“I have come to do My Father’s Will. I obeyed My parents, I obeyed My tormentors and now I obey the priests.” (Diary 535).
My Beloved is obedient – even to the point of DEATH. This is a fact that I have long acknowledged and meditated upon. How many times, have I reflected on the words of Christ, who said, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Matthew 22:42)?
I used to think that this moment in the Garden of Gethsemane was the greatest example of the humble obedience of Christ – the humble obedience of God Himself – but now I realise that there is SO MUCH MORE to the humble obedience of my Beloved…
You see, Christ appeared to Saint Faustina many many times during her short life. Once, when He appeared to her, he explained a little more about His Perfect Obedience, which is the Perfect Obedience of God.
Saint Faustina wrote down the words that Christ spoke to her about His Perfect and Humble Obedience…
“I have come to do My Father’s Will. I obeyed My parents, I obeyed My tormentors and now I obey the priests.” (Diary 535).
When I read these words the other day I was literally dumbfounded… “How can this be?” I thought to myself… “How is it that GOD – the Supreme Creator of the Universe – Obeys?”
Obviously – from my prior reflections – I understood very well the first part of the message given by Christ to Saint Faustina, “I have come to do My Father’s Will…”. This is the whole point of the human life of Christ. This is why when Simon Peter tried to persuade Him from following the Father’s Will through His Passion and Death, Christ said, “Get behind me Satan…”
“Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ‘Far be it from You, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to You!’ But Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’” (Matthew 16:22-23).
They were harsh words – those words of Christ. Simon Peter was trying to protect Him and Christ called it out for what it was… the work of “Satan”. After all – the Father’s Will DEPENDED on Christ’s PERFECT obedience and anything that worked against that was EVIL – for the Father’s Will is only GOOD.
The second part of the message was also familiar to me – “I obeyed My parents...” After all, Christ obeyed His parents from the moment of His birth. He would have come to them when they called Him. He would have helped them when they asked Him to. It was His parents who raised Him in faith and morals, and so it was crucial that Christ – God the Son – humbled Himself to listen to the earthly instructions of His parents.
The wedding feast at Cana, where He performed the FIRST of His signs is perhaps the most profound example of Christ’s obedience to His earthly parents… After all, when His Blessed Mother spoke to Him about the wine, She did not even ask anything of Him and yet – despite NOT even asking – She expected His obedience to Her Will, because she was USED to it...
That is how much God humbled Himself – He obeyed His earthly Mother in a mere observation… That is all it takes for God the Son to ACT! Just ask His Mother – She will take care of the rest!
“When the wine was gone, Jesus’ Mother said to Him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.’ His Mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’” (John 2:3-5).
The third part is also something that I was already familiar with – “I obeyed My tormentors…” After all, when Christ was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, He did not resist. In fact, when Simon Peter tried to defend Him with a sword, Christ stopped Simon Peter…
“Then Simon Peter drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. ‘Put your sword back in its sheath!’ Jesus said to Peter. ‘Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?’” (John 18:10-11).
Christ obeyed His tormentors, when He was imprisoned, when He was falsely judged, when He was scourged, crowned, and crucified. Perhaps, the most significant act of obedience in the entire torture of Christ was the walk that He made – carrying His own Cross – to Calvary. For along that walk – even when He could not carry that Cross Himself any longer for His human strength had failed Him – still He continued onwards on His own Two Sacred Feet.
I imagine those bloodied footprints along His path and I weep. For what humble obedience for the Son of Man to walk on His Bloodied Feet for love of me!
But it was this final act of obedience that has stopped me in my tracks…
It was this final act of obedience that Christ told Saint Faustina about that broke my heart…
For not only did Christ Obey His Father and His earthly parents and even His tormentors, but He told Saint Faustina, “…now I obey the priests.”
The Perfect Priest, Victim, Sacrifice and Altar, obeys mere human priests – for LOVE of us. And those mere human priests call for that obedience for ME – they call for it for you too.
And what that really means is that EVERY time a priests offers the sacrifice of the Mass Christ obeys the call and comes. And this occurs whether the priest is a good and virtuous man or not, whether the priest is in a state of Grace or a state of mortal sin, whether or not the priest truly believes in the power of God. This occurs every single time that a priest offers Mass.
It is the same with the other sacraments too!
For Christ is perfectly obedient to the priest’s call – for love of Me, and for love of you too.
And what that really means, is that I have HUMBLED my GOD through my OWN SINFUL DISGRACE – for God – creator of the Universe – is obedient to the call of the priest, who asks Him to come to attend to me…
And how I weep in shame – for the degradation that I cause my Lord. And how I am filled with joy – for the love He bears for me!
For my Lord came to do His Father’s Will – and for love of me, He will obey the priests, so that I might be saved!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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