259. Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

Meditations no. 579 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

God is the owner of the harvest.

The Gospel tells us today that our Lord, when he saw the multitudes, was filled with compassion for them, because they were mistreated and cast down like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

It is true that, after two thousand years, many people have heard the preaching of the Gospel. But there are countless crowds who do not know Christ; and also those who, knowing him, live as if they did not know him. I look at the world of today, our Father was grieved, and I realize that the fields of God have become a wasteland. This has happened because there is a lack of workers in the harvest of Jesus, faithful workers who are under the orders of their owner at all times, in the great and in the small, in the easy and in the difficult, when they see us and when they do not see us.

Jesus himself clearly establishes the supernatural perspective from which the shortage of workers must be faced: pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. His words make it clear that God is the master of this field, the first interested in its prosperity. It is important to keep this in mind; otherwise, full of good will, we could even make a mistake in the very way we present our requests and formulate them as if we wanted the Lord to take into consideration a business of ours, alien to Him, and to give us a hand to carry it forward. The reality is the opposite: because God wants it that way, it is we who make our modest contribution to his inheritance.

To such an extent does it retain in its hands the reins of the “enterprise” that the collaborations we provide are only effective “when it is God who works to make them profitable, who could give man the Gospel without men and without the mediation of man.” Pope Benedict XVI warned that, “although it is true that … difficulties and obstacles accompany the Church’s journey, we are sustained by the unshakable certainty that the Lord, who freely chooses and invites to follow him people of all cultures and of all ages, according to the inscrutable designs of his merciful love, guides her firmly along the paths of time towards the definitive fulfillment of the Kingdom.”

God counts on creatures to carry his message and his salvation to the ends of the earth. In this sense, the Gospel recounts the appointment of the Apostles, and it does so precisely after having borne witness to Jesus’ compassion for the peoples: having called his twelve disciples, he gave them power to expel unclean spirits and to cure all diseases and diseases. The names of the twelve Apostles are these: first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James of Zebedee and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the publican. … He also wants to lay hold of us, although, strictly speaking, he does not need us. As if to prove that he is still the Lord of the harvest, for twenty centuries he has been choosing collaborators who, even in the best of cases, do not meet the conditions to carry out the task entrusted to them. It is God’s way of acting, that when he wants to carry out some work, he chooses disproportionate means, so that it will be noticed-how many times have you heard it from me! -that the work is his.

Referring specifically to Opus Dei, our Founder warned us: the Work of God comes to fulfill the Will of God. Therefore, have a deep conviction that heaven is committed to its realization; and this, he used to add, “in spite of our sorrows, even in spite of our failures, weaknesses and objective shortcomings.

When I consider this divine choice, this thought often crosses my mind: what a great responsibility ours! Because around us we always have witnesses of our struggles and our victories, but also witnesses of our heartbreaks, our disaffections, our small disloyalties. I ask my God, sheltering myself in the loving intercession of Mary, his Mother and our Mother, and in the intercession of St. Joseph, to make us deepen the demands of self-giving, seeking more loyalty, more finesse, more ambition to serve Him and all souls, more delicacy.

The Lord is the one who calls, but he counts on our collaboration.

“We thank the Lord that even today he continues to call workers to his vineyard.” God wants to continue to send workers into his harvest and chooses them from eternity. But from all eternity too, in order to bring his call to him, he expects us to give him the cooperation assigned to us: a collaboration that, above all, consists in praying, mortifying ourselves and moving with diligence and apostolic zeal. It is not you who call: it is He, Christ! …, wrote our Founder in one of his first documents.

Our apostolic zeal must resemble that of St. Josemaría, who conceived of his work as a priest and pastor as a task aimed at placing each one before the complete demands of his life, helping him to discover what God specifically asks of him, without placing any limitation on that holy independence and that blessed individual responsibility that are characteristic of a Christian conscience. This way of acting and this spirit are based on respect for the transcendence of revealed truth, and on love for the freedom of the human creature.

The duty of raising the call to holiness and apostolate is to facilitate “the encounter between God and his creature, a place where the love of the creature responds to divine love, a place where the love story between God and his creature unfolds”. Our role is to place souls before Christ, and to see to it that they face his gaze and recognize his voice. For this reason, vocational restlessness can only be provoked if people are put in contact with Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, making known to them his doctrine without accommodation, without smoothing out edges or lowering demands.

St. Josemaría warned us against the temptation to resort to false tactics of the apostolate: it is the folly of some people who are obsessed, even by the same good desire to win souls, who-with the excuse of going in search of the lost sheep-will end up falling into the quicksand of the error they want to combat, deceived by compromises, concessions, or imprudent compromises.

In this care to present the call of God in its genuine integrity, without adaptation, the conduct of St. Paul is exemplary: the Jews ask for signs, the Greeks seek wisdom; we instead preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles; but to those called, Jews and Greeks, we preach Christ, the strength of God and the wisdom of God (…). And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come to proclaim to you the mystery of God with sublime eloquence or wisdom, for I have prided myself on knowing nothing else among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

Let us listen to our Father again. I spoke to you of the need for you to have doctrine, good doctrine, to bring truth, light, goodness, love of freedom, the responsible sense of life, into all classes of society and thus sow peace and joy; because all the apostolates of Opus Dei are reduced to a single one: to give doctrine, light. Wherever there is a soul of Opus Dei, there is a burning ember that ignites fire, gives light and heat, in an activity that is unnoticed, but always fruitful.

Our mission is reduced to this: to proclaim the truth of Christ. First, by the example of a clean and upright Christian life; then, by our work, by completing our ordinary tasks well - each in his or her profession, whether intellectual or manual - by carrying out their professional work to the best of their ability, my children also give doctrine in this way; then, with the charity of Christ, which is based on human friendship, because we have to help others with human and supernatural politesse. Only when these conditions have been fulfilled is the word effective, and it is also known how to pronounce it with the gift of tongues.

So do not forget: first we must break the apostolic front by example, by a well-finished work and by friendship. May you always be very clear about this!

Prayer is the first and foremost weapon in the apostolate.

THE LORD is most interested in his field, the Church, bearing much fruit. He calls his inheritance workers and counts on us to extend his kingdom. We can and must collaborate with him in many ways: by the example of an authentically Christian life, by the right words, by sincere and self-sacrificing friendship. … But above all, by prayer, as Jesus himself tells us today in the Gospel: pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. The first and most important thing is to importune God with a prayer supported by sacrifice. Hear, Lord, my voice: I call upon you.

All men - and we too - go directly to failure with human means alone. It will come sooner or later, but it will come inexorably. It is necessary to count on Him, to live for Him, to do what He wants, to treat everything human with a divine sense.

When someone says to me: because I, because of my talent, because of my conditions … , I laugh, I commend him and, in different tones or in different ways, I answer: you and I are worth as much as we are humble. And nothing more. Only with humility, letting the Lord do what he wants, can he use us as he wants.

Give thanks to God, because you always serve as his instruments, if you wish. Your whole life is apostolate: you cannot forget that everything you do must be to bring souls to Christ. The apostolate is part of our very life, and therefore it is not reduced to something external, to an activity or even activism. It is not like a suit, which one puts on or takes off according to the circumstances. All of us, at all times, can and must carry out an apostolate, which has a root from which it starts: love for Christ, a sincere and generous love. If this love is lacking, it is not possible to persevere in Opus Dei. Now you will understand why I repeat to you with a crush that you are hungry for God.

Before concluding this time of meditation, following our Father’s recommendation, let us make the firm resolution to be souls of prayer, never to forget the divine counsel: oportet semper orare! (Lk 18:1). We must pray always, my children, day and night, whatever we do and wherever we are. How? You know this well: by dealing with God in the Bread and in the Word, in the Holy Eucharist and in prayer. We must be concerned not to abandon him for a moment.

I would like us to also propose to pray with the senses, mortifying ourselves, delving into a permanent spirit of penance, in order to praise - with Mary and Joseph - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the Most Blessed Trinity, the only true God.