The Loving Response of Obedience

"[The breaking of the first covenant] is a situation that comes after the failure of the test connected with the tree of the knowlege of good and evil, which was at the same time the first test of 'obedience,' that is, of hearing the Word in all its truth and of accepting Love according to the fullness of the demands of the creative Will." TOB 11:4

I was struck first of all by the capitalization of Love. Now that sounds very English teachery of me, but it has a great significance. We only capitalize very specific things, the beginnings of sentences, proper names, and places. Love is capitalized because it refers directly to God. Deus Caritas Est.

JP II sees obedience as hearing and accepting Love. Obedience, then, is our response to love. Within that loving response, I spoke last time is also the obedience of God's Will. Obedience and love, then, are intimately connected and intertwined. This connection frees the concept of obedience from oppresiveness, anger, and fear. It connects it rather to a loving response to God's call.

This seems appropriate to today's feast, the Annunciation.  No person in history, other than her Son, showed a loving response of obedience to God's call than Mary.  Mary's obedience became the opposite of Eve's disobedience.  She hears the Word of truth from the proclamation of Gabriel and accepts Love not only in her heart but in her womb.  She literally embodies and houses Love due to her fiat.  Let her be the exemplar for us as we look for freedom in obedience.