Good Order and Discipline

It’s a common phrase you would hear in a military environment. Soldiers must perform tasks and carry out missions in an orderly fashion, or following the correct order--and they must have the discipline to stick to the routine which produces an ordered result. I want to talk about order a bit more this week and bring a larger conceptual framework to this term. I’m not talking about just a good routine; for example, I do A first, then I do B, then I do C. I’m referring to the natural order, which is united with and points to the supernatural order, a life “ordered” to a certain end, which is ultimately union with Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit in Heaven.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, at the time) in The Spirit of the Liturgy, spoke of two terms which describe the essential directions of the movements of our lives each week: Exitus and Reditus. He describes Exitus as a “going out” and Reditus as “a returning to”. These terms are useful as we think about the order of our day and the order of our week. We begin the day with the rising of the sun (Son); we commune with Him in prayer, then go out (Exitus) to do His work in our daily vocation (Eph 2:10). We progress through our day with the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Then we begin to return to our homes at the end of the day (Reditus); in the evening, we return to where we began with Christ. He gives us rest, and then we begin again. Our weeks follow this order, as well. We begin with worshipping God on Sunday, the first day of the week, communing with Him, and contemplating “with a festive spirit,” as Joseph Pieper said in Leisure the Basis of Culture. We then move out to do His work (Exitus) through the week, and as the week progresses, we begin the return to the great day of worship and rest (Reditus). This is the natural order, created by God, which enables us to know Him and to live fully--to flourish. Are you aware of this order? This week, begin anew with Sunday and start to live this order, God’s order. It will change your life!