Whether the Vow of Obedience Is the Chief of the Three Religious Vows?
Objection 1: It would seem that the vow of obedience is not the chief
of the three religious vows. For the perfection of the religious life
was inaugurated by Christ. Now Christ gave a special counsel of
poverty; whereas He is not stated to have given a special counsel of
obedience. Therefore the vow of poverty is greater than the vow of
obedience.
Obj. 2: Further, it is written (Ecclus. 26:20) that "no price is
worthy of a continent soul." Now the vow of that which is more worthy
is itself more excellent. Therefore the vow of continence is more
excellent than the vow of obedience.
Obj. 3: Further, the greater a vow the more indispensable it would
seem to be. Now the vows of poverty and continence "are so
inseparable from the monastic rule, that not even the Sovereign
Pontiff can allow them to be broken," according to a Decretal (De
Statu Monach., cap. Cum ad monasterium): yet he can dispense a
religious from obeying his superior. Therefore it would seem that the
vow of obedience is less than the vow of poverty and continence.
_On the contrary,_ Gregory says (Moral. xxxv, 14): "Obedience is
rightly placed before victims, since by victims another's flesh, but
by obedience one's own will, is sacrificed." Now the religious vows
are holocausts, as stated above (AA. 1, 3, ad 6). Therefore the vow
of obedience is the chief of all religious vows.
_I answer that,_ The vow of obedience is the chief of the three
religious vows, and this for three reasons.
First, because by the vow of obedience man offers God something
greater, namely his own will; for this is of more account than his
own body, which he offers God by continence, and than external
things, which he offers God by the vow of poverty. Wherefore that
which is done out of obedience is more acceptable to God than that
which is done of one's own will, according to the saying of Jerome
(Ep. cxxv ad Rustic Monach.): "My words are intended to teach you not
to rely on your own judgment": and a little further on he says: "You
may not do what you will; you must eat what you are bidden to eat,
you may possess as much as you receive, clothe yourself with what is
given to you." Hence fasting is not acceptable to God if it is done
of one's own will, according to Isa. 58:3, "Behold in the day of your
fast your own will is found."
Secondly, because the vow of obedience includes the other vows, but
not vice versa: for a religious, though bound by vow to observe
continence and poverty, yet these also come under obedience, as well
as many other things besides the keeping of continence and poverty.
Thirdly, because the vow of obedience extends properly to those acts
that are closely connected with the end of religion; and the more
closely a thing is connected with the end, the better it is.
It follows from this that the vow of obedience is more essential to
the religious life. For if a man without taking a vow of obedience
were to observe, even by vow, voluntary poverty and continence, he
would not therefore belong to the religious state, which is to be
preferred to virginity observed even by vow; for Augustine says (De
Virgin. xlvi): "No one, methinks, would prefer virginity to the
monastic life." [*St. Augustine wrote not _monasterio_ but
_martyrio_--to "martyrdom"; and St. Thomas quotes the passage
correctly above, Q. 124, A. 3, and Q. 152, A. 5].
Reply Obj. 1: The counsel of obedience was included in the very
following of Christ, since to obey is to follow another's will.
Consequently it is more pertinent to perfection than the vow of
poverty, because as Jerome, commenting on Matt. 19:27, "Behold we
have left all things," observes, "Peter added that which is perfect
when he said: And have followed Thee."
Reply Obj. 2: The words quoted mean that continence is to be
preferred, not to all other acts of virtue, but to conjugal chastity,
or to external riches of gold and silver which are measured by weight
[*_Pondere,_ referring to the Latin _ponderatio_ in the Vulgate,
which the Douay version renders "price."]. Or again continence is
taken in a general sense for abstinence from all evil, as stated
above (Q. 155, A. 4, ad 1).
Reply Obj. 3: The Pope cannot dispense a religious from his vow of
obedience so as to release him from obedience to every superior in
matters relating to the perfection of life, for he cannot exempt him
from obedience to himself. He can, however, exempt him from
subjection to a lower superior, but this is not to dispense him from
his vow of obedience.
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