275. Twelfth Friday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 261 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Bad doctrine is like leprosy.

Jesus was travelling round the villages of Galilee, when a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

The people who were with our Lord backed away for fear of contagion. The Law of Moses ordered lepers to be segregated from the rest of the people, and they lived separate from everyone else, with only their own ill-fortune for company. They would usually take refuge in some deserted cave, and such was their uncleanness that they would never even dare to sit down by the roadside.

That is what makes the brief conversation between our Lord and this leper so marvellous. Christ took pity on him and cured him with a single word. Then he said to him: See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.

It was a great miracle, and the leper still lay prostrate on the ground, stammering out his thanks. Hardly able to believe his eyes, he had seen his flesh become as clean as a little child’s again.

What a lot of lepers there are in the world, my children! our Founder exclaimed. People suffering from the leprosy of ignorance, or error, or impurity… And so many good people who let their minds become clouded by propaganda and false publications, which represent another kind of leprosy: the leprosy of bad doctrine.

The poor leper, kneeling at Jesus’ feet, saw his whole life pass before his eyes: the long years when he could only watch as the signs of death gradually spread over his body. Then came a piece of news that flew from mouth to mouth around all the roads in Galilee: a new Prophet had appeared, one who had the power to restore life to the dying. Initial indecision was followed by a last desperate hope, and he set off to find him.

Now that he was cured, the joy in his heart burst forth, and St Mark tells how he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country.

We must spread the news of God’s wonderful works, my children, just as this poor leper did. The truth of God must be taken everywhere, by the Press and other publications, by films, radio and television… and all this is your job.

The mission of teaching and spreading doctrine is so much a part of our vocation that we each feel personally responsible for learning more ourselves, in order to be better instruments for the task. Our spirit impels us to spread good doctrine, and this makes the Work into a focal point of light and truth for the whole world. This pressing need is so deeply felt by each member of the Work that we channel our virtues, our inner dispositions and our natural gifts towards it.

Our passion for spreading sound doctrine fires us still more when we consider how many people have no idea of it at all. To be able to carry out all this colossal, measureless apostolate, it is indispensable that you and I should be faithful, in personal holiness and with great joy; that’s how to make it all work.

The mouthpieces of public opinion are great instruments for spreading the truth.

Our apostolate unfolds in the sphere of our jobs and our friendship with the people at work and other acquaintances. It is first and foremost a one-to-one relationship, which develops as we get to know them better. But our desires embrace the whole world, and we are hungry to reach many more people. There is one area of human activity that does offer us this possibility too: the range of jobs concerned with forming and informing public opinion. But anything we might do in this field is no substitute for our obligation to make friends with people individually. Quite the reverse: it opens up new perspectives and offers us new opportunities of friendships. The job of orientating and guiding public opinion, our Father wrote, is not only a great apostolate in itself, but also a magnificent and sometimes indispensable way of helping all the other apostolic ventures.

The whole information industry is of enormous importance. Where the family and school have failed to fulfil their specific end, there has arisen the phenomenon of great numbers of people whose only education has been supplied by newspapers, magazines, the radio, and the sort of book that makes no demands on the intellect

My children, you have to realize the extraordinary, unsuspected power attained by those who use such channels for disseminating information, and who are familiar with the particular way in which they produce their effects. You must also realize what an immense responsibility such people bear before God and before mankind.

They are real educators; they have the role of teachers, but very often they fulfil it in a hidden and impersonal way. They acquire an almost unconditional hold over the minds and even the consciences of millions.

Our only reaction in the face of these new realities is one of admiration and understanding, together with the joy of knowing that we can all contribute to bringing this sector of God’s creation back to him again, even though not all of us may be working directly in this field.

I say “bring it back again”, because the bad will of God’s enemies and the irresponsibility of many Christians have combined to produce the sad state of affairs that you all know, whose results are to be seen everywhere. I mean the evil use - the abuse - that is normally made of almost all the Press for information and opinion, and of almost all entertainment.

I would like to talk to you about the truly painful deception - lingua fallax non amat veritatem (the lying tongue loves not the truth)- which is practised on people and nations, by depriving them of the most legitimate kinds of freedom, when conscienceless men take underhand advantage of the power they wield as owners or controllers of the mass media. Most painful of all is the fact that this abuse is becoming more and more firmly entrenched; children are being corrupted from their earliest years, so that parents and children alike are fed the same poison.

Our Father described the situation in these terms in 1946, and since then it has only got worse. Some years later, our Founder persisted in making us see how today it is true to say that there is no sector of the Press, and very few publications of any kind, whose contributors work in a genuinely Christian spirit, or respect other people, or love and defend the freedom of all mankind, or are capable of understanding, forgiving, and uniting people.

Despite all this, some “narrow-minded Catholics” get scandalized at members of Opus Dei working in the Press. They themselves allow people who don’t know God, and people who attack him, to carry out vicious propaganda through the mass media. This kind of behaviour really is leprosy of the brain, and blindness to the number of lepers there are in the world.

Responsibility and personal initiative in this field.

We are here for the crowds, for the masses, and I loathe any kind of tyranny and violence. We are concerned for all souls individually. Therefore we have to rush to the defence of everyone whose conscience is being oppressed, and give them fresh air to breathe once more.

In the last Ecumenical Council the Magisterium of the Church took up this urgent problem. Since public opinion exercises the greatest power and authority today in every sphere of life, both private and public, every member of society must fulfil the demands of justice and charity in this area. As a result, all must strive, through these media as well, to form and spread sound public opinion.

Many years before this, our Father had written: The exact way in which any one of my children contributes to this apostolate will depend on their own circumstances and possibilities. Those whose jobs are in the mass media will of course make a particularly effective contribution.

There will be others whose jobs are not connected with public opinion but who still reach a wide circle, through friendship, or because they are in a position to send authoritative information to the offices of international organizations, and so on.

And everyone can and must talk about these matters with their relations, colleagues and friends, and sort out the doubts or objections people may come up with.

This may prove to be a channel for our intentions, our prayer, our mortification and our activity in a particularly direct way over a certain period. And if we have the chance to play any part in it, whether by writing, talking on these topics, or promoting magazines which do have good Christian criteria, we will put all our apostolic zeal and sense of responsibility into the task.

The one thing all of us can and must do is pray. Our Father wrote to us: Remember to pray every day, and use all the means available, so that the apostolate of public opinion becomes a reality throughout the world. Because we need to be sowers of peace and joy everywhere.

Wherever there are lepers, there we must be too, giving strength to withered limbs, giving life to dead bodies. But I tell you once again: what matters is that everyone must be able to feel the warmth of your clean hearts, to recognize the bonus odor Christi, the good fragrance of Christ, in your upright behaviour. And when you meet with difficulties that seem insurmountable, remember that there is nothing insurmountable: prayer is the most powerful of weapons for a soul whose doctrine is sound. You will win through, and God’s peace will be poured out abundantly all around you.

At the same time, we must be on the alert to sift the various kinds of information that come our way, and we must do everything we can to help our friends and acquaintances form sound criteria, so as to stay immune from possible prejudices. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, the proper use of the media of social communications which are available to audiences of different cultural backgrounds and ages, calls for instruction proper to their needs.

This is a topic we all need to reflect on in the light of our own circumstances. We should ask our Lady, Mother of God and Mother of mankind, to increase our zeal for souls in this specific field of activity.