Over the next few editions, Province Express will publish a series of
reflections looking in more depth at the documents produced by the 35th General
Congregation. In this edition, Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ explores Decree Four,
titled ‘Obedience in the life of the Society'.
Obedience is not
always an attractive topic. It may call to mind experiences and associations
that still gnaw at us. Dogs go to obedience school where they learn to do
exactly what their owner wants. Some people remember learning obedience in much
the same way, conditioned more by punishment than by reward. Even as adults we
might still associate obedience with doing what you are told.
In a religious
context obedience has other associations. It is ultimately about knowing and
doing what God wants. From an experience of manipulative human beings it is
easy to imagine a God who is pleased with us when we get it right and withholds
his favour when we get it wrong. So we anxiously seek God's approval. We can
then transfer this attitude to the Church. We associate obedience with asking
what is the mind of the Holy Father, the mind of religious superiors, the mind
of our headmaster, the meaning of regulations, and whether we are in compliance.
Conversations along these lines leave everyone discouraged, a sure sign of the
bad spirit.
The difficulty
with these simple views of obedience is that the story that they tell is too
small. Obedience is simply about doing what someone else would like you to do. The
Congregation's document tells a much larger story about obedience.
The document
responds in part to a persistent perception by media and by some Catholics that
Jesuits are lacking in obedience, particularly to the Holy Father. The perception
reflects both the fact that some Jesuits have acted clownishly-most of us do so
some of the time-and also the prissy attitude to religious obedience of some
observers. So it was timely for the Congregation to reflect again on what
Jesuit obedience is all about.
The decree begins
helpfully by telling the master story that illuminates Jesuit obedience. The
story is of Ignatius and his first companions who nursed a dream of offering
themselves for mission in the church. They came to want to do this together. In
their deliberations, they recognised that they would serve Christ more
efficaciously if they selected one of their number as leader. They would
entrust him with the decisions about how and where each of them would serve. For
them obedience was to give structure to their dream of a common mission.
This vision rests
on the individual Jesuit desiring to serve the Lord in the best possible way,
on his acting freely and boldly, on his making fine judgements about what is
best to do, and on his creativity in serving God. These qualities stand in some
tension with the demands of a shared mission. The tension is held and made
productive by obedience to one who is responsible for ensuring God's purposes
are best served.
The early Jesuits
and those influenced by the Spiritual Exercises had as the heart of their
mission the desire to follow Jesus in his toils as he did the Father's will.
The document points to the many ways in which the Scriptures describe Christ's
mission. But always central for Jesuits is their passionate desire to be
companions of Jesus.
Although the
rhetoric of the Ignatian vision may be stirring, it is never easy in practice
to allow another to set the compass of your life. So the document points to
many features of our culture that feed the Ignatian vision, and to others that
don't fit so well. The individualism of our culture is a particular challenge,
and also the general reluctance to move from strong and generous personal
commitments to commitment within the church.
As the document
describes it, the dynamic of Jesuit obedience begins with the desire to join
one's companions in serving and following Jesus. That implies in Jesuits a
cheerful readiness to be sent where needed. It also implies that those making
decisions can harness the energies, enthusiasms and insights of those whom they
are sending. So the document emphasises the importance for Jesuits of honest
and deep conversation with their superiors about their life and calling. The
mutual trust that this presumes is to be nourished by shared faith in
supportive communities of happy, spirited people.
Against this
background the document reflects on the relationship between the Pope and
Jesuits. Jesuits vow obedience to accept missions given by the Pope. This vow
is central in Jesuit life because it places their mission within the universal
mission of the Church. Although the vow applies only to missions, it echoes
Ignatius' concern in the Spiritual Exercises that we should view the world from
within the church, so having fellow-feeling and respect for the Pope. Both vow
and attitude are rooted in the desire to follow Jesus within the Church. The
document acknowledges Jesuit successes and failures in this regard. Nothing new
here, but the document makes the Jesuit relationship to the Pope a central part
of a larger vision, so avoiding an inhibiting anxiety.
The document
concludes with some domestic exhortatory remarks about obedience. They
emphasise how important it is to allow the story of which obedience is part to
suffuse the lives of young Jesuits, how important it is also for all Jesuits to
nurture the structures that support obedience.
The document on
obedience has the great merit of attending to the large Jesuit vision, and so
avoiding the anxiety and smallness of spirit that attend a narrow focus on
doing what is commanded.
Finally, the
document echoes Ignatius' attentiveness to obedience in the early Jesuit years.
He dealt with a rapidly growing and young Society in which youthful enthusiasm
and vision could be guaranteed sometimes to spill over into spiritual
showmanship. Ignatius' writing on obedience was often dedicated to spelling out
the facts of Jesuit life.
For later
generations of Jesuits the challenge of obedience is often that of middle
age-how to sustain dreams of a mission that will give the energy and creativity
sufficient to create tension with the shared Jesuit mission. Without that,
obedience wouldn't have much point.