As someone who loves learning languages and linguistics, I take great pleasure in exploring the roots and origins of words. The special word of the day is obedience. This word does not simply mean to do or follow whatever a master or leader tells you. It comes from the Latin oboedire (“to hear, to listen”), from ob- (“to”) and audire (“to hear”). In Medieval English, it meant “a willingness to serve” or “to fulfill an obligation.” By around 1200, it had come to mean the “practice or virtue of submission to a higher power or authority (Harper, n.d.).”
For the Society of Jesus, obedience is at the heart of everything. It’s not passive. It's a readiness to be sent, to respond. From the time of Ignatius of Loyola, Jesuits have promised to follow God’s call through their superiors, and, in a special fourth vow, through the Pope for mission. That commitment is formed over years. It begins with two years in the novitiate, followed by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. After long formation and ministry, a Jesuit completes tertianship, the final stage. Only then, with discernment and approval, does he make final vows: the three solemn promises, and for some, a fourth vow - a radical willingness to go anywhere, for any mission, when called (JCAP, 2017).
On Easter Monday, April 6, 2026, in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at the Seven Fountains Jesuit Spirituality Centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand, something quite special took place. Fr. Manasarn Wongwarn, SJ or AKA. Fr. Yord. knelt before Fr. Miguel Garaizabal, SJ., the Regional Superior of the Jesuits in Thailand, and pronounced his final vows in the Society of Jesus. It was the obedience of a free man. One who had listened deeply for almost 26 years in the Society of Jesus, who had discerned with both mind and heart, and who finally said, with his thrust and love in God: “Here I am. Send me.”
In the time of his novitiate, the pilgrimage was one of the most meaningful moments that led Fr. Yord to a transformation and a deeper trust in God (shared by Fr. Yord). In the Jesuit novitiate, a pilgrimage is a formative spiritual experience where the novice is sent on a journey with very little money and no fixed security, relying on God’s providence and the kindness of others. This led him first to trust in himself, and gradually to trust in God’s love and providence in his life. I believe this is the source of genuine obedience. Once someone trusts in God, they will not fear to listen and follow or to say “yes” even to a difficult call, just like when you do a bungee jump and you know that the safety gear will not let you fall to the ground—and God’s love and providence are even greater than that.
This is a beautiful example of ob-audire - a listening that does not end in resignation, but in self-gift. It is a life offered with open hands, a love mature enough to follow even when it cannot see the whole road ahead, because it trusts the One who has laid it.
By Br. KAI, SJ
