Lest You Remain

tralizes the danger of free will and wrongly utilized freedom. 5 It is for precisely this reason, that Father Papczy<ski talks about the necessity of obedience. If God is the giver of all goodness, then only those who are obedient to Him can obtain it. Obedience, according to Papczy<ski , thus fulfills the role of tying the person to God’s working in his life. Disobedience, not only removes this goodness from the religious brother, which God wishes to grant him, but also gives rise to the danger of not fulfilling one’s vocation; while at the same time, endangering the person with the loss of salvation. The goal of the vow of obedience, states Papczy<ski , is from one point of view, the strengthening of the religious person’s will, with the will of God, and secondly—the imitation of Christ, obedient even to his death on the Cross (cf. Phil.2:8). Thus, those who are obedient in such a way, that they “ fulfill His will, just like He fulfilled the will of the Father (…) are His brothers”, and thanks to this, they become “ co-inheritors of His kingdom ”. Although the taking of a vow of obe- dience in itself, carries the need to renounce one’s free will, obedience is not the goal in itself . 6 The keeping of the vow of obedience comes from a willingness to imitate Christ, and leads one towards Christ. Christ, in His “ words and actions” shows us the ideal of obedience fulfilled, for through this, He “ fulfilled the will of the Father ”, and saved the world. Similarly, the religious brother, in other words, he who Christ calls to follow Him (ref: Mt 16, 24), through the faithful fulfillment of the vow of obedience, is not only able to obtain the “ peak of perfection and total sanctity”, but also, he contributes to the salvation of others. Finally, obedience serves the function of a criterion for identifying “every holiness”. Underlining such a vision of the vow of obedience, Papczy<ski puts forward criteria, which need to be fulfilled, so that they can reach the evangelical marks and measures. He states that, it must always be fulfilled “ exceptionally” ( unice ). This means, that every act of obedience should be completed in such a way, that it is sin- gle and unique. A marker of perfect love is the conviction, that its work “ is always so perfect, that it could be no more perfect” . What’s more, it should flow from love, meaning that one motive for the execution of a task, can be “ the pure love of God and one’s neighbor” . A virtue of perfect obedience is also being “ willing” ( prompte ) to act. The point here being, that there would be no need for additional “ orders, encouragement and stimuli” . And it is precisely this penchant, which should be a constant virtue in a consecrated person. Other virtues of perfect obedience are: per- severance ( constanter ) in its fulfillment, manifested in not being deterred, even through known hardships and temptations, and beyond that, an active and clear com- mitment ( hilariter) . Apart from this, obedience requires soulful determination in Fr. St. Papczy < ski’s Religious Vows as Seen in “Inspectio Cordis” 227 5 Ref: S. Witek, Theology in Religious Life , Lublin 1986, p 196. 6 Inspectio Cordis, 16-17, 39, 44. It seems that this is the sense of Fr. Papczy<ski ’s statement in his first will, where he writes: “….deprived of my will through the vow of obedience”.