Celebrant without chasuble?

[wasserfall]

As to my vow of obedience, it is not obedience created in a vaccume. My vow of obedience is foremost to Christ, and then to the Abbot of the community in conjuction with relationship to the community as a whole. Obedience is born through this relationship and is tested / discerned in community within the community as a whole. Obedience is not blind for each member is called and is given gifts from God to building up the body of Christ; so from the most senior member to the youngest novice their voices must be hear so that truth may be known and manifested so that obedience may be lived out.

Obedience to your superior and to the Church is obedience to Christ. Christ’s will is that you obey the Church and your superior, so it is not possible to obey Christ by disobeying the Church or your superior. There is absolutely no place for ‘discernment’ about the extent of your obedience.

”The obedience which we render to a superior is paid to God, Who says, ‘He that hears you hears Me;’ so that whatever he who holds the place of God commands, supposing it is not evidently contrary to God’s law, is to be received by us as if it came from God Himself; for it is the same thing to know His Will, either from His Own, from an Angel’s, or from a man’s mouth.”
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church

”Saint Paul commands us to obey all superiors, even those who are bad. Our Blessed Saviour, His Virgin Mother, and Saint Joseph have taught us this kind of obedience in the journey they took from Nazareth to Bethlehem, when Caesar published an edict that his subjects should repair to the place of their nativity to be enrolled. They complied with this order with the most affectionate obedience, though the Emperor was a pagan and an idolator, so desirous was Our Lord of showing us that we should never regard the persons of those who command, provided they be invested with sufficient authority.”
-Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church

”The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility.”
-Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church

”See God in your superiors; so shall you learn to revere their will and follow their commands. Be well assured that obedience is the safest guide and most faithful interpreter of the Divine Will. Pour out your hearts to them as freely as water, mindful that they are charged with the direction of your souls. . . . Above all, do not be your own master, relying on your own prudence, contrary to the caution of the wise man.”
–Saint Ignatius, Father of the Church

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

Obedience to your superior and to the Church is obedience to Christ. Christ’s will is that you obey the Church and your superior, so it is not possible to obey Christ by disobeying the Church or your superior. There is absolutely no place for ‘discernment’ about the extent of your obedience.

”The obedience which we render to a superior is paid to God, Who says, ‘He that hears you hears Me;’ so that whatever he who holds the place of God commands, supposing it is not evidently contrary to God’s law, is to be received by us as if it came from God Himself; for it is the same thing to know His Will, either from His Own, from an Angel’s, or from a man’s mouth.”
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Father and Doctor of the Church

”Saint Paul commands us to obey all superiors, even those who are bad. Our Blessed Saviour, His Virgin Mother, and Saint Joseph have taught us this kind of obedience in the journey they took from Nazareth to Bethlehem, when Caesar published an edict that his subjects should repair to the place of their nativity to be enrolled. They complied with this order with the most affectionate obedience, though the Emperor was a pagan and an idolator, so desirous was Our Lord of showing us that we should never regard the persons of those who command, provided they be invested with sufficient authority.”
-Saint Francis of Sales, Doctor of the Church

”The more we see that any action springs not from the motive of obedience, the more evident is it that it is a temptation of the enemy; for when God sends an inspiration, the very first effect of it is to infuse a spirit of docility.”
-Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church

”See God in your superiors; so shall you learn to revere their will and follow their commands. Be well assured that obedience is the safest guide and most faithful interpreter of the Divine Will. Pour out your hearts to them as freely as water, mindful that they are charged with the direction of your souls. . . . Above all, do not be your own master, relying on your own prudence, contrary to the caution of the wise man.”
–Saint Ignatius, Father of the Church

These quotes about unquestioning obedience to superiors - “even those who are bad” - ring pretty hollow in the wake of the cover-ups of the abuse scandals, to say nothing of what we learned in the Nuremburg trials after World War II.

 

[wasserfall]

These quotes about unquestioning obedience to superiors - “even those who are bad” - ring pretty hollow in the wake of the cover-ups of the abuse scandals, to say nothing of what we learned in the Nuremburg trials after World War II.

It is understood by all of these authors, and presumed to be understood by the readers, that commands to sin are not subject to obedience. It goes without saying.