Obedience is poverty of ourselves. It is said to be the most difficult thing, because while it is easy enough to renounce something or someone outside of ourselves, renouncing ourselves seems hard.
Maybe this is because we have not understood how necessary and constructive this renunciation is. The greatest limits to our personal freedom come from attachment to ourselves. We tend, as creatures, to affirm ourselves over and against others, while the law of life is to renounce our selves to affirm others...
What is obedience in the final analysis? Complete charity. When you are completely love, you cannot be otherwise than totally obedient, because you no longer do your will, but the will of the other, you do not follow your own idea, you try to support the ideas of others. And if by chance the neighbour who is beside you or who lives with you does the same in your regard, in this exchange of love, there is Love. It is therefore no longer your idea or the idea of the other, your will or the will of the other that emerges, but the will of God.
Silvano Cola
Scritti e testimonianze
Gen’s, Grottaferrata 2007, pp. 74-75