Dear Nathan,<\/p>\n
I think you are misinterpreting St Ignatius. \u00a0True, he did compare perfect religious obedience with the obedience of a corpse to its undertaker, but every simile has its defects.\u00a0 First of all, he was writing for the members of his own religious community, who made a vow of obedience, which is somewhat different than the virtue of obedience that you ought to be living right now as a lay Christian.\u00a0 But there\u2019s also a shortcoming in the comparison itself.\u00a0 A corpse is obedient only in one way: it doesn\u2019t resist the will of the whoever moves it.\u00a0 This is one characteristic of Christian obedience: the Christian ought not to put up any resistance to God\u2019s will.\u00a0 But there is another dimension as well, which corpses lack.\u00a0 Christians ought to put their creativity, intelligence, freedom, and spirit of initiative at the service of the cause of Christ.\u00a0 Thus, while they never resist the orders of God (and of his Church), they don\u2019t simply wait for messages from heaven; they consider the Gospel itself to be the most committing message of all, and they take the initiative to put it into action.\u00a0 A quick look at today\u2019s saint will illustrate the point.<\/p>\n
Athanasius was educated in the imperial court of tenth century Constantinople.\u00a0 He did well, and had a brilliant civil career ahead of him.\u00a0 But his heart heard the small whisper of God calling him to serve a higher Kingdom.\u00a0 He went off to become a monk in Macedonia.\u00a0 He made steady progress there, so much so that when the abbot died he fled, fearing that they would want to make him the next abbot.\u00a0 He not only relocated, but also changed his name and pretended to be illiterate.<\/p>\n
Eventually he made his way to Mt Athos, the picturesque mountain on the easternmost Chalcedonian peninsula, which had long been occupied by Christian hermits (and recluses).\u00a0 While he was there a friend of his from school (who was now an official in the imperial court) enlisted his assistance as almoner (distributor of supplies) during a military campaign against the Saracens.\u00a0 He did this work extremely well, and the campaign succeeded.<\/p>\n
When this same friend (Phocas) was later named Emperor, Athanasius fled once again, fearing that he would be called to serve in the imperial court.\u00a0 But Phocas searched him out (he was hiding on the island of Cyprus) and assured him that Athanasius would be free to continue building his monastery at Mt Athos, supported morally and financially by the Emperor himself.<\/p>\n
Athanasius had begun the daunting task of putting some order in the many communities of hermits and monks that dwelt around Mt Athos, beginning what was to be called an idiorhythmic monastery: one in which the different monks were permitted to follow individual schedules and disciplines.\u00a0 Overcoming strong resistance (he was almost murdered twice by miffed monks), he succeeded, eventually becoming the superior of 50 different monastic communities.\u00a0 Today the tradition continues, and 20 monasteries with thousands of monks continue to enrich the Christian world (although they are now in separated from Rome, since they maintained their allegiance to the Byzantine Emperor at the time of the Great Schism in 1054).<\/p>\n
I hope you see my point.\u00a0 Here was a man who became a saint not by sitting around waiting for angelic breathes to sweep him off to holiness-land, but by sincerely pursuing God\u2019s will through a deep spiritual life and an active use of all his God-given talents.\u00a0 May we all be so blessed.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Nathan, I think you are misinterpreting St Ignatius. \u00a0True, he did compare perfect religious obedience with the obedience of a corpse to its undertaker, but every simile has its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n