73. First Wednesday of Lent

Meditations no. 119 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Our Lord wishes us to share in the task of redemption.

We are encouraged to persevere in our deeds of penance during this Lent, as we are presented with those passages of Scripture that relate God’s compassion for the inhabitants of the great city of Nineveh. For when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil that he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.

We can stop now to consider one particular aspect of this lesson in divine mercy. It was God’s design to forgive those people if they were repentant; and in order to move them to penance, he made use of a chosen man, a prophet. The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Ever since Jesus redeemed us by his blood and established a new order on earth, all of us have been called to cooperate in the salvation of all men and women, in union with Christ. And for those of us who have received a calling to Opus Dei, this mission is not just a good task, or even an urgent one. It is an imperative command of Christ.

Is it possible, our Father asked, that Christ has been working on earth for so many years - twenty centuries - and the world is still like this? How is it possible that even now there are still people who do not know Christ? It is our fault. We have been called to co-redeem, and sometimes we do not do God’s will. In opposition to God’s will to redeem the world, there is Satan - who does exist, together with his evil spirits -and also our own evil passions and our freedom, with which we have the terrible capacity to choose death instead of Life.

But Christ has not failed, our Founder added. His word and his life continue to enrich the world. Christ’s work, which his Father entrusted to him, is being carried out. His power runs right through history, bringing true life with it, and when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to everyone.

Even now, Christ who hung on the Cross with his arms open wide, in the gesture of an Eternal Priest, wants to rely on us, who are nothing, so as to bring the fruits of his Redemption to other people.

The Cross is the path to apostolic effectiveness.

If we are to co-redeem with Christ, impelled by charity, we must first be with him on the Cross. Our Father assured us: I believe that this is why on the 14th of February 1943, the Lord chose to place the Cross in our hearts, chose to crown his Work with the Cross, and chose that we should bear this symbol: the Cross set in the very heart of the world.

Even if Christ’s Cross had no other meaning than that indicated by the Apostle St Paul, namely, that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”, would that not be extraordinarily good? St Augustine asks. But the Holy Cross is the necessary pre-condition for apostolate to bear fruit, because for us to reach God, Christ is the way; but Christ is on the Cross.

St Augustine adds that after the Lord had risen and ascended into heaven, the disciples worked great wonders. However, it was the Lord himself, the same who had worked miracles while he was among men, who continued to act through his disciples. It was what he had told them: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” When the lame man who was seated at the gate of the temple stood up at Peter’s bidding and began to walk on his own two feet, causing wonder among the people, Peter made it clear that he had not worked this miracle by virtue of any power of his own, but in the name of the One whom his hearers had crucified.

Without Jesus Christ we can do nothing, but if we unite our efforts to his Sacrifice, then with him many miracles of grace will be accomplished in souls. You yourself must decide of your own free will to take up the Cross; otherwise, your tongue may say that you are imitating Christ, but your actions will belie your words. That way, you will never get to know the Master intimately, or love him truly. It is really important that we Christians convince ourselves of this. We are not walking with our Lord unless we are spontaneously depriving ourselves of many things that our whims, vanity, pleasure, or self-interest clamour for. Not a single day should pass that has not been seasoned with the salt and grace of mortification; and please get rid of the idea that you would then be miserable. What a sad little happiness you will have if you don’t learn to overcome yourself, if you let your passions and fancies dominate and crush you, instead of courageously taking up your Cross!

That is the sort of supernatural outlook we must have on doing apostolate. We will seek effectiveness in our union with the Lord, with Jesus Christ crucified. With the help of grace we must seek this union through personal sacrifice, constant mortification, and generous expiation. Unless we share in our Lord’s sacrifice personally, we will not be able to co-redeem. You must be crucified along with him who was crucified, and suffer along with him who suffered, in order to be glorified along with him who was glorified.

Love for God’s will brings us joy in sacrifice.

What joy it gives us to know that we are co-redeemers with Christ! This is the joy St Paul felt. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, he said, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church. When we offer discomfort, tiredness, adversities and small mortifications for the salvation of souls, they then take on the same significance. I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. Apostolic motives make us generous when we need to face up to a sacrifice. They give us gaudium cum pace, peace and joy in the Cross, something characteristic of the saints.

Nevertheless, there is a kind of fear around, a fear of the Cross, of our Lord’s Cross. What has happened is that people have begun to regard as crosses all the unpleasant things that crop up in life, and they do not know how to take them as God’s children should, with supernatural outlook So much so, that they are even removing the roadside crosses set up by our forefathers …

In the Passion, the Cross ceased to be a symbol of punishment and became instead a sign of victory. The Cross is the emblem of the Redeemer; in quo est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra: there lies our salvation, our life and our resurrection.

We have to accept mortifications - from the small details of punctuality and order in work, to the renunciation of all that is ours - with the same attitude as Jesus Christ: Our Lord is upon the Cross saying, I am suffering so that men, who are my brothers, may be happy, not only in heaven but also - as far as possible - on earth, if they really embrace the most Holy Will of my heavenly Father.

As the fruit of our prayer today, together with our Father, let us reaffirm this conviction in ourselves: You should realize that God wants you to be glad and that, if you do all you can, you will be happy, very, very happy, although you will never be a moment without the Cross. But that Cross is no longer a gallows. It is the throne from which Christ reigns. And at his side is his Mother, our Mother too. The Blessed Virgin will obtain for you the strength that you need to walk decisively in the footsteps of her Son.