156. Sixth Wednesday of Easter

Meditations no. 202 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Doctrinal apostolate.

Today we recall St Paul’s time in Athens. Silas and Timothy had stayed in Beroea, and were to re-join Paul as soon as possible. In the meantime, the Apostle did not remain inactive. Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who chanced to be there.

A son or daughter of God cannot be indifferent towards error, which leads souls astray. We can understand St Paul’s yearning as he contemplated the panorama of his times: a cultured, civilized world such as that of the Athenians, but one that was devoid of God, and filled with idols and confusion. Immediately he sought an opportunity to teach them about the true God. For this purpose he went to the Areopagus, where the Athenians used to gather for intellectual discussions.

So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”

We cannot and do not want to keep silent about the truth. Neither human respects, nor differences in culture, language or race, nor the indifference or apparent coldness of some people, could ever make us shy away from doctrinal apostolate. We should remember that on hearing St Paul’s discourse in the Areopagus, some mocked, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” Nevertheless, the Apostle’s apparent failure does not cause him to waver in his zeal. St Luke tells us later that he argued in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

Like St Paul, we should each feel the overriding urgency of doctrinal apostolate. As Pope Leo XIII stated, among the duties that bind us to God and to the Church stands first and foremost that of using all the means to defend the Christian truths and to refute errors.

Our Father used to say: To give doctrine is our great mission. And he added: You are salt, light and leaven, and you cannot abstain from carrying that light, that salt, to the very furthest corner of your social activities.

All the Work’s apostolates can be summed up as giving doctrine.

Christ’s words: Go, therefore, and teach all nations, were engraved on St Paul’s heart. He took advantage of religious and social activities, as well as his professional work, to speak about Jesus Christ to those around him. And from this direct personal contact came the first converts, after his apostolate had prepared their hearts for an encounter with Christ.

However, Paul wanted to convert not only Athens, not only Greece, but the whole world. And to spread the doctrine of Christ he used the means available: he went to the Areopagus and spoke to the wise men who dominated the culture of that time, and who strongly influenced people with their teachings. The Apostle went to the source of public opinion in the Greek world.

Lack of doctrine has always been the greatest enemy of Christ’s Church. St Pius X exhorts: Observe, we pray and entreat you, and reflect on the great loss of souls due solely to ignorance of divine things. These great losses, and this need for the truth in so many souls, urge us on to do apostolate, and to turn all our activity into an opportunity to spread the doctrine which Christ has entrusted to the Church.

The apostolates which the Work carries out are ever more numerous and diverse. And with the passing of time, they will be even more so. But all of them -now, later and always - are simply a means to give doctrine. In the first place comes the testimony of your life, which is the best way of preaching; and then your ordinary work, whatever it may be. When you carry out apostolate like that, you will be light and salt for so many souls. The greatest enemy of God, my children, is ignorance. Jesus Christ’s Church is not afraid of scientific truth, and we, God’s children in his Opus Dei, have a duty to be present in all human sciences, while firmly anchored in doctrine. We need scholars! I want you to be learned, each in your own particular field. How much ignorance we will cast away! How much good we will do to souls! The Church needs knowledge that is based on truth. Knowledge, if it is true, cannot be at variance with the doctrine of Jesus Christ or with his teachings. We have to fill the fields of knowledge with real, genuine doctrine, which does not deceive. We have to fill human knowledge with a supernatural content; in a word, we have to fill it with God.

The apostolate of public opinion.

All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. How completely these words of Scripture apply today! Nowadays also, people want to hear about everything that happens, to be informed, to know what is going on in the furthest corner of the world. And together with this desire of being up-to-date there is a tremendous lack of formation regarding the real issues, a great lack of knowledge of the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the laws of the Church!

It represents a calamitous failure for Catholics who, after twenty centuries of Christianity, have hardly done anything in this field. What a good example is given us by those apologists of the first centuries, who defended the Faith with ardour, knowledge and human wit! How rightfully they reproach us! They were brilliant, learned men. It would be difficult to find men more intelligent than they were.

Today it can be said that there is no newspaper, and very few publications, which work with an authentically Christian mentality; where they respect, love and defend the freedom of all men; where they know how to understand, forgive and unite others.

What is needed is the development of a Christian way of being and thinking. That is our mission; and we have to fulfil it through our words and writings, using the whole range of the media, especially concerning those issues where the laws of the Church are most frequently ignored.

Our Father reminds us: In national life there are two things which are really essential: the laws about marriage and the laws about education. In these areas God’s children have to stand firm, and fight well and fairly, for the sake of all mankind. We should carry out this task by using whatever can serve to spread good doctrine more widely, because we who have Christ’s truth in our hearts, must bring this truth into the hearts, minds and lives of other people. It is a grave obligation for us. The opposite is all very comfortable, but bad policy.

Such comfort-seeking can disguise itself in many different ways, and so we need to examine our personal work in God’s presence.

May we all be aware of our responsibility for this apostolate, and strive to work in it effectively. And may the Queen of Apostles help us to obtain the necessary means to be able to speak up continuously, with the gift of tongues, so that others may understand us, so that they may receive God’s light.