It’s the Feast of Christ the King this Sunday, so I thought we’d have a chat about obedience.
In case you’ve forgotten, that’s when someone in authority tells you to do something, and you do it.
You might not want to do it, but it’s your job and your duty. You submit your judgement to someone else’s.
It’s not just going along with others; that’s compliance. Obedience means following an order, not simply complying with a request.
It also means you listen to someone of a higher status than you, rather than an equal.
Our faith as Catholics has a lot to do with obedience—literally ob-audire, which means “to hear or listen to”: in faith. The Catechism describes this (144-149).
But obedience is now totally out of style. It’s not taught to either children or dogs, with very public results.
People don’t like it because they think it involves blind faith and not thinking about things before you do them.
And yet most of us have a boss. We know that good bosses always delegate, so we often take orders from someone below them.
This is exactly what Jesus Christ, the universal king, has done. He has delegated his governing power to the bishops of the church.
You owe them obedience, especially your local bishop when he’s just trying to do his job.
Here’s a case in point: US Bishop Shawn McKnight of Missouri.
Bishop Shawn is a huge fan of synodality and has written in America magazine about it.
He spent a year consulting with his Diocesan Liturgical Commission and his council of priests. Then he decided to act in what he believed were the best interests of his diocese.
On 24 October, the bishop banned the use of 12 hymns that were already deemed “doctrinally problematic” by the US Catholic Bishops Conference.
Bishop Shawn also banned all use of the musical works of David Haas, Cesaréo Gabarain, and Ed Conlin, due to credible accusations of abuse against them.
He then recommended some good modern Mass settings that were singable, sound, and popular.
The only hymn on the banned list that I knew was “All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen, but I notice that two of Bernadette Farrell’s works were also there.
Was this edict welcomed in his diocese? Hell, no.
I could have warned the bishop that church music is the single most divisive issue you can broach in the modern church today.
The hurt-feelings brigade went feral on social media. They accused him of a lack of synodality.
So, Bishop Shawn—who clearly has a loving heart—listened. In response, he has now begun a year-long consultation process with music ministries across his diocese.
He’s still banned the works of the sexual abusers, and he also got his Mass settings across the line.
But some of his flock have chosen Marty Haugen as the hill on which they choose to die.
So, what’s this got to do with obedience? Quite a lot.
The complainers could have reflected on the importance of good doctrine in the liturgy before they went feral.
But they didn’t, because church music today is largely about feelings. If a hymn makes you feel good, then it must be morally good.
Bishop Shawn, on the other hand, has been a model of obedience. He’s obeying the Holy Father in trying to use a more consultative approach in leadership.
He’s also listening to a call from the laity to hear them out. The real test will be what happens at the end of this year of consultation.
Bishop Shawn now has an extra year in which to teach his people—all of them—why good doctrine matters in hymns.
At the end of this process, he may well decide to ban those hymns after all, hopefully with increased lay support.
Ideally everyone will also have been better catechised. So how will the hurt feelings brigade respond then?
This is a battle about teaching clear doctrine in the liturgy—which is exactly a bishop’s job.
Some people in the church have forgotten this. They think the bishop’s job is to smile in confirmation photos and cut birthday cakes with 100-year-old nuns.
This is not how the church was founded, and it’s not how it’s going to continue. Bishops are there to govern, teach, and sanctify us.
Next liturgical year is the year of Luke. He tells us (Luke 10, Luke 12) that Jesus has some stinging things to say about people who won’t obey his delegated authorities.
You might want to think about that.