I think St. John of the Cross is the example we have today, amongst other for what needs to be done in the religious orders.
His imprisonment and his escape.
And the reforms implemented.
Did St. John of the Cross break obedience by escaping his cell? What do we do when a religious order teaches lack of virtues, and obedience to this as a virtue?
Did he find a hierarchy of obedience that was greater?
[SNIP]
One of the things that I myself often consider is what would happen to me, if I entered an order where obedience meant obedience to be instructed to not do good things. There is a point where that goes too far, the order is too corrupt, obedience is not the only factor nor the only key. Obedience to too much laxity will destroy a soul too, become cooperation with evil. Not only doing things can be sins, but lack of doing things.
Bodily mortification… is there a saint who did not practice it? I don’t know of any, perhaps a last minute martyr… where the pains of it were that after all. So… none.
First of all, St. John of the Cross’ case is very unique, because he was unjustly imprisoned. He had been given permission to go forward with the reform. His Provincial Superior had authorized it. Therefore, the friars who imprisoned him were transgressing against a permission that had been granted by an higher authority. John had every righ to run away.
Second, no religious founder has the auhority to damn his religious community to perdition. The Church’s law is very clear. The moment that the founder is no longer the superior, he no longer has jurisdiction over the members of his order. Therefore, it is not disobedience to follow the canonical superiors of the order or congregation. If their directives are approved by the Church and the Chatper, they carry the weight of obedience and must be obeyed.
Third, the fact that a religious superior does not allow you to do something that you consider to be good, does not mean that you have a license to do something that is wrong. A perfect example of this is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. How long did she wait for permission to go into the streets of Calcutta? Christ has asked her to do this. But the Church and her religious community denied the permission and asked her to wait. She submitted to their authority and waited. For a while it looked like it was not going to happen. Eventually it did.
The same happened with Saint Faustina. Christ asked her to foiund a congregation. But the Church and her superiors declined the permission. This was the making of her holiness. She obeyed. She reamained where she was and achieved great holiness.
Our own Padre Pio was ordered not to celebrate mass in public. He obeyed. When he was asked he would always respond with the words, “Obedience, obedience, obedience.” He was a faithful son of St. Francis. He obeyed even when it hurt.
Your concern about how much you can obey, speaking for yourself, the answer is simple. You never obey when you are asked to sin. That’s not even disobedience, because such an order is not legitimate. However, when the superior asks you for something legitimate then you are bound to obey. This was one point on which our holy Father Francis was very clear. He always said that we must obey, even when the superior was wrong, as long as the superior did not command sin. He made it a point to admonish the brothers that such obedience was not only pleasing to God, but also pleasing to man. In perfect charity one must please both. Of course, if you can’t please both, then you please God.
There are no degrees to obedience. Obedience is what it is. You surrender your will to your superior and to your brothers in chapter.
The poster asked if the Jesuits would allow him to wear a harishirt. My answer is very accurate. The Society of Jesus are Clerks Regular. This type of penance is not part of their tradition. It’s not in their statutes nor did St. Ignatius expect this of them. Therefore, it is at the discretion of the superior.
The same is true of the Franciscan family. We have never had this type of penitential practice. We have had individuals who practiced this kind of penance, but always with the permission of their major superior or at the very least the local Guardian. Even Thomas More, who did wear a hair shirt under his Franciscan habit, did so with the permission of his local minister. He wore three layers of clothing. He wore a hairshirt, the Franciscan habit and his secular clothes on top. But always with the permission of the superior. This has been the practice of the Franciscan order for 800 years. We do nothing like this without the permission of the local superior. None of the Franciscan branches have this practice as a general rule. The general practice is that penance is a constant conversion from sin toward the perfection of charity.
I don’t think that anyone would say that the Society of Jesus or the Franciscan Order is apostate or heretical. This does not deny that there are some lose canons among us. But when you have a family as large as these two families are, there are bound to be lose canons. As a whole, both of these families have been very faithful sons and daughters of the Church.
At our last chapter, April 2009, 1300 delegates representing the 1.7 million Franciscans in the world gathered for the celbration of our 800th anniversay. The one thing that Pope Benedict XVI said was, “Your Franciscan family has proven itself to be faithful and obedient sons and daughters of the Church.” Even withthout hairshirts or other corporal penances, fidelity to the Church is not compromised.
If the OP is thinking about entering the Society of Jesus, he will have to conform to their practice of penance, whatever that may be. Otherwise, why enter?
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
