36. December 27, St John, Apostle & Evangelist (III)

Meditations no. 559 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

St Raphael people should be taught a spirit of serious work.

The just man shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow. They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. The apostle St John’s whole life was spent in God’s service. To him and to the archangel St Raphael we entrust the apostolate of forming young people.

Today we can consider his life and dwell on the special love that our Lord showed by calling him to the apostolate when still an adolescent, and his faithful response. John’s story reveals the path that the young people in the St Raphael work can follow.

From his youth John lived a life of hard work as a fisherman, which called for effort and skill. The St Raphael people must also be formed in a spirit of work. Industriousness is a basic virtue that we have to teach them right from the start. For only a person who works is capable of understanding and living our ideal. Consequently, in the human aspect, we first teach the St Raphael people a great sense of responsibility by helping them to recognize the serious obligation that they have to study or to work and to sanctify themselves in the fulfilment of this basic duty. We thereby foster in their young hearts the human virtues that are a necessary basis for cultivating the supernatural virtues. We want to prepare them so that the love of God can take root in them. Then, planted in the house of the Lord, as we read in the Psalm, they will become as sturdy as the cedars of Lebanon and grow in works of service to the Church and to all souls.

Our Father writes: They must realize that they are actively involved in something very important. They come to prepare themselves to become good parents later on, or if God so desires, to be completely dedicated to his service. Consequently they are expected to make a serious effort; they must have a sense of responsibility which is the start of a commitment.

When a university student behaves as the “child of a well-to-do family,” by being irresponsible and infantile, he cannot be expected to suddenly become a man upon finishing his studies, simply because he has a professional degree.

Something similar can be said about young people at any social level. “Truly an abandoned youth is like uncultivated land that produces only thorns” (St John Chrysostom, In Matth. hom. 49, 6). Such then is our mission, that of forming mature men and women by cultivating the land, so that it can bear fruit.

In the St Raphael work we foster human ideals and virtues, in order to supernaturalize them.

In addition to working hard, in his early youth John had already become a disciple of John the Baptist, that man of God who preached interior conversion and penance, lived a sober life, and prepared the paths of the Lord.

We strive to guide the young people with whom we are dealing along the path of noble ideals. They should be forewarned of the danger of being content with strictly personal and selfish goals. It may well be that they will have to overcome obstacles and practice self-denial in order to excel. But if they are working only for themselves, their efforts will be humanly and supernaturally barren.

The St Raphael people must be taught to think about others. They need a generous heart; filled with great ideals of service. Our founder wrote in 1935: Foster all the fellows’ noble ambitions, while supernaturalising them. They are right; they ought to be learned, daring and holy. Remind them, in every way possible, that they cannot remain in the crowd, because they were born to be leaders.

They cannot be allowed to set themselves a mediocre, comfortable goal. Their ideals must be deeply Christian. And as we encourage them to be more generous, we awaken in their hearts a desire to give themselves and a longing for love and for souls.

When noble ambitions exist, it is easier to supernaturalize them. When people have a narrow outlook, with no real interests beyond their own pleasure or entertainment, it is practically impossible to improve their Christian formation. Our Father wrote, We must help people to escape from a foolish frivolousness, which is something useless and always dangerous. We must act to make young people of every age develop their capacity to face the world’s problems. This is best accomplished by an encouraging tone rather than a threatening one, which awakens their noble ambitions and sets in motion a generation that is waiting to be led.

The Church stands in great need of this passionate and urgent task. It should hurt us to see so much youthful energy being lost and misdirected because no one has shown them a worthwhile ideal. Young people are ever ready to follow such an ideal if helped to discover it in all of its beauty. Consider how even children, particularly nowadays, dream of excitement, adventure, triumph. But not adventures of the spirit, which are either unfamiliar to them or seem too difficult, or even worse, young people are no longer even able to recognise them.

For the general tone of the civilization that surrounds us has altered attitudes toward many things that could be different and should have been given a different direction: the meaning of sanctified and sanctifying work; the meaning of the personal projection of our supernatural ideals in a world of work that is carried out with perfection; the effectiveness of efficient and organized upright behaviour.

We will get them to realize that no noble human path is closed to finding God. Rather, all such paths are ready for a positive response, provided that youth knows how to free itself from the intoxication spread by materialistic solutions to life.

Through our formative efforts we help St Raphael people acquire interior life.

We must help young people supernaturalize their human virtues by sowing in their hearts a noble longing to serve. Do the St Raphael work in such a way that young people, in childhood or adolescence, feel moved by the ideal to seek Christ, to find Christ, to deal with Christ, to follow Christ, to love Christ, to remain with Christ.

While divine grace acts in their souls, wait patiently until the moment comes for them to encounter the Teacher, when they have the generosity and love needed to follow his voice: veni sequere me (Mt 19: 21). Come, follow me, renouncing so many things that are licit for others.

From the start of the St Raphael work, carried out with the first few fellows in my mother’s home, I have always recalled St John the apostle’s hunger for truth. It is the same hunger that clean youths and adolescents of every epoch have felt when their eyes have opened to the realities of the world.

Stirred by their hunger for truth, they approached the itinerant teacher, John the Baptist. Then respiciens Iesum ambulantem (Jn 1: 36). Jesus passed by, and John the Baptist exclaimed, Ecce Agnus Dei (Jn 1: 36). Behold the Lamb of God. Two of John the Baptist disciples, John and Andrew, hearing those words, secuti sunt Iesum (Jn 1: 37). They followed Jesus.

Our Lord asks them, ‘What do you want?’ Their answer, not entirely logical, is Rabbi, ubi habitas (Jn 1: 38)? Teacher, where do you live? Jesus tells them, Venite et videte (Jn 1: 39). Come and see. John and Andrew go with him. They see where he lives and spend the day with him.

Their conversation must have been lengthy, and love must have sunk deep into John’s young heart. When he recounts his divine adventure many years later, those pages of the Gospel are as fresh and fragrant as an affectionate diary. Hora autem erat quasi decima (Jn 1: 39). It was about four o’clock in the afternoon, he writes. He recalls the very moment when Jesus, seeing that they were following him, videns eos sequentem se (Jn 1: 38), invited them to come with him.

Our work of formation must lead souls to a personal encounter with our Lord. Otherwise we will have worked in vain. The St Raphael people have to acquire interior life, a life of prayer, friendship with Christ. They must learn to speak to our Lord personally, face to face, valiantly and sincerely. Thus they will be able to respond to God’s call. Encouraged by our friendship they will begin to feel sincerely attracted to the spirit of Opus Dei. On observing our exclusively spiritual way of studying and solving problems, they will begin to have a human admiration for our path, which will be the basis for teaching them supernatural ideals. We will teach them a great Love for freedom accompanied by personal responsibility, with a desire to become good Christians, and perhaps later on to give themselves generously to God’s service as members of his Work.

On the other hand, there are many young fellows who will never be led to face the question of a personal vocation or “dedication” of any sort. These can be collaborators, or continue simply as good friends who willingly help out in our human and spiritual tasks. In any case, it is clear that those who come to be formed at our side experience a change, an interior jolt, that will lead many to change their lives. And all of them will become more aware of their obligation to try to live as good Catholics.

St John brought our Lady into his home. He dealt with her as a son, and learned from her how to be faithful to Jesus Christ’s love. Through our devotion to our Mother we too will find new strength for carrying out the St Raphael work with the intensity and depth that God expects.