Speaking to the College of Cardinals on Christmas Eve in 192l, Pope Benedict XV, of happy memory, stated that five great plagues were at present afflicting humanity. The first, he said: "Is the unprecedented challenge to authority."

That statement is as true today as it was in 192l. Parental, civil, and ecclesiastical authority are all being challenged because so many people have forgotten the meaning of the virtue of obedience. Lacking this virtue, they are like the devil, who said to God: "I will not serve." 

St. Thomas does not hesitate to say that, after the virtue of religion, obedience is the most perfect of all of the moral virtues, for the reason that it unites us more closely to God than any other virtue, inasmuch as obedience detaches us from our own will, which is the main obstacle to union with God. Obedience is one of the most difficult of virtues because it is that one that comes hardest to human nature, precisely because we are so much attached to our own will. We don’t like to take orders. It reminds us of the Colonel in the Army who gave a talk to each group arriving at the replacement center. Among other things, he would say, "There are two little letters you had better keep in mind while in the Army: "O" and "O" – Obey Orders. If we don’t have discipline, we don’t have an Army; we have a mob."

Let’s look a little closer at this virtue called obedience. All authority comes from God. When we obey legitimate authority, it is the same as obeying God. There is our supernatural motive for obedience. We obey in order to please God. A person with the spirit of obedience obeys promptly, without reservations, perseveringly and even cheerfully.

The place to begin the lesson of obedience is in the home from the child's earliest years. I need not tell you that in many homes today there are children who are undisciplined, spoiled little dictators. If they don't learn to obey orders at home, how do you expect them to obey orders in school? So, if your children come home and complain that they were disciplined by Teacher, don't blame Teacher, and don't blame Johnny or Susie, blame yourselves because you most probably failed to teach them the virtue of obedience at home. If your children don't learn to obey at home, how are you going to expect them to obey the Church, carrying out the Commandments of God and all that is implied in keeping the moral law? If, after they get away from your apron strings, they lose the Faith, don't blame them or the Church, blame yourselves, because you probably failed to teach them obedience. And don't blame the state, either, if they run afoul of the law, because most probably you failed to teach them obedience.

Obedience is a wonderful virtue: it offers us perfect safety. Left to ourselves, we would be wondering which would be the most perfect course to take, whereas obedience by determining what is our duty in every instance, points out to us the surest way to heaven. In our religious life, how grand it is that we don't have to examine every rule minutely or have to figure out by ourselves what is necessary. Should I fast or not? Should I go to Mass on Sundays, or not? Etc.

Remember also, that no virtue is acquired overnight. You must work at acquiring the virtue of obedience. Ours should be the spirit of St. Ignatius: "Receive, O Lord, all my liberty. Take my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. Whatever I have, whatever I possess, Thou hast given me. I restore it all to Thee."