Actually, he did. Be very careful not to fall into a Protestant mode of reading scripture. Jesus observed all of the Jewish prescriptions. That’s why he goes to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. That’s why he tells the Jews to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s”. Not all of the Pharisees were evil. Jesus himself may have been a Pharisee and so may have some of his Apostles.
Jesus opposed the abuse of the people. That’s why he tells them “The Shabbat was made for man, not man for the Shabbat.” In other words, the Shabbat was a means to holiness. Jesus gets into an argument with them, precisely because they want to command sin. The Shabbat was not to be used to sin. They wanted to deny food to the hungry. That is a grave sin. He never opposed the legitimate exercise of authority, be it by Rome or by the Jewish authorities.
For starters, you can be excommunicated at best. Worse case scenario, you can be committing a mortal sin and end up in hell.
Again, steer clear of Protestant spirituality. They don’t understand the spiritual life the way that the Masters taught it. I love them dearly, but they are mistaken on this one.
They confuse mistake with moral error. They are not the same. If my superior tells me to do something a certain way and I believe that there is a better way to do it, I still have to do it his way. He has the right to command and I have the obligation to obey. This is a legitimate exercise of authority. He is not commanding something sinful. He is commanding what he believes to be the best course of action. If there is a mistake, it’s a human mistake. It has nothing to do with Satan. Satan is not interested in the neutral. He goes for the jugular. He wants you to disobey. He wants you to challenge your superior and how much more you know. He wants you to nurture your pride. He wants you to enter into a conflict with your brother. This agrees with him.
That’s why the masters tell us that obedience is pleasing to God and man, because obedience is an act of love. It has nothing to do with getting it right. Pilate was wrong. Caiaphas was also wrong. But Jesus and Mary submitted to their legitimate authority. To make sure that we understood that Pilate was exercising legitimate authority, Christ says to him, “You would have no power over me, had it not been given to you from above.” Pilate had the authority to put Jesus to death. What he could not do was make Jesus commit a sin by avoiding the cross.
There are many things that are neutral, even if they are mistaken.
Moral law does not allow the Church to expel these men from the Church. They can be dismissed from the clerical state or from religious life; but they must be allowed to remain Catholic and to receive the Sacraments. Canon Lawyers are wondering if dismissing is such a good idea. It rids the Church of a problem, but it releases a person to do damage outside. Dismissal does not protect the innocent. There is a question on the table, “is there another alternative, such as confinement to a house?” The Church has never had a formal policy that promotes or defends such sins as you posted above. It’s unfair to say that. There have been and always will be individuals in authority who will make these mistakes. Do not confuse them with the Church.
Just because they’re red, does not make apples and tomatoes the same thing. The Legionnaires were bound to obey Fr. Marciel as their founder and superior on all matters where he exercised legitimate authority, even if he was mistaken. They were never bound to obey him in sinful matters. That is not the meaning of absolute obedience. Absolute obedience sorts out the sinful from the non-sinful. It complies with the non-sinful without complaining, questioning, or murmuring. It refuses to do the sinful.
Fr. Marciel was not the only sinful founder. Do you think that every founder of a religious community was a saint?
As to the current state of his soul, that’s not up to us to speculate. We would be committing a sin to do so.
One may never comply with sin. One must always submit to legitimate authority, because it is pleasing to God and man.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
If any day of the week was the best to heal someone of their affliction, that they may praise and glorify God, it would be on the Sabbath. Jesus desires works of mercy, which he did every day of the week. The accusation is ludicrous. Yet somehow there is the idea floating around that Jesus broke the Sabbath, when He is the Author of Life and the giver of the Commandments.
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