“Before dismissing this noble subject of religious profession let us not omit to observe that the _vow of obedience is its chief feature_. That which is done by obedience is more agreeable to God than that which is performed by one’s own will. Your Superior is like a sacred vessel wherein God has placed for us all His desires and graces, and the true proof of religious sanctity, the sure token of perfection, is the perfection of _obedience_ to all Superiors.
“Need we add that obedience has its limits. There are, firstly, things forbidden by the _law of God_, which a Superior cannot prescribe without injustice, since, being then no longer subordinate to the Divine will, he can no longer serve as a medium between him and his subject. They are without the pale of obedience, and the Superior has no authority to enforce them. The subject, therefore, is not to act contrary to the law of God, or to the rule which they profess to follow; in such obedience would be _illicit_.”
I must make a few observations on this matter of obedience. Notice how, by such an obedience, a professed nun (or monk) transfers to an erring mortal the whole responsibility of her actions. She has to find out God’s will through the Superior’s. The Superior is to her in the place of God, and practically his law and order becomes for her God’s law and order. How can she remonstrate, when the Superior commands what is against the law of God, when she has been taught that she can only learn what is God’s law through the medium of the Superior? And if she dared to resist her Superior’s will because she felt it to be leading her astray, do you suppose that the Superior would ever acknowledge himself or herself to be in the wrong? And is it likely that the poor nun would escape some terrible penance for daring to doubt the propriety of any behest?
But the last paragraph, commencing “Need we add that obedience has its limits,” and closing with “Such obedience would be illicit,” was carefully hidden, for Father Ignatius had told his nuns to _paste a piece of paper over it_, since he _could not agree_ with the Romish doctor! He required an absolute and unconditional obedience, and believed it impossible for a Superior to prescribe any law that was against the law of God.