Obedience is the carrying out of orders from one's lawful superiors with the intention of carrying out their will.
Catholics especially prize obedience, because of Christ's own example, and because in their lawful superiors they see the represenatives of Christ himself.
"Let every soul be subject to higher powers--for there is no power but from God." -- Romans 13:1.
"He was subject to them." -- Luke 2:51
"He humbled himself, being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." -- Phil 2:8
It is the teaching of the Church that obedience is part of justice, one of the four cardinal virtues, which are in turn subordinate to the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. Faith is greater than obedience! Therefore, if obedience acts to harm the faith, than a Catholic has a duty not to obey his superior.
"Now sometimes the things commanded by a superior are against God, therefore superiors are not to be obeyed in all things." -- St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, Summa Theologica II-IIQ. 104
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema." -- Galatians 1:8
Now the truths of our faith were recieved even by Jesus himself as a tradition or handing down from his Father.
"Jesus answered them, and said, 'My doctrine is not mine but His that sent me." -- John 7:16
"Jesus said to them, 'Amen, Amen I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doth, these the Son also doth in like manner." -- John 5:19
"For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, He gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak." -- John 12:49
Likewise, Our Lord hands the Faith down to us as a tradition through those of our lawful superiors who are obedient to the Faith.
"Because the words which thou gavest to me, I have given to them." -- John 17:8
"For I have recieved of the Lord that which also I handed down to you." -- Cor. XI:23
But many Catholics, forgetting that Catholic obedience is relative to the Faith and Tradition, think obedience is an absolute, with only one opposite, disobedience. They are mistaken. True obedience has two opposites...
The sin of our first parents and the origin of all sin in the world was a sin of disobedience.
According to the great theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, true obedience is a balance between twin errors of defect and excess, which are disobedience and false obedience (IIa IIae, Q104, 5 and 3). Today this second error is common among Catholics who, when the follow orders to depart from Tradition, think they are being obedient.
God must always be obeyed no matter what he may ask of us. Such was the Patriarch Abraham's obedience.
Human superiors need not be obeyed if their orders violate the Faith. Such was the martyrs' obedience.
Excessive zeal even for obedience, if indiscreet, will surely lead to a great fall.
Disobedience: My own conscience is my absolute authority.
True Obedience: God through His Catholic Church has absolute authority over my conscience, but in the last resort God meant me to judge, if His hierarchy is departing from His teaching. Obedience to men has limits. --Galatians 1:8-9
False Obedience: The Church hierarchy is the absolute authority. Obedience has no limits.
Disobedience: The Pope has no authority over me.
True Obedience: The Pope, as the Vicar of Christ, is given by Christ direct authority over the whole Church, but he is not infallible in everything he says or does.
False Obedience: The Pope is infallible in everything he says and does.
Disobedience: No respect at all is owed to "superiors".
True Obedience: Lawful superiors are to be respected as the represenatives of Christ, but if they depart gravely from the Catholic Faith, I may even have to rebuke them in public. --Gal. 2:11-14
False Obedience: I may never criticize any superior under any circumstances.
Disobedience: I will not obey men, even pretending to be servants of God, be they bishops or priests.
True Obedience: I will gladly obey the appointed servants of God, legitimate bishops or priests, but not when I know they are leading men away from God.
False Obedience: I will obey the bishops or priests even when they disobey God by forsaking Tradition.
Disobedience: Church punishments like excommunication or suspension are meaningless.
True Obedience: Church punishments are terrifying instruments of God's law when valid, but when they are without foundation they are not valid --Old Code, c.2242; New Code, c.1321.
False Obedience: Even unjust or improper suspensions or excommunications are legally binding.
Disobedience: I will attend no Catholic Mass.
True Obedience: I must attend the Catholic Mass, but I am not obliged to attend the Novus Ordo Mass, because it destroys the Catholic Faith.
False Obedience: I will attend even a protestantized Mass if my superiors tell me to.
OBJECTION: But by defending disobedience to modern church officials in some cases, are you not encouraging anarchy and disorder in the church?
REPLY: By no means! It is the modernists who are causing anarchy and confusion by disobeying sacred traditions---
Where there is a proximate danger to the faith, prelates must be rebuked, even publicly, by subjects. Thus, St. Paul who was subject to St. Peter, rebuked him publicly. --St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians 2:14
When the Supreme Pontiff pronounces a sentence of excommunication which is unjust or null, it must not be accepted, without, however, straying from the respect due to the Holy See. --St. Robert Bellarmine
All disciplinary authority, all obedience to a bishop presupposes the pure teaching of the Holy Church. Obedience to the bishop is grounded in complete faith in the teaching of the Holy Church. As soon as the ecclesiastical authority yields to pluralism in questions of faith, it has lost the right to claim obedience to its disciplinary ordinances. --Professor Dietrich von Hildenbrand, The Devastated Vineyard (Chicago, 1973), pp.3-5
"And immediately the cock crew again. And Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said unto him: Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt thrice deny me. And he began to weep." --Mark 14:72
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