89. Third Friday of Lent
Meditations no. 135 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Always thinking of other peopleâs holiness is a characteristic of our interior life.
A doctor of the Law asked our Lord which was the most important of the commandments. Christ answered by quoting the Book of Deuteronomy: The first is, âHear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.â The second is this: âYou shall love your neighbour as yourself.â There is no other commandment greater than these.
Jesusâ words remind us of what should be the centre and focus of an authentically Christian life. He gives a perfect summary, and leaves it up to his listeners to fill in the details. That is what we are going to do in this time of prayer, following a meditation preached by our Father to a group of our brothers some years ago.
Every individual tends to adapt things to his own needs and circumstances. The same kind of cloth is used to make different suits, some bigger and others smaller, some broader and others trimmer. Millions of people take the same medicine but each one benefits from it according to his or her personal needs. When these specific adaptations and circumstances are more or less permanent, one ends up with a particular outlook on life. For example, we have all experienced what we might call the psychology or the psychological bias of oneâs profession. If a doctor sees someone on the street he may instinctively think: that person has liver trouble. If a tailor sees him he may say: how badly dressed he is. If a cobbler sees him he may think: what nice shoes he hasâŚ
Look my children, this happens in professional life, in human affairs, and the same happens in the spiritual life too. We have a distinctive spiritual life that is proper to us, and in some ways unique to us. And the spiritual life of the members of the Work has to give us a particular way of looking at things, one characteristic of which is to seek actively the holiness of others. We do not love God if we think only about our own holiness. We have to think about others, about the holiness of our brothers and sisters and of all souls.
After I die you can break the silence I have kept for so long, and shout and shout. I have had to keep silent for years and years. Among my papers you will find exhortations to prudence, to silence, to overcoming difficulties with prayer and mortification, with humility, with work and with deeds, and not just with the tongue. There is something that kept me from speaking, something that led me to keep silent, and it is related to the whole preface that I have just made. It is something that is not really mine, but a grace from God our Lord. I have had the psychological feeling of never being alone, either humanly or supernaturally. I have had a great divine and human commitment, and I would like you also to share in this great commitment, that still lasts and will last for ever.
I have never been alone. This has made me keep silent in the face of things that were objectively intolerable. I could have created quite a scandal! It would have been very easy, very easy indeed⌠But no, I preferred to keep silent. I preferred to be the scandal myself personally, because I was thinking about others.
We have no choice but to count on what we might call this âpsychological biasâ of thinking always about others, having this particular point of view which is ours and ours alone. I want you to think about this when you are dispersed throughout the Regions. Never be surprised by peopleâs âimprudenceâ. But those of us who have the mission to watch out for others cannot permit ourselves this luxury. On the contrary, we have to have the âluxuryâ of prudence, of serenity, of a charity that does not exclude anyone.
We are co-redeemers with Christ; we must have joy and serenity.
Our Lord has given us the system to follow in Opus Dei so that the Cross he himself imposes on us -or which he allows circumstances, things or people around us to impose on us - so that this Cross he has made for us does not weigh heavily. And that system is to love Christâs Cross. It means carrying it serenely, squarely on our shoulders, without letting it fall or dragging it along. It means embracing opposition, whether internal or external, and realizing that everything has a purpose and is all a wonderful treasure. If it is truly Christâs Cross it will not weigh on us, because it is not ours. It is no longer mine, but his, and he carries it with me. In this way, my children, all sorrow is quickly overcome, and no one will be able to take away our peace and our joy.
Diligam te, Domine, fortitudo men: I love you, O Lord, my strength. Quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea: for you, O God, are my strength. I rest in you! I canât do anything, big or small, if you donât help me - and if I do it for Love then nothing is small! But if I really do my best, Godâs strong arm comes to strengthen, to temper, and to carry that sorrow; and then the weight no longer overwhelms us.
Think about it carefully, my children. Consider your own personal circumstances, and see how the things that apparently donât work out and that make life difficult, are far more valuable to you than the ones that seem to work effortlessly. If we donât have clear ideas about this, when difficulties do arise they will leave us bewildered and distressed. On the other hand, if we absorb this whole spiritual psychology properly and learn to see Godâs will precisely in those circumstances, even if it is hard, and love Jesus Christ, realizing that we are co-redeemers with him, then we will not lack understanding, peace of soul and the strength to do our duty. Join me in telling Jesus: Lord, we only want to serve you. We only want to fulfil our duty and to love you deeply and truly. Make us feel your firm steps at our side. Be our only support. Nothing will take away your peace, my children. If you live with this confidence, nothing will be able to take away your joy. No one will be able to disrupt our serenity. In this life everything can be solved except death, and for us death is Life.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? If any asceticism in the Church has this sporting spirit it is the asceticism of the Work. An athlete perseveres, a good athlete spends a great deal of time training and preparing himself. If it is a question of jumping, he tries again and again. The bar is raised and maybe he doesnât manage to clear it. But he persists stubbornly until eventually he succeeds.
My children, life is like that. If you begin again and again, you are on the right road. If you have a winnerâs mentality, if you struggle, with Godâs help you will manage to jump! There is no obstacle that cannot be overcome! Every day will be an occasion for us to begin again, with the certainty of reaching the goal of our journey, which is Love.
Our love for the Work and for one another leads us to have a sense of responsibility.
It is a shame to see people who have twisted an ankle and who canât accept it with a Christian spirit, with a sporting spirit. They wonât let the doctor and the physiotherapist do their work, and say that they donât want to jump again.
I will read you some more words from St Paul: Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. We have to use the means, the means our weakness allows us to use. Many people lead a life of sacrifice for quite earthly motives. These poor people do not realize that they are children of God. They act perhaps out of pride, in order to stand out. They exercise self-control in all things. And you, my son, who have your Mother the Work, and your brothers, my sons, how do you act? How much sense of responsibility do you have?
I often tell those who twist an ankle or dislocate a wrist that they are not alone. My son, you do not have the right to turn back, to lose your soul or at least place yourself in serious, imminent danger of losing it. Besides, you do not have the right to lay aside the responsibility our Lord has lovingly and confidently placed on your shoulders. You have no right to cast aside the Work and your brothers and your responsibilities. Jesus, Lord, I want to ask you never to let us go astray again because of difficulties. May we never again fail to take up your Cross and carry it willingly on our shoulders.
Do you see how this âpsychologyâ I have been speaking about keeps cropping up? Do you see how we pray in our own way, made to measure, in accordance with our needs, a need which is not merely ours but which is the need of all your brothers and of the whole Work? Take this idea I have preached to you so often and teach it to your brothers, adapting it to their personal circumstances. Repeat everywhere the things we have considered together in this time of prayer.
I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. Think whether you and I can say this with the Apostle. My children, I think that this is enough for our prayer today. We must be faithful to the small mortifications, the ordinary mortifications of every day. And besides, we must accept all the passive mortifications our Lord sends us. We must live our lives in such a way that the âbeing disqualifiedâ St Paul speaks about will never befall us.
A man who struggles, who begins and begins again, who embraces Christâs Cross again and again, will be successful. But in addition you must always think about others, about your brothers, even in your smallest duties. And as our very characteristic way of looking at things tells us, we must constantly realize that we are not alone. It does not make sense for us to be alone. We must always think about others, about all souls.
We ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is always attentive to her childrenâs needs, to teach us always to be concerned about the souls of our brothers or sisters.