Obedience, as a Virtue

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis once remarked:

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

Dr. Peter Kreeft says about this quote:

"How many of us in the civilization [that is] dedicated to "man's conquest of nature" can even comprehend, much less applaud Lewis?"

He is right. We live in a society and culture that pursues the conquest "nature", in that we pursue the defeat of nature, we attempt to make it subservient to us. Our goal is not to serve or obey nature, but to make it serve us. Some of you may wonder: "What does this have to do with virtue?" In fact, it has everything to do with virtue.

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the most dangerous game

Kreeft, Aquinas, and many other moral theologians would most likely rank Pride as the most dangerous and grievous sin, in terms of vices. The reason why is that it is at the center of almost all sin - to some degree. As Kreeft puts it, it was the original sin that took place in the garden and it also was the downfall of Lucifer and the other fallen angels. The concept of placing self above God occurs even at the minute level of pride of self. 


Kreeft further explains that humilty occurs only when we first start to admit that we are prideful. The second we start to think that we are being humble, we are again sucked into pride of self. It is a dangerous sin, and it is from the Devil. Humility is an almost impossible task for humans, we are so self-centered, due to sin, that we cannot hardly let go of pride in fear of thinking we are losing ourself. In fact, we would "lose ourself" but not in some sort of way where we cease to exist. Instead, if we were truly humble and prideless we would then be able to conform our hearts to God's.

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obey and serve

Obedience is a tool that can help in this regard. In fact, obedience is a way to construct humility in ourselves, even if it isn't pure. Obedience to the Catholic Faith and all its laws and precepts humbles us before God. What it conveys is our willingness to put aside whatever it is we want or desire and says, "Thy will be done." Lewis, Kreeft, and even St. Augustine would all agree that obedience in this nature - submitting our will to God's is a step away from pride and towards humility.


To Obey God and His Church also has the effect of Grace. It imparts on us all the Grace that comes with that which we obey. In other words, let us say we don't like going to Mass every Sunday for whatever reason. If we submit ourselves to obey God and go anyways, we will be imparted grace not only for the decision to obey, but also for attending Mass in the normal course of order.

The virtue of obedience is that it puts aside pride, even if done for the purpose of putting it aside. While it doesn't create total humility, it puts us on track towards it. For some this is the most we can hope for. Many in the faith push the limits of the "law" in an attempt to form the Catholic faith into their desired shape. What is lost in that process isn't always the essence of the faith, but a much more subtle and thereby dangerous thing. When we bend and alter the faith what we are doing is being disobedient. We are also placing our self and our will above that of God. You will often hear: "God doesn't mind," or "Jesus would [verb] _____________ in this situation," or some other explanation as to why the action is allowable. Allowable in the legal sense and appropriate are not always the same thing.

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death of the will

There is a reason that Jesus said the greatest love man can show is to lay down his life for another. It is also the reason that Martyrdom is held in such high regard. When we no longer care about our own wills we then have the ability to care about another's will, normally that will is the will of God.

So let us die to ourselves, let us become obedient to all things good, and let us Obey God. Let this obedience become a virtue, let it bring us to humility, let us crush pride with obedience and humility. If we can put aside what we want, and reach out for that which is what God asks of of, we can start to conquer pride. It is then that obedience becomes a virtue.

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