135. Third Wednesday of Easter

Meditations no. 181 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Vocation to holiness through work done well.

My daughters and sons, God has appeared along our way; with his sovereign omnipotence he has “complicated” our lives, giving them a new meaning. But, as you know very well, exteriorly nothing has changed. Our Lord wants us to serve him where our human vocation has brought us: in our professional work. Unusquisque, in qua vocatione vocatus est, in ea permaneat. He wants us each to remain in the calling we had when God called us.

By God’s special will, our ordinary daily work is the material for our sanctification. It is what we have to sanctify, as well as sanctifying ourselves and other people. If we did not sanctify our work, we could not sanctify ourselves or bring the souls around us to God.

An outstanding feature of the first Christians was their dedication to their work. In this they followed Jesus Christ’s example. As one early writer puts it, he was himself considered a carpenter, and he made the things all carpenters make … while he was among other men, thus teaching them the symbols of justice, and what a life of work is.

St Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: Aspire to live quietly, look after your own affairs, and work with your hands, as we charged you. And in one of the first Christian documents, we read: Anyone who comes to you in the name of the Lord … let him have a job, let him work, so that he may feed himself. But if he does not have a job, provide for him yourselves, according to the dictates of prudence, so that no Christian who lives among you may be idle.

Our Father tells us: If we want to sanctify our work we must necessarily fulfil one basic condition, which is to work, and to work well. We can’t have loafers in the Work. If someone came to Opus Dei and did not work, unless they overcame their tendency to idleness, they would very soon realize that they were no use at all. Our vocation means that the Gospel phrase must apply to us: omni habenti dabitur, to everyone who has, more will be given. The person who already has work, will be given more; whoever can do the work of ten must do the work of fifteen. This is no time to fool around: there’s a war on, because our life is a holy fight to sow peace, understanding and love.

Work cannot be sanctified without piety.

Working hard and well is only one condition. It is certainly the first, indispensable step in order to be able to sanctify ourselves. The Lord tells us: You shall not offer anything that has a blemish. But at the same time he reminds us: What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? … Bring no more vain offerings … Learn to do good, seek justice. The Lord is not interested in external acts if they are not accompanied by the right inner dispositions. Thus we will sanctify our work if we are holy, if we are truly striving to be holy. Our mission is divine, and we can only carry it out in union with God: sine me nihil potestis facere (apart from me you can do nothing).

If you did not have interior life while doing your work, instead of “divinizing” it, what could happen is that just like red-hot iron that is plunged into ice-cold water, you too could lose your strength, light and fire. Your fire must come from within and never be extinguished. Instead, it should set fire to everything it touches. Which is why I can say that I don’t want any work or apostolic project unless my children improve in it. I measure the value and effectiveness of undertakings by the degree of holiness achieved by the instruments who carry them out.

With the same insistence with which I previously invited you to work, and work well, without fear of tiredness, I now invite you to have interior life. I will never tire of repeating it: our Norms of piety, our prayer, come first. Without ascetical struggle our life would be worth nothing; we would be ineffective, sheep without a shepherd, the blind leading the blind… .

If you want to be faithful, do not forget this divine doctrine; in God’s presence meditate on these words of the prophet: Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. Thus we will live as today’s liturgy expresses: Fill me with your praise and I will sing your glory; songs of joy will be on my lips.

Unity of life: neither piety without work, nor work without piety.

Interior life, life of piety: I love you, O Lord, my strength, with all the strength of my heart and of my soul. I love you also with my life of work. We do not lead a double life, but a unity of life, which is simple and strong and in which all our actions are united.

When we respond generously to this spirit, we acquire a second nature. Without realizing it, we are thinking of our Lord all day long, and we feel an impulse to put God into everything, for without him, nothing would have any attraction. The time then comes when we can’t tell where prayer ends and where work begins; for our work is also prayer, contemplation, a true life of mystical union with God without any oddities. This is “good divinization”.

Devout people whose piety is in keeping with the spirit of the Work, try to fulfil their duty. The sincerity of their devotion leads them to work and fulfil their daily duties cheerfully, even if they are hard. That is why we are contemplatives, because there is a close union between the supernatural inner reality and our outward human undertakings.

For members of the Work, professional work, human friendship and social relations, our effort to achieve the common good and the progress of society hand in hand with our fellow citizens, are all natural results and consequences of that life-giving sap which is Christ present in our souls. They are Christ’s work, Opus Dei, operatio Dei.

Work and piety are intimately united as two aspects of one and the same reality. This is the only way for us to become saints. Without work, interior life cannot be sustained, and if we lacked piety or were not continually attentive to our Lord, neither talent nor knowledge, no effort whatsoever, would suffice, for our Lord would leave us. Then we would go wrong, even in the most trivial things. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil. Without piety, our work would not even yield fruit on the human level.

Through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, let us ask our Lord that we may always remember this doctrine which he engraved with fire on our Father’s heart.