142. Fourth Wednesday of Easter

Meditations no. 188 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Through Baptism and Confirmation we share in Christ’s priestly ministry.

Paul and Barnabas, with some other disciples, established themselves in Antioch, and from there they developed an intense apostolic work. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. Thus St Paul began the first of his missionary journeys which would bear so much fruit for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

All Christians, each according to the particular vocation God has given us, must continue this apostolic mission until the end of time. And for this reason, through Baptism and Confirmation, the Holy Spirit imprints a priestly seal on our soul. Do you not know that a priestly mission has been conferred on the whole Church, on the body of the faithful, on you? Listen to what Peter tells the simple faithful: you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart. And because of our divine vocation, we are called to do the Work of God with a truly priestly soul and a fully lay mentality.

The life of every Christian has a priestly meaning. It is something we have to live to the full in the middle of the world. As you carry out your activities in the very heart of society, sharing in all the noble ambitions and honest works of mankind, our Father writes, do not lose sight of the profound supernatural meaning of your life: you must be mediators in Christ Jesus, so as to lead all things to God, and so that divine grace may give life to everything. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls, as St Paul tells the Corinthians.

We should turn our whole day into a continuous opportunity to unite ourselves to Christ and save souls. With the priestly soul which I ask our Lord to grant all of you, you should strive to make your whole life into a continuous act of praise to God amid your ordinary activities: constant prayer and reparation, petition and sacrifice for all souls. And you should do all this in close, purposeful union with Christ Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar.

People with a truly priestly soul have the sense of being co-redeemers, and understand the words St Peter addressed to the first Christian community: Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice, in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

Being light, a guide, and a good shepherd to all.

At times, seeing those souls asleep, one feels an enormous desire to shout at them, to make them take notice, to wake them up from that terrible torpor they have fallen into. It is so sad to see them walk like a blind man hitting out with his stick, without finding the way!

I can well understand how the tears of Jesus over Jerusalem sprang from his perfect charity.

Zeal for the salvation of all souls is something that God has made part of the spirit of the Work. All of us, lay people and priests, have a priestly soul and a lay mentality, and we all have engraved on our lives, which are dedicated to God’s service, the words of Jesus Christ the High Priest: Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

We are constantly learning more about the Church’s doctrinal and moral teachings, in order to get closer to God ourselves, and to be able to respond to the great need on the part of so many for doctrine. A priestly soul shares the desires which filled the Heart of Jesus: to guide souls, to teach the truth, to give doctrine. Your ruling passion must be the desire to give doctrine: Catholic doctrine, which is fully in accord with the mind of the Church and which follows the Magisterium of Peter with complete fidelity.

Our attitude must be to open our arms to all souls, especially those who are suffering from some spiritual disease, to bring them to the light, because God places in our heart an insatiable desire to co-redeem with his Son. Those who have met Christ cannot shut themselves in their own little world: how sad such a limitation would be! They must open out like a fan in order to reach all souls. Each one has to create - and widen - a circle of friends, whom he can influence with his professional prestige, with his behaviour, with his friendship, so that Christ may exercise his influence by means of that professional prestige, that behaviour, that friendship.

Our Lord asks us to be good shepherds of his sheep, to have compassion on his sick children. He wants us to give our life, day by day, for other people. In the words of an ancient author, if I love my brothers to the point of giving up my life for them, if I fight to the death to defend the truth, if I mortify my body and abstain from all concupiscence, if the world is crucified to me and I to the world, then I have offered a holocaust on God’s altar and I have made myself a priest through my own sacrifice.

We ask our Lord for this total identification with him, in all that we are and all that we do, so as to be good instruments in his hands. We ask for it with the trust inspired in us by the words of Jesus in today’s Mass: I have chosen you from the world to go and bear fruit that will last.

Zeal for the salvation of all souls.

We practise all the virtues which are required of a priest: charity, humility, piety, a spirit of prayer and sacrifice, and so on. Which virtues, my dear daughters and sons, do good priests practise that you shouldn’t practise too, because of the requirements of your divine vocation, your calling to Opus Dei?

The result of this priestly soul is our sincere desire to reach everyone: there is no one on this earth towards whom we can be indifferent. We must strongly believe - looking at things with supernatural outlook - that the salvation of one soul is worth more than everything else on earth put together. We cannot say that those who, through blindness, fail to grasp the meaning of life, or who despise it because of pride, are living well. No one can have true and certain hope in life, St Augustine says, if they do not know the Life, which is Christ, and if they do not enter the sheepfold by the gate.

In our relations with those around us we do not want anyone to pass close by, without at the same time getting a little closer to Jesus. Give yourselves generously in the service of all souls. For priests, this means preaching the word of God, and dedicating many hours to the sacrament of Penance.

And all of you, priests and laymen, should give yourselves in this divine service with the greatest possible charity, full of understanding for others and intransigence towards yourselves; because you should have a deeply-rooted spirit of reparation and the constant desire to acquire the knowledge of God and teach it to everyone appropriately.

If we really have a priestly soul, we will have zeal for souls, and our loyal and generous behaviour will invite others to open their hearts and talk to us about their worries, since we have the best medicine: the grace and teachings of Jesus Christ. If we have a priestly soul, we will know how to guide them, understand them, and excuse their defects, while at the same time wanting to cure them. And we will be able to say, with the joy of seeing the supernatural effectiveness of this work: What is more valuable than directing souls?

Let us appeal to our Lady to give us more of a priestly soul, so that we feel the deep need that people have of God.