184. Second Thursday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 67 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
The naturalness of Christâs whole life.
From the start, Christâs life on earth is imbued with naturalness. The divine Word who made heaven and earth, who laid the foundations of the world and set limits to the force of wind and water, chose to be born quietly, like any other child.
Nine months before his birth, an Angel appeared to a maiden in Nazareth, a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The message came so quietly that not even her husband knew of it; and he being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly. But, again through an Angel, he was told of the miracle too. Thereafter events followed their normal, ordinary course.
And so for thirty years, Jesus lived in a natural way, giving no extraordinary outward signs to the world. And when he began his public life, he did not immediately reveal that he was the Son of God. He did so little by little, revealing things gradually, as is often Godâs way.
In todayâs Gospel we hear about some people who were possessed by the devil, and who on being cured by our Lord fell down before him and cried out, âYou are the Son of God.â But Christ strictly ordered them not to make him known. Later on, when his relatives urged him to display his miracles in Jerusalem for all to see, Christ refused, because his hour had not yet come. Afterwards he went up to the feast, non manifeste, sed quasi in occulto, quietly, without proclaiming himself.
Our Father comments on these scenes of Christâs life: Christâs lesson to us is that the way we should relate to those who are on our social level, or those we work alongside, is as one person among many, unknown.
Not unknown on account of our work. Not unknown because you donât stand out for your talent. But unknown because there is no need for them to know that you have dedicated yourselves to God. Let them experience it, feeling they are being helped to live in a clean and noble fashion, when they see your behaviour which is full of respect for the legitimate freedom of everyone; when they hear your words filled with doctrine, and see how you live in accordance with what you say. But let your dedication to Godâs service pass unnoticed, as Jesusâ first thirty years of life passed unnoticed.
Prudence and naturalness in our interior life and in the apostolate.
Our Lordâs way of speaking is also very natural, with a naturalness that consists in not saying what should not be said, and saying what should be said, as St Gregory the Great advises. At the Last Supper, Christ shared intimate confidences with his disciples, who listened in wonder as he revealed the mysteries of divine life and grace. Now that the Apostles were ready to hear them, Godâs naturalness was poured out in the words Jesus spoke to them: The servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. Christ confided in his friends, without exhausting the great wealth of truths that were still to be revealed: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now, he told them. Then he fell silent. He who never lied, St Augustine comments, showed the Apostles that there were some truths he was keeping from them. Common sense, in conjunction with supernatural outlook, will teach us to follow the example of Christ, and to know when to speak and when to remain silent. We need to be natural, in a sensitive and prudent way. Together with the Psalmist we pray to God: Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips!
Our Father writes: We should always act very naturally. Then the words from Scripture will hold true of us: There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was simple and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil. Since this crystal-clear simplicity, which we must strive to have, cannot mean being simple-minded - there should be no mystery or secrets about us; we do not need them, nor will we ever need them - we should keep in mind what we read in the Book of Sirach: Non communices homini indocto, ne mala de progenie tua loquatur; donât share your personal concerns with an ignorant man, lest he speak ill of your family.
Our talents, virtues and triumphs belong to God because they are his gift. Deo omnis gloria! All glory to God! To ensure that they retain the fragrance of an offering made wholly to God, we speak about our interior life only to those who represent God and the Father. This has always been our Fatherâs teaching: The intimacy of our personal dedication to God and the intimacy of our family life are not things to be trumpeted to the winds. They are not there to satisfy the curiosity of the first aggressive busybody who knocks at our door. Our openness must go hand in hand with prudence. Only in Confession and the fraternal chat do we mention our worries, struggles and difficulties, because the help, advice and encouragement we need can only come from the person who has the task of directing us. We avoid sharing any confidences about our interior life with anyone else, as this would be useless, ineffective, and even harmful.
However, quite different from all this is what our Father referred to as discreet indiscretion, which he recommended for our apostolate of friendship and confidence. Here, naturalness leads us to open up our souls to our friends in intimate conversation, in order to encourage them in their own interior struggle, to set new goals for them, and to foster in their hearts a desire to serve both God and their fellow men.
Naturalness: far removed from mystery or secrecy.
The Catechism of the Work states that: The members of Opus Dei should act naturally because they are ordinary Christians who seek God in their everyday work and affairs; anything which would be strange in other Christians would also be strange in the faithful of Opus Dei. Naturalness leads us to deal with the things of the interior life, the apostolate, and our work, all in their proper forum. It means saying what we should, to the right person, in the right way, and at the right time.
Our naturalness, therefore, never involves even the appearance of mystery or secrecy. Our Father wrote: My daughters and sons, we have nothing to hide or cover up. Nobody could misinterpret the spontaneity of our conduct and behaviour as secrecy.
I have never had secrets. I donât have any now, nor will I ever have. Nor does the Work. It would be wrong for it to have secrets when I the Founder, donât know about them. Secrecy is unnecessary for Opus Dei. The Work has never needed it in the past, it does not need it now, and it will never need it. The treasure God has entrusted to us, the light we have to spread, is an âopen secretâ. We have the duty, the divine mission, to proclaim it to the four winds.
When someone holds some sort of position, this prudent form of naturalness becomes particularly necessary. Whatever is useful to the listener is said, and whatever is not useful is left unsaid. As our Father wrote: There would be no order or harmony in a house where the most recent arrival knows ⌠everything that the local Council knows. In any normal family, such as yours or mine, naturalness and refinement dictate that not everyone needs to know everything that goes on.
When I was young, I wasnât privy to my parentsâ worries. They were very careful not to speak of such things in front of us. If they had done, we would have immediately gone and proclaimed them to the four winds, and in any case, we werenât ready to bear those worries, or do anything to help.
As I grew older, I was told some things, but not everything. And we never spoke of such things in front of the domestic staff. There were some matters we brought up with the more trusted ones, with those who had been with us longer; but not with the others. This is what is done in any household that is governed by common sense; and it is what will always be done in our home.
The reasons behind such prudence are those of order and effectiveness, because if problems are given to someone who has no business to deal with them or sort them out, then things are in a bad way, a very bad way.
There are also considerations of charity. Worries should not be placed on the shoulders of those who have neither the preparation nor the grace needed to cope with them and resolve them.
Our Ladyâs life was the same as that of any other woman in the village of Nazareth. We should imitate her example so as to follow her Son more closely. We ask her to teach us how to be natural, with a sense of responsibility that combines prudence, humility and common sense.