Southern American poet Archibald Rutledge wrote that one day he met a man whose dog had just been killed in a forest fire. Heartbroken, the man explained how it happened. Because he worked outdoors, the man often took his dog with him. That morning, he left the animal in a clearing and gave him a command to stay and watch his lunch bucket while he went into the forest. His faithful friend understood and did exactly that. Then a fire started in the woods, and soon the blaze spread to the spot where the dog had been left. But the dog did not move. He stayed right where his master had said, in perfect obedience. With tearful eyes, the dog’s owner said, “I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it.”
The inspiring loyalty and obedience of a dog – who did what he was told to do and who was faithful to duty, no matter what – opens our consideration today on the meaning of, the rationale behind, and the role model for the practice of obedience in the Legion. In other words, I would to reflect today on the “what,” the “why,” and the “who” of Legionary obedience.
Regarding the “what” or the meaning of obedience, the Handbook defines this virtue as the “fruit of loyalty” and the “readiness to accept situations and decisions” (H, 171) linked to our Legion life with its double demand: submission not just with our bodies, but also with our hearts. This means that members, in a “spirit of heroic and sweet docility to proper authority of every sort” (H, 171), must physically do what the Legion system, the Legion Handbook, and the Legion officers ask. At the same time, they must also “accept [all of it] cheerfully” (H, 171). And this means more than a grudging adherence or a “going through the motions” in embracing duty, but engaging everything – even that which one may not like or agree – with joy and without the least evidence of attitudes, such as “I don’t like this” or “I don’t agree with this” or “I am only doing this because I have to.” We must obey with love!
After giving the “what,” the Handbook goes on to indirectly treat the “why” of obedience. And it does so by appealing to the image of an army and raising the issue of unity. How effective would a military force be without obedience? What chaos would result if each soldier did what he or she wanted, acted individually, and only followed the commands he or she liked? What kind of strategy could be executed if a percentage, feeling they knew better than the officers, decided to try their own plan of attack? The campaign would end in absolute disaster, and lives would inevitably be lost. The point and the warning in enlisting this military metaphor is that similar results await the Legion if each member takes any other approach than obedience: lives – souls – precious to Jesus and Mary could sadly be lost because members did not “attack” in unison, abiding by Legion discipline. And this is something the Legion and the Christian cannot afford.
Lastly, there is the “who” of obedience or identifying a role model of living out this virtue. Several years ago, Fr. Bede McGregor, spiritual director of the Concilium Legionis, gave a beautiful allocutio on Mary’s Fiat at the Annunciation. In it, he remarked that “[The Holy Trinity] built salvation, not only on [Mary’s] body, but on her will, as well.” Fr. McGregor’s words remind us that Mary is the model of the Legion’s doubly-demanding obedience. After all, she not only gave God her body as “the handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38), but she also gave Him her heart when she declared “let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). In this, Mary becomes our Legion template in “doing whatever Jesus tells us” (cf. John 2:5). Just as Mary physically carried out the Lord’s plan AND did whatever was asked of her with a spirit that “rejoiced in God, [her] Savior” (Luke 1:46), so should we.
Legion members, that is the “what,” the “why,” and the “who” of Legionary obedience. How well are we living this? Do we do what we are asked – by the Handbook, by the Officers, by the Church by the Spiritual Director? Are we doing it all with loving, joyful acceptance – which means without complaint, comment, or compromise? We may not always like our assignments, we may not always agree with the list of approved Legion works, we may not always find the Legion system palatable in parts, and we may not always understand a certain teaching or caution on the part of the Magisterium. We may even think that “we know better” and give into the temptation to start doing things our own way, believing it does not matter. But it does matter. For the same rationale that justifies disobedience in small things will soon justify disobedience in larger things. That will only lead to disobedience in all things … and disarray in our fight for souls!
I want to conclude today with the words spoken by St. Padre Pio on this very topic: “Where there is no obedience, there is no virtue. Where there is no virtue, there is no good. Where good is wanting, there is no love, there is no God. And where God is not, there is no Heaven.” And, friends, from what we know of the Handbook, where “obedience is not,” neither will the Legion be! May obedience – our “dogged” fidelity to what the Legion asks us to do – be the cement that keeps our Legion edifice standing and strong!
Philadelphia Senatus, Rev. Frank Giuffre
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Reading: Handbook, Chapter 29/”Legionary Loyalty”