In 2025, the Congregation of the Mission around the world will celebrate the 400th anniversary of its founding by St. Vincent de Paul. To commemorate that milestone, Fr. Ray Van Dorpe, C.M., is writing a monthly blog on the Vincentian vows and virtues. This month, we discuss the vow of obedience.
St. Vincent often started his conferences with a reference to the gospels, specifically the words and actions of Jesus. As with the vows of poverty and chastity, Vincent modeled his understanding of obedience on the life of Christ himself. He pointed to Jesus’ obedience to the will of his heavenly Father in all things, but most strikingly in accepting his passion and death on the cross.
In his formal conferences and writings, Vincent asked the confreres to submit to the will of their local bishops in matters of public ministry, and to their local superiors in matters of community life. To his mind, obedience to Church and community superiors seemed simple and straight forward. In the Common Rules (1658), Vincent wrote:
Every one of the Confreres should also obey the superior general promptly, without complaining, and unwaveringly in all matters not obviously sinful. This obedience is, to some extent, blind. It implies giving up our own opinion and wishes, not only with regard to what he specifically tells us but even with regard to his intention since we believe that what he asks us to do is always for the best. We should always leave ourselves open to what he wants, like a file in the hand of a carpenter. (Common Rules V, 2:121)
In practice, however, St. Vincent was not quite as strict. He often accepted and even welcomed the opinions of other confreres, and changed his mind when he heard an idea better than his own. Moreover, in his letters he understood that local superiors would be in dialogue with the confreres about certain matters, not expecting total “blind” obedience.
In our times, and especially in the United States, we are used to living in a very egalitarian society, where everyone expects their opinion to be heard with equal merit. It is unlikely that anyone would freely submit their will to another person who is equally as correct (or fallible) as they are! What about free will and free choice?
The answer may be found in the word “obedience” itself. (Warning! Nerdy etymology ahead!) The word obedience comes from two Latin words: “ob” meaning “to” and “audire” meaning “to hear.” To obey then, is to hear or listen deeply to another.
It is in this spirit that the vow of obedience is understood today. Those who take this vow today commit themselves to enter into open and responsible dialogue with the leaders of the community and to listen carefully to the opinions of others. They take an active part in consultations, assisting and contributing to community meetings.
At the end of all dialogue and consultation, once a decision has been made, the obedient Vincentian will obey decisions of superiors in the light of faith even though they may think their own opinion better. The obedient Vincentian strives to achieve unity in mind, heart and action with the rest of his confreres. In doing so, the obedient Vincentian imitates the unity of will between Jesus and his heavenly Father, which is the goal of all the vows.