Brother Bernardino Garcia Mateo, O.H.

I met Brother Bernardino Garcia Mateo in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was hailed by his community as a near-saint for his role in helping to establish the Hospidal San Juan de Dios. He was 92 when I met him and I was deeply moved when he said his greatest wish was to follow the requests of his superiors. How was I to understand that level of submission and devotion? All Catholic priests and many in religious life take a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience. 

As I investigated the topics of submission and devotion, I came to understand that this obedience is seen as freedom from self-will, imitating Christ who said, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” 1 It is also understood to be the voice of God that is coming through one’s superiors. It is seen as the opposite of blind ambition of the self. It is not meant to be blind obedience in sinful acts, which I understand the church prohibits. 

Interestingly, members of the order St. John of God also take a vow of hospitality which is directly tied to obedience in their constitution of the order: “With the vow of hospitality we dedicate ourselves, under obedience to our superiors, to helping the sick and those in need, undertaking to provide them with all those services they need, even the most humble and the most dangerous to our own lives, in imitation of Christ, who loved us even to the extent of dying for our salvation.” 2

I also found a quote from Pope John Paul II that says “…there is no contradiction between obedience and freedom...those who obey have the guarantee of truly taking part in the mission, of following the Lord and not pursuing their own desires or wishes.”3 I am most familiar with the idea of obedience from Islam where the word islam itself means submission to God. 

I see the role that submission to God plays in a life of faith even for modern progressive understandings of God and faith. There is the submission to the best and most sacred parts of ourselves, such as Judaism’s understanding of the yetzer hatov (the good inclination).

I am deeply indebted to Brother Bernardino Garcia Mateo who shared his deep faith in this one simple answer to my questions so many years ago.