3rd
Sunday after Epiphany 24.1.21 Obedience
An army going into battle has to be very clear about its line of command. If every soldier went off on his own authority there would be chaos.
Everyone understands when it concerns armies or other organizations, but in normal life the principle is ignored.
In normal life people do act on their own authority, as the saying goes ‘doing what they like’.
Everyone is out for himself with his own philosophy of life and moral system and, well, you see what happens in the world.
We need to know the overall strategy of what we are trying to achieve, and then patiently wait for instructions.
As in an army we have to obey any authority placed over us. That could be human authority, and there is always at the very top, of course, God Himself.
Him we must always obey.
A lot of people rebel against God, for various reasons, but it always makes matters worse.
Whether through pride, stubbornness, impatience, despair, or whatever reason, people break ranks and try their own solution.
What is the correct solution? Obey God in all weathers, even if His instruction appear impractical (such as putting out nets at the wrong time of day, or taking water to the head steward, or handing out a small amount of food to a large crowd.) In every case the faithful response will lead to a good outcome.
God made the world in a perfect state. In the Garden of Eden there was no disorder; everything went as smoothly as the heavenly bodies do today.
Everyone and everything knew their place. Until the first sin - and then, hard work, struggle, sickness, death, and a whole lot more sins, and so till today.
Never fear, we can reclaim lost order, and we do that at every Mass, and all our other prayers and penances.
Obedience to God will restore order, at least to some degree. We cannot make up for all the sin of the world, but we can improve things at least somewhat.
The centurion of today’s Gospel had it very clear in his mind. If he tells a lower ranked soldier what to do, that man had to do it.
So if God commands a sickness to leave someone that sickness has to go. As happened in this case.
If everyone and everything observed this order all the way up and all the way down the line, we would have perfect order in the world.
Sin is disobedience; it is sin that is at the root of all the trouble in the world.
This is why we have natural disasters – because men do not obey God.
This is why nations have so much trouble organizing themselves – because they do not look to God for His authority. They think they can just squeeze Him out, no longer having to worry what He thinks!
If we do not obey what is above us, what is below us will also rebel. St Paul alludes to this: We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8,22-23).
The result of particular disobedience may not be identifiable but it will be in there somewhere. Just so an act of atonement will have a good effect somewhere.
The short direct prayer will not necessarily have instant visible effect because some things are more complicated than having a sick servant.
But we put the request in anyway, trusting that it will help the overall trend towards healing.
Only say but the word and my soul shall be healed! And the world too!
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