94. Fourth Wednesday of Lent

Meditations no. 140 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Divine filiation leads us to seek God’s presence.

The whole of Revelation is a loving request by God for men and women, who are his children, to call him “Father”. Is not he your Father, who created you, who made you and established you? In the First Reading of today’s Mass we are reminded of God’s fatherly love. But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me”. Can a woman forget her child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

When God calls someone and gives them a specific vocation, he tells them: Walk before me and be blameless. This is what he has done with us - he has called us that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

A son honours his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is my fear? God wants us always to remain in his presence. And when we are aware that we are his children, when we realize that he is a good Father, and that his mercy is for ever, we feel our heart stirred to seek him. Speaking of the members of the Work, our Father wrote that the knowledge that they are God’s children … makes them seek continuous presence of God through the events of their daily work, which are like vehicles of God’s will and must be received with respect and love, with joy and peace.

What son does not long to be with his father, go out with him, and keep him company? We have all experienced this ourselves, and the same is true in the Work: whenever we see the Father we are glad, and are set on fire with the desire to be faithful. God wants the same of us: he wants our eyes to be set on him, since he is waiting for us and wants to help us. We can find him at any moment of the day.

And yet, what a strange capacity man has to forget even the most wonderful things, to become used to mystery! Let’s remind ourselves, this Lent, that the Christian cannot be superficial. While being fully involved in his everyday work, among other men, his equals; busy, under stress, the Christian has to be at the same time totally involved with God, for he is a child of God.

Christ’s example leads us to act as children do before their Father.

Children of God, brothers of the Word made flesh, of him of whom it was said, In him was life, and that life was the light of man. Children of the light, brothers of the light: that is what we are. We bear the only flame capable of setting fire to hearts made of flesh.

In Jesus, God reveals himself to us fully, and shows us the path that leads to himself. We need to imitate our Lord’s life, contemplate him in the Gospel, and learn from him how to treat our heavenly Father. For despite being the only-begotten Son of God, despite being God himself, always in the presence of his Father and in possession of the beatific vision, he nevertheless took care to teach us, through his words and deeds, how to seek God constantly and how to speak to him as his children.

Our Lord frequently withdrew in order to pray, sometimes for many hours; but still more often, we find him surrounded by his disciples or other people when he is making a loving, fervent prayer to his Father: I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. At the most important times of his life on earth, Christ wished to show us his attitude of prayer to his Father: such as when he raised Lazarus to life, or when he multiplied the loaves and fishes, or when he instituted the Eucharist, or in the loneliness of Gethsemane, or on Calvary when he prayed: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit! Our presence of God, and our conversation with God our Lord, should not be based on feelings or imagination; they should be deep-rooted habits which lead us to please God and seek to fulfil his will in everything.

Let us follow our Father’s advice: I seek God within me, in my heart; and you too should seek him in your soul in grace. Then the world becomes divine; we see it in a new perspective, because God speaks to us. God our Father, who is in heaven, is continually at our side.

To heighten our awareness of God’s presence we must constantly exercise our faith, hope and love. Love will draw us out of ourselves and our own affairs, and will be a barricade against the attack of loneliness. A man of God is never alone, our Father once said. He has no reason for boredom, since he is always in the presence of his beloved. The Lord is waiting for us at every moment. He takes an interest in everything that happens to us. God is beside us, full of loving care, like a mother and a father, always ready to listen to our words, always responding to our love; he watches over us and wants us to turn to him, confidently, asking for help, knowing that he will never fail to hear us.

This is presence of God as we have been taught it in the Work. Presence of God: we should never lose it Filiation, union: for sanctity consists in union.

The fruit of presence of God: cheerfulness which makes the path of sanctity pleasant.

Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord! You have put joy in my heart. Presence of God gives rise to never-ending joy. Let us be happy. I am happy. I shouldn’t be, looking at my life, making that personal examination of conscience which Lent requires. But I do feel happy, for I see that the Lord is seeking me again, that the Lord is still my Father. I know that you and I will surely see, with the light and help of grace, what things must be burned and we will burn them; what things must be uprooted, and we will uproot them; what things have to be given up, and we will give them up.

Sacred Scripture exhorts: Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually! And our Father taught us that cheerfulness is an essential part of your way. If we are always in the presence of God, whom we love so much, we will naturally be cheerful, with the joy that is so much a part of our spirit and so pleasing to God, because it helps us make the way pleasanter for others, and makes it easy for us to renew our dedication continually: in simplicitate cordis mei laetus obtuli universa (in the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things), because with simplicity of heart we will have been able to give everything to God.

Without joy we cannot serve. Can you imagine someone serving you with weeping and wailing? In our central house in Rome I have had an inscription put up which says: Servite Domino in laetitia, serve the Lord with gladness.

Therefore, if we ever feel sad, we must see if we are struggling hard to live in God’s presence. You are unhappy? Think: there must be an obstacle between God and me. You will seldom be wrong. God our Father wants us to be happy, and so he wants us to be in his presence, always intent on fulfilling his will. Our Father gives us the following advice: Use the same method as I do. I forget that I exist. I can’t have any personal problems because I can’t think about my own affairs - I don’t have time to.

All the time in the world is not enough for working for God, for loving him and making others love him. If we get tied up in our own trifling affairs, we will forfeit our presence of God and lose our bearings. But if we struggle, God our Lord will hear us. If we seek him, he will speak to us. In a time of favour I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you. I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages … Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.

Presence of God, and the joy it engenders, is mirrored in our family life and apostolate. We will make life pleasanter for our brothers or sisters because we are in good spirits. In God’s presence, we will take the trouble to serve them, even if it means putting ourselves out, or doing something we find unpleasant. That very joy will be our best way of witnessing to other people that Christ is with us and that it is worth while serving him. As one of the decrees of approval of the Work expressed it, everywhere and at all times the members of Opus Dei bear with them peace and the constant, overflowing joy of the Lord, which they offer gladly to all people of good will. They try to transmit this peace and joy to all without exception, and gently encourage each of those around them to receive and enjoy the tender gifts of Divine Goodness.

Sancta Maria, causa nostrae laetitiae, ora pro nobis; Our Lady, Cause of our joy, pray for us: help us always to live in God’s presence.