the Church has authoritatively passed down the wisdom of Jesus Christ from the moment He
said it until it reached our ears, and sometimes it is tough for us to make the act of the will to assent to what Holy Mother Church teaches us if it doesn’t sync up perfectly with our preferences and beliefs. What do we do when the Church proposes something as a divine truth when we hold the opposite opinion? What do we do when the Church calls us to serve the marginalized and oppressed when our politics might say otherwise? What do we do when the Church proclaims something to be sinful and bad for humanity if our culture says otherwise? There are enough opportunities for conflict between the truth of the Church and the world around us to make our heads spin.
 
The parable in the Gospel this weekend speaks about the importance of submission to God’s Will, even when we don’t understand it in its fullness. It is easy to be the brother who goes along to get along but doesn’t follow the will of God. It is much harder, but more laudable, to be the brother who voices protest and struggles to accept the truth, but ultimately surrenders to God and says, “not my will, by thine be done.” In a world that values the independent and even radical thinker, I pray that we have the courage to wrestle with the eternal truths proposed to us by the Church. For it is once we hand over our wills to the Lord that we will truly discover and live in the truth that will set us free.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC