155. Sixth Tuesday of Easter

Meditations no. 201 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Lord leaves his disciples in the world to sanctify it.

The Cross is our glory, St John Chrysostom teaches. It is the source of all our riches, our trust and our crown. This is true not only for us but for all mankind. For the Cross will come, and with its coming, it will summon all men to reconciliation with God. The Lord himself said: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

Souls have been washed clean in Christ’s blood. Jesus Christ has fulfilled all that he had to. He said to his Father: I have accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And to his Apostles he said: Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?”

The solemnity of the Ascension is approaching. Our Lord has redeemed us; and now it is up to the followers of Christ to co-redeem and apply the merits of the Passion and Death of Christ by living holy lives that sanctify everything they touch. When Jesus was about to crown his work on earth, he said to the Father: I do not pray that you take them out of the world - out, that is, of their environment, their place of work, or their social relations. He wants to leave us in the world so that we can sanctify and improve it, and place all souls and institutions, public life and all activities, at God’s feet.

We love the world. For God made it good. It came forth perfect from his hands, and we have the duty of consecrating it, elevating it and returning it to God in spite of the fact that some, at times, make it bad and ugly by their sins: to re-establish all things in Christ, both those in the heavens and those on the earth.

All the things of this world are good, not only from the natural point of view, but also because of the supernatural order to which they have been destined.

Now that Jesus Christ is about to ascend into heaven, it is a good time for us to remember the divine meaning of our vocation. Each of us is to be ipse Christus: Christ himself. He is the one mediator between God and man. And we make ourselves one with him in order to offer all things, with him, to the Father. Our calling to be children of God, in the midst of the world, requires us not only to seek our own personal holiness, but also to go out onto all the ways of the earth, to convert them into roads that will carry souls over all obstacles and lead them to the Lord. As we take part in all temporal activities, as ordinary citizens, we are to become leaven acting on the mass.

For ordinary Christians like us, our work is the way to give glory to God.

We ought to feel uncomfortable when we are not surrounded by people, being the salt and light of Christ. Each of us occupying the place we would have occupied if we were not in Opus Dei, we feel responsible for our supernatural mission. In this most beautiful war, which is a sowing of peace and joy, we each regard our professional work in the way that a sentry does at an advance outpost We remain lovingly watchful. We are alert and do not sleep, while we work hard at the consecratio mundi (the consecration of the world), in response to the divine call to attention:

Custos, quid de nocte? Sentry, alert! We know that our companions are loyally dedicated to their mission with the same personal responsibility, each in their own place.

When our Lord sent us into the world, he entrusted us with the mission of transforming it while being another ordinary person among so many. And so I keep on repeating to you that the world can be made holy. We Christians have a special role to play in sanctifying it. We are to cleanse it from the occasions of sin with which we human beings have soiled it. We are to offer it to our Lord as a spiritual offering, presented to him and made acceptable through his grace and with our efforts. Strictly speaking, we cannot say that there is any noble human reality that does not have a supernatural dimension, for the divine Word has taken on a complete human nature and consecrated the world with his presence and with the work of his hands. The great mission that we have received in baptism is to redeem the world with Christ. We are urged on by the charity of Christ to take upon our shoulders a part of this divine task of saving souls.

A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. The lamp-stand is our ordinary work and good professional standing. People who do their work in a professional manner stand out among their colleagues. They set the pace and win people’s admiration. Their actions and words are taken as particularly important. They are on a sort of pedestal. If they are apostolic souls, they can use this pedestal to place Christ on high. Members of Opus Dei, in order to assure a complete response to the demands of their Faith, seriously dedicate themselves to seeking sanctity with all its consequences. However, they look for it in their own state - single, married, widowed, or as a priest - in the practice of their own professional work. Thus they do not change their normal way of life, their ordinary work, their ambitions and desires. This is what Opus Dei is about, being extraordinary without being strange; being just another Catholic citizen, not wanting to be isolated from the others in anything, since there is no reason to be.

Contemplatives in the middle of the world.

Our Father told us: You have a call from God to follow a definite road, that of being on all of the world’s crossroads while being immersed in God. You are called to be the leaven, salt and light of the world, so as to give light, flavour, volume and growth. Therefore, our vocation as sons and daughters of God in his Work leads us to have a contemplative life amidst all human activities. We have to be light, salt and leaven, through our prayer, mortification and our religious and professional training. We feel a desire that has to become a reality: the more we are in the middle of the world, the more we desire to belong to God. How many souls we must bring him!

Since it is supernatural, this apostolic work cannot be carried out unless we use the supernatural means: prayer, work, mortification, cheerfulness and other virtues that lead us to the fullness of Christian life in the world. They lead us always to act in an understanding way, so that we never feel indifferent towards anybody; to keep silent when necessary, sowing joy and peace, avoiding the passion and violence of fanatics, and striving to create a calm, charitable atmosphere around us. Omnia vestra in caritate fiant May you do everything charitably.

Charity, love: this is the key to becoming contemplatives in the middle of our work in the world. If we are motivated by the love of God and we work with a right intention, then we are seeking whatever is good and clean, whatever brings peace to our conscience and happiness to our soul. Yes, you might say, but don’t we still have our faults? Indeed, but it is precisely by acknowledging our faults that we are able to see, more clearly than ever, just what our goal has to be. What we are looking for is happiness; not a momentary happiness, but one that is deep and lasting and both human and supernatural.

There is one creature who achieved such happiness here on earth because she is God’s masterpiece: our most holy Mother Mary. She lives now and is protecting us. She is there, body and soul, with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Our Mother, help us to be most supernatural when we are most engrossed in earthly affairs; to be in God’s presence while we are travelling, at work, and interacting with others, since the purpose of our life is to place the world at the feet of your Son, Jesus Christ.