143. Fourth Thursday of Easter

Meditations no. 189 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Ours is a way of love.

Our life is like that of the man in the parable who finds a buried treasure in a field, and in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Jesus Christ revealed this way of love. He made us see that there is nothing to compare with such a treasure, and that therefore we did well to leave everything else in order to possess it. Although the treasure is priceless, our Lord did not ask us for everything all at once. Little by little, he helped us overcome our weaknesses and asked us for further renunciation and greater dedication. Our initial self-giving was inspired by love, in the first joy of our discovery, and he wants us always to maintain the joy that springs from love.

Commenting on the mandatum novum, the new commandment which Christ gave his disciples, St Augustine asks: Why does the Lord call it a new commandment, seeing that it is evidently so old? Is it a new commandment inasmuch as it strips away the old man and clothes us in the new? … Such love renews us: we become new men, heirs of the new testament, singers of a new song. This love, dear brethren, even in days gone by renewed the holy men of old, the patriarchs and the prophets. So too in later times it renewed the apostles, and now it renews the Gentiles. From the whole human race all over the world it creates and gathers together a new people, the body of the new bride of the only-begotten Son of God.

Our first love should remain alive; it should grow, and inspire all our actions. If we lacked love, all the good things that we might do in God’s service would be useless and in vain. The Lord says in the Book of Revelation: I know your works … that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. How little deeds are worth if they are not accompanied by the fervour of charity! It is possible and even natural that with the passage of time, the youthful fervour of our initial dedication becomes less apparent. But that is no reason for it to be less intense. At that stage we have to love God as we are, even though we seem to feel nothing. Our love will be purer and more supernatural.

Our Father set us a good example in this. Though he habitually “went against the grain”, as he used to say, he was burning with love for God and he set our hearts on fire too, especially with love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. On a certain occasion he confided to us: In a few minutes’ time I will come, together with this son of mine who accompanies me, to celebrate Holy Mass: to have that most personal of all encounters with the Love of my soul. And this son of mine will remind me, in the words of the liturgy, that I am going up to the altar of God who gives joy to my youth. Because I am young and I will always be young, since my youth is that of God, who is eternal. With this love I can never feel old.

Then I will kiss the altar, with loving kisses. And I will take the Body of my God in my right hand, and the chalice of his Blood in my left, and I will raise him up above all the things of the earth, saying: per Ipsum, et cum Ipso, et in Ipso: through my Love, with my Love, in my Love.

Both at the start of the journey, and also when we have travelled quite a distance, love should be present, because without charity, we can’t do anything. But with charity, we can do everything. Love. This is the secret of the life of my children in Opus Dei… Love! Suffer with joy! Make your soul steadfast, and strengthen your will. Confirm your self-giving, and with it, your effectiveness.

Love makes us self-forgetful and generous.

Sometimes one hears love described (you’ll have heard me mention this more than once) as if it were a movement towards self-satisfaction, or merely a means of selfishly fulfilling one’s own personality.

And I have always told you that it isn’t so. True love demands getting out of oneself, giving oneself. Genuine love brings joy in its wake, a joy that has its roots in the shape of the Cross.

Our love has to be shown in deeds of generous, self-sacrificing service. This is what we stand by: self-giving, love - love for God and, for his sake, for our neighbour - based on sacrifice. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, St John writes, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

We can never be content with what we are doing, just as an artist is never satisfied with the sculpture or painting he is working on. Everybody tells him: “It’s marvellous,” but he thinks to himself: “No, it’s not what I was trying for; I wanted something better.” We can’t be content either. Our Lord is never satisfied, he never comes to a standstill. We have to go at his pace. God is a lover who wants to possess his beloved entirely: he is a jealous lover and he wants us to treat him with the utmost confidence.

Every Christian should seek Christ and get to know him by talking and listening to him, in order to love him. The same thing happens during courtship: the couple have to spend time getting to know each other, because if they don’t, they won’t fall in love with each other. And our life, my children, is one of love.

Let us lose our fear of giving ourselves too much. Let us give ourselves to God and souls without reserve. And if we are tempted to set limits and start bargaining, let us remind ourselves that, as the children of God in his Opus Dei go about their work, they try not to limit themselves to merely fulfilling it. Rather, they strive to love, which means surpassing themselves joyfully in their duty, with self-sacrifice.

The service we render others has to be joyful.

Almost all those who have personal problems, have them because of selfishly thinking about themselves. What we have to do is to give ourselves to others, to serve others for the love of God: that’s the way to make our sorrows disappear. Most of our difficulties stem from forgetting about the service we owe to others and from dwelling on our own ego. Forgetting oneself and dedicating oneself to the service of souls is so effective that God rewards it with a joyful humility. Moreover, our Father insists: Do you think people are grateful for services rendered only reluctantly? Evidently not. You might even say it would have been better not to have bothered.

And yet you think you can serve God with sour looks? No you can’t! You have to serve him cheerfully, in spite of your wretchedness, which we will be able to get rid of with God’s grace.

It is love that gives joy and zest to the service we offer souls. The deeds of people who love cannot be considered burdensome. For people who love, nothing is hard, nothing is difficult. Does a mother consider it a hardship to lavish care on her child, despite the trouble it brings? Since she loves her child, she spares no sacrifice, nor does she feel sad when acting that way.

According to St Thomas Aquinas, loving is nothing else than desiring good for the other. Similarly, St John Chrysostom says that love means desiring what is best for others; wishing them holiness and happiness. In this way, our reasons for joy increase, because not only are we joyful over our own good; we also rejoice over the good of the others no less than our own. With a love like that, all personal interests, all human ambitions are finally set aside. Be second to none in loving, our Father tells us. Win all souls for Christ Offer abundant reparation for the offences committed against the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. These are our ambitions. With divine madness like that, with that consuming zeal: zelus domus tuae comedit me (zeal for your house consumes me), what mere human ambition could we fall prey to on our journey through life?

Our optimism will be in proportion to the totality and unsparingness of our self-dedication. Then we will be happy, truly happy, together with Mary, the handmaid of the Lord, who was full of grace and full of joy.