Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/223

Rh promptness to obey when His voice is heard. A docile mind is always saying: "My heart is ready, my heart is ready;" "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth." These five habits will continually unfold the seven gifts in our intellect and our will, and form in us the habit of mental obedience, the rationabile obsequium, without which a priest cannot be alter Christus, or the likeness of his Master. We will therefore try to see more carefully in what this mental obedience consists.

1. First, it consists in a loving obedience to the Church. Obedience without love is a mask, not a living reality. To obey because we must, to obey for fear of penalties or censures, is not enough. The obedience of our Lord in His baptism is our example. Why was He, the sinless Son of God, baptised with a sinner's baptism? Why was He, the greater, baptised by the less, the Lord by the servant? Why was He baptised in the sight of His enemies, as if He were as they thought Him to be—a sinner, and a friend of sinners? It was that He might fulfil all justice; that humility and obedience to His Father might have their perfect work. What plea, then, can a priest ever find for disobedience? The rule, or the injunction, he may say, is needless, irksome, open to misunderstanding, emanating from