And THAT – that obedience to the Will of the Father – that is what gives freedom.
When I was a little girl, my parents taught me to be obedient.
This does not mean that I was always a willing participant in this obedience, but it does mean that I was always conscious of having to obey my mother and father.
Now, when I was a little girl, I found this a very annoying little exercise – this act of obedience. After all, I would reason to myself, they did not understand me. My friends did not have to obey their parents the way that I had to obey mine (or so it seemed to me at the time). When I am older – I would often think to myself – and when I have children of my own, I would not force them to obey so much because I would care about them more and want them to be free.
And I have been reflecting today about this concept of freedom because it has become so diluted in the world through the evil of the Evil One…
When we think – in Earthly terms – of freedom, we think of it as a LACK of obedience. If we are free – the world tells us – then we have no need of obeying anyone or anything. If we were truly free, we could do as we pleased and not worry about the consequences.
And yet – this is paradoxically, the opposite of the truth…
You see, Christ taught us how to be free – to be perfectly free. And perfect freedom consists of perfect obedience to the Father’s Will…
Mother Raphael Lubowidzka of the sweetest Heart of Jesus, CSFN, wrote in 100 Holy Hours for Women at pages 65-66, “Christ not only was obedient to His heavenly Father by giving up His life on the cross, He continues this obedience by remaining with us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. That is His greatest triumph of love, which according to His promise, He will fulfill until the end of the world. Our Lord, glorified in heaven, yet wishing to abide with us in unceasing unity, is obedient to the first invocation of the priest, who in His name, repeats the words of consecration: “This is my body…this is my blood” (Matthew 26:26,28). Christ does not look upon the person who utters these words, nor upon his degree of perfection, but He is obedient to every priest without exception, in order to descend on our altars and give Himself to us entirely.”
You see, in PERFECT obedience to the Holy Will of God the Father, God the Son becomes obedient to a mere priest. During the consecration, Christ descends and the Host is transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ through Transubstantiation.
And THAT – that obedience to the Will of the Father – that is what gives freedom. And not the freedom that the world has taught us to believe in, but PERFECT freedom, which is the freedom to completely trust the Holy Will of God. And it is only through such freedom as that that we can be saved…
And THAT obedience is why Christ is called the Prince of Peace. Because if we simply obey God’s Will, then we can be truly at peace…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.