“In All Obedience” (Day 31 of the Holy Rule)

"Because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me." (John 6:38).

The third degree of humility is submission to the will of your superiors as demonstrated by Jesus of Nazareth both towards his earthly parents and His Father in Heaven.

We all have a master because the world both preceeded and follows after us, which means that we are a member to the world.   Every man has a father.  And many, in turn, eventually have sons themselves.  Obedience is naturally expected of us if we are to survive in infancy and old age.

We thus are not at the head of the world but somewhat in between.  We are thrown "in media res", or in the thick of it.  

Every great man inherited something-- wealth, talent, good genes, health, what have you-- and the greatest of the world's men leave a legacy that outlives them.  Now, if this is so for the worldlings, whose goods are "motheaten" as the Lord says, then what of the man of immense spiritual fortune?

Let us not be "self-made" men who fantastically believe that their good luck was of their own design as if they created themselves or their opportunities ex nihilo.

Only God can truly create.  We are meant rather to obey-- that is, to listen, to observe, to fulfill.