To obey, obedience, disobedience

See also: Order, disorder.

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The agony of Jesus at Gethsemane, where Christ performs His perfect act of obedience to the Father. Artistic illustration by AI inspired by the visions of Maria Valtorta.

Obedience to the will of God is a path of holiness and salvation. Obedience brings Peace and light, and although it is easier to obey than to command, obedience can demand difficult efforts in certain circumstances.

In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"

• Obeying always saves.  
• I obey my Father. You, obey your Master. It is the primary condition to be a son of God, to obey without questioning.
• It is easier to obey than to command.
• Understanding means obeying without questioning because one is convinced of the holiness of the One who guides.  
• Sintica to John of Endor, demoralized: "It is a great thing to obey, simply because it is obedience. Therefore, it is a very great thing to obey a holy order, which I judge and with me you must also judge, as a great mercy."     
• For, know this forever, God chooses whom He wills and takes away from those who deserve it, having corrupted their will through Pride and disobedience.   
• Peace! That is success, that is victory over the earth and to Heaven, because God is with the one who has the good will to obey Him. God does not so much look at the outstanding works accomplished by man's initiative but at the humble, prompt, faithful obedience to the works He proposes.          
• God is Father, He loves us and He weeps if we are bad, but He does not force us to obey. Yet the one who is bad will be chastised one day by horrible torments...  
• Where do I find my calm? By doing the will of God. Where does my serenity come from? From doing this will.           
• Obedience is holiness when it does not contradict the great Law.        
• Jesus to Margziam: "The first sin you must promise me never to commit is that of disobedience. You will always obey. Me now, and those who will speak to you in my Name, thereafter."        
• Obedience is difficult. What is difficult causes pain to the one who performs it. Therefore, I must suffer to overcome, to erase not one or a thousand sins, but the very Original Sin par excellence, which has been and will always be, until the last man, the sin of disobedience to God.  
• Obedience is pain and glory. Obedience never dies […] Obedience is light […] Obedience is patience […] Obedience is humility […] Obedience is charity […] Obedience is heroism. […] If charity is the virtue where one finds the One and Triune God, obedience is the virtue where you find me, your Master.         
• Reflect that obedience always saves at least from one sin: that of presuming to be able to act on one's own. You do not know how the demon circles around you to grasp every motive to make you sin, …
• The pain of the world comes from disobedience, but obedience consoles the Most High. Mary: "It is granted to me, a creature, to console my Creator!", Jesus: "Blessed are you, who teach me the ultimate obedience and make it, by this thought, so pleasant to fulfill!"

In the other works of Maria Valtorta

In the Notebooks

• Catechesis September 18: Now, if you consider that in life, the one who loves — whether a child, a brother, a sister, a husband, a wife, a student, a subordinate, whoever — always seeks to satisfy the beloved, you can easily understand that those who love God very much conform to His desires, whatever they are; those who love Him little conform less and only to those desires which do not cost them too much pain; and finally, those who do not love Him at all do not conform in any way to the desires of His holy will, but, on the contrary, revolt, setting off on the path leading to the antipodes of the destination God advises, and move away from the Father while blaspheming Against Him.
  
  One could therefore conclude, without fear of error, that the extent to which a creature knows how to obey the desires of its Lord and Father measures the extent to which it loves its Creator. He who says he loves God and does not know how to follow His voice that speaks to him with love to guide him to his home, that one lies (see note [3] on the site).
• Catechesis November 3, 1943: "Obedience has more value than the word, even if this word is written under my dictation. For you hear and write the word, but it is not yours; you repeat it, but it is not yours. Obedience, on the other hand, is yours. It is appropriate to say: 'Let her act, for you always have the poor, but me, you do not always have.' The poor to whom to give the word you always have. The opportunity to spread the precious fragrance of holy obedience, defying the comments of others, you do not always have. And know that obedience was the virtue of the Word, who was destined to be Man and become the Redeemer. Love, power, perfection, wisdom are common to our Three Persons. But obedience is mine, exclusively mine. I obeyed by incarnating myself, becoming poor, accepting to be subject to humans, fulfilling my Mission as evangelizer, by dying."

In fundamental Christian texts

In the Bible

• Aaron is going to die soon. Indeed, he will not enter the land I give to the Israelites, because you disobeyed my orders at the source of Meribah.
• My people did not want me. So I let them be what they deliberately chose. Ah, if my people would listen to me, I would make their Enemies bend, I would direct my blows against their adversaries!

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• CCC § 143: By faith man fully submits his intellect and will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer (cf. Dei Verbum 5). Sacred Scripture calls this human response to the God who reveals "obedience of faith" (cf. Romans 1:5; 16:26).
• Man's first sin: disobedience.
• Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience.
• The perfection of charity involves for those who freely assume the Call to consecrated life, the obligation to practice chastity in celibacy for the Kingdom, poverty and obedience.
• Mary brought to the work of the Savior an absolutely unparalleled cooperation by her obedience, faith, hope, and ardent charity, so that supernatural life might be restored to souls. That is why she became, for us, in the order of Grace, our Mother."
• Having become a member of the Church, the baptized no longer belongs to himself but to Christ. Consequently, he is called to submit to others, to serve them within the communion of the Church, and to be "obedient and docile" to the leaders of the Church and to regard them with respect and affection. CCC 1269 – 1567 – 1733 – 1900 – 2053 – 2216 ff. – 2240 ff. – 2313