43. December 31

Meditations no. 38 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

At the end of the year, a chance to take stock.

On this last day of December, people often take stock of what they have done during the year just ending. They consider the results, to see what needs to be changed, and they make plans for the year ahead. In a sense this event is just a convention and really only involves the passing of another day. However, it prompts nearly everyone to consider, in some sort of way, the fact that time and life are slipping by. We want to consider this now, in God’s presence, from a supernatural perspective, and with our sights fixed on the goal of our lives. In our Father’s words, another year gone by is a step nearer to heaven.

We make use of this occasion to review the year gone by, a year that has brought us closer to heaven. God gave us these past twelve months so that, like Jesus Christ, we could grow in wisdom and in years, and in favour with God and men. He wants to be able to say to each one of us: Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.

This requires on our part a careful examination of conscience, since the sanctity asked of God’s children in Opus Dei is a definite, practical sanctity, which is shown in daily actions, constantly. It is not a vague abstraction, but a well-defined reality, both divine and human. To attain this sanctity, all you need to do is to fulfil our Norms lovingly; to practise our Customs lovingly, to love Christ’s Cross, and to place yourself lovingly beside your heavenly Mother.

Contrition for what we haven’t done well, and gratitude for so many good things.

In the presence of God, we should weigh up all the little things that have gone to make up our journey during the year just ending.

How often Christ has been beside us, and we have failed to recognize him! How often he has been hoping for a word or a glance from us! How often he has offered us his Cross and we have been afraid to embrace it! These were omissions, failures to love.

And how have we carried out our duties? How have we fulfilled our Norms, and looked after our Customs? Have we finished off the tasks we began so enthusiastically? Have we turned our resolutions into deeds? And what about the souls that God placed beside us? Have we brought them to Christ, through our prayer and sacrifice, through our example and our conversation?

We want to ask pardon for what we have left undone or what we have done badly: for the times we have lacked love. But our sorrow springs from love. During this Christmas period, the mystery of the Incarnation reminds us that Jesus Christ has come to reconcile us to God by obtaining forgiveness for our sins. As St Paul writes, the Incarnation was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he … passed over former sins.

In spite of our failures to respond to grace as we should have done, we also find many reasons to be thankful at the end of this year. Closely united to our Father in heaven, we thank God for the special love he has shown us in calling us to this divine path of the Work. We thank him for having helped us to persevere faithfully for another year. We thank him for the new vocations that have come, the apostolic works he has made fruitful, and the souls who have drawn near to the light and warmth of the Work.

We give thanks for the formation we have received, for the help which the others in the Work have given us, and for all the loving concerns God our Father has showered upon us, etiam ignotis: even the ones we don’t know about. And we thank him for having blessed the Father by filling his life with faithfulness and love.

Te Deum laudamus. We praise you, Lord, from the depths of our soul. We give you thanks, quoniam bonus, because you are good. And every day we bless you. And we praise your name throughout the ages.

Renewing our interior life: a new year, a new struggle.

Do you remember that popular saying, my child: a new year, a new life? I have never believed it. All years are the same. For me, a new year is a new struggle! Our Father insists: For us, who must begin anew each day, a new year means a new struggle.

To renew our fight is the best way of showing that our resolutions are real. Some people may ask: a new struggle? But didn’t our Lord come to bring peace? If his words are words of peace, why do we talk about fighting?

Let me read you some words from St Matthew, chapter 10, verse 34: Nolite arbitrari quia pacem venerim mittere in terram… Do not think that I have come to bring peace, but war. Few people understand that in order to have peace, war is necessary. First, war on our own selves, on our passions. Haven’t you personally experienced this struggle, this Christian struggle, which consists in overcoming yourself and preparing to be a soul who serves? You will be souls who serve, if you stay close to God, if you seek him in the Bread and in the Word. I always tell you the same thing: seek him in the Eucharist and in prayer …

Love God’s Church. Love the Roman Pontiff. Love souls, and don’t worry! For if we are faithful, God is even more faithful than we poor men. Everything will work out; everything will be put right in this world around us …

I have already told you the way to keep and increase this faithfulness which God asks of us. The key is intimate friendship with Jesus, getting close to him in the Bread and in the Word. Now I also remind you of the need for obedience, in these times of universal protest; obedience which our love will make easy: Iugum enim meum suave est.

Would you like to examine your conscience, personally? Each one of you examine your own conscience. I’m not giving a meditation. I’m thinking out loud in a get-together, so that each of you can later consider these ideas before God, assimilating them personally. I’ll say to each one of you: See how my things and your things are going. We each have to discover where our own problems lie, so that we can find a remedy, so that we can really struggle; so that all of us can intensify the interior battle wherever we need it most, with the help of God’s grace.

We will make requests on behalf of the Work, my children. Be very closely united to the Father’s intentions, to the Father’s Mass. Every day I say Mass with - how shall I put it? - greater intensity, even to the point of pain. It seems to me that it makes me more Christ. And we will spread this river of peace - I leave you peace, my peace I give you; there is no contradiction here - a river of peace that stems from our interior struggle, from the battle we must engage in - I say it once again - to serve the Church, to love her, to defend her, insofar as we are able …

There is no contradiction here, my children: we all agree that Christ brought war as well as peace; we see no incompatibility between peace and war. On the contrary, peace is a consequence of war, of struggle. Instead of saying “a new year, a new life,” we prefer to say, “a new struggle”. Because those who say “a new life” will probably not improve their lives. They forget that for a new life, a new struggle is needed. Don’t you agree? Consider all the reasons I have given you, as well as the many others you will find on your own.

A new struggle, now that a new year is beginning.

A renewed effort, full of trust, because our Mother is beside us. We tell her: Holy Mary, our refuge and our strength, be our Star throughout this year which is about to begin!