All clergy have the special canonical obligation to show reverence and obedience to their ordinary and the pope. They bind themselves to this promise freely and publicly during their diaconal or priestly ordination. The ecclesiastical legislator gave the liturgical ceremony a normative form in can. 273 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. In this paper, the author presents the sources of the canon in question, presents a canonical analysis, places it into canonical context, and defines individual terms according to how the ecclesiastical legislator understood them.