Obedience Over Sacrifice

The question of the value of sacrifice (burnt offering) over obedience dates way back into the Old Testament.  Samuel took King Saul to task for disobeying God by taking sheep and oxen and  sacrificing the best of them, but keeping the rest. Saul's reasoning seemed to make sense, but contradicted the command not to take any spoil from the defeated enemy. "Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission [better] than the fat of rams." (1 Sam 15: 22). This is a hard lesson even for us today.  Obedience in an age of individualism and "self-actualization" is not a popular virtue. We pride ourselves on making proper decisions, many times according to our norms, and not the objective norms given to us by God as in the Ten Commandments.  Lying and stealing are rationalized "for the good of the party"  or for the "security of the nation."  At the same time, the law of love...of charity toward neighbor supplants the law as in the case of driving a person who suddenly becomes ill to the Emergency Room just as the last Mass is about to begin.  The driver misses Mass, but has saved the life of the sick person.  Keeping in mind always the spirit of love puts obedience into the context of obedience to a higher law and becomes a "sacrifice of love, of time," and a gift of presence.
Bro. Rene