293. Fourteenth Friday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 275 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

We must persevere to the end.

A phrase in the Gospel of the Mass can help our prayer today: he who endures to the end will be saved. We can meditate on these words, using the text of a meditation given by our Father many years ago.

I must speak to you, my children, of something which is not altogether in keeping with my spirit but which nevertheless cannot be lost sight of. I repeat: it does not fit in with the spirit which has been given to me by God and which I must pass on to you, because our way is one of love, and we are not motivated by fear, in the sense of dread. This life ends very quickly, and afterwards there is reward or punishment; so I perfectly understand how a soul would wish to be completely purified for its eternal meeting with the Blessed Trinity. For this reason I look upon Purgatory as an expression of God’s mercy. I think that God has gone to that extreme because of the love he has for us. I like to think that our journey will end in heaven, after we have enjoyed half a heaven on earth thanks to the call we have received. But don’t ever forget that this happy ending is only made possible by perseverance.

Have you ever seen one of those television programmes where some poor unfortunate is asked a question and is given just thirty seconds to answer? My children, what each of you, what I myself have chosen as the purpose of my life this very morning, with all its ins and outs, with all its greatness made up of little details… all of that adds up to just a few moments. Time flows on, life is ebbing away! …

Sacred Scripture tells us that man’s life is like grass: it blooms with the first light of sun, and by evening it is already withered. If we were to ask a poet he might say that we are born as the lightning flash begins, and its glow still lingers when we die… Don’t forget that everybody has to die. Statutum est hominibus semel mori (it is appointed for men to die once). Everybody, including you and me. Some die when they are young, as you are, and others when they have begun to grow old, like me: young children, elderly people, and men and women in the prime of life. We can’t afford to waste time! This is what I want to remind you of: time is short - so very, very short.

So let’s ask ourselves: how shall we manage to persevere? By being just as determined and by trying as hard as other people do in human affairs. Have you not seen how fathers or mothers give their lives for the well-being of their families and refuse to let themselves be overwhelmed by difficulties? And other people do the same for what they call their honour, which is sometimes nothing more than their pride. Have you not seen how they struggle, and persist, without losing heart?

I remember once giving a retreat to priests in a certain city in Spain. There was a big old house there … and I was struck by some words carved on the main facade of the building. I was told that they reflected the stubbornness of the admirable fellow who owned the house. From the building, through a little door set into the outer wall, he had a direct means of exit from the city. But the civic authorities made him block it up. He complied, but he had this inscription put over the window on the facade: “Where one door closes, another door opens”. There’s stubbornness for you! Are you and I like that in our affairs? When something doesn’t work out in our daily struggle, well then, tomorrow it will! My children, be stubborn. Raise your stubbornness to the supernatural level.

The enemies of our perseverance.

Discouragement, my children, is an enemy of perseverance. The soul can encounter moments of struggle, both at your age, and also in middle age and even later (it happens to me too) - moments when the soul feels moved to cry out, with St Paul, those words I find so consoling: I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? One feels then the inroads of pride and sensuality and a longing, not for freedom, but for licentiousness. And if we are not forewarned, that is when discouragement makes its appearance …

My children, why does this happen? Because of your inadequacies and mine? Because of your defeats, which sometimes come one after the other? Because of a really big pitfall you weren’t expecting? Open your heart, be simple, and so we go forward, with more affection, with more joy, more confidence, and more strength - the strength God gives us. Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea, quem timebo? Si consistant adversum me castra, non timebit cor meum! (The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Though a host encamp against me, yet I will be confident!)

Another enemy of perseverance is lukewarmness. Let me read you some words from the Apocalypse, scio opera tua: I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Don’t be annoyed if I tell you I have known whole nations like that, neither cold nor hot… The result is that everything is submerged in the most dreadful lukewarmness, although everything seems fine to them. Utinam frigidus esses aut calidus! (Would that you were cold or hot!)

My dearest children, don’t ever be lukewarm. The lukewarm have hearts of clay, hearts of miserable flesh. There are hearts that are hard and cold, but noble: on coming into contact with the warmth of Christ’s heart, they melt like bronze into tears of love and atonement, and are set alight! And there are other hearts that are made of clay: these crack and crumble into dust Disgusting! My children! O Jesus, keep lukewarmness well away from us! Anything but lukewarmness!

Shall I warn you of something else? There is a stupid little enemy, but a very effective one nonetheless, namely, a lack of diligence in examination. The examinations of conscience have been included among our Norms for a very good reason. If you ever get scrupulous about your examination of conscience, you should try the following very short one: “What have I done wrong? Forgive me, Lord. What have I done well? Thank you, Lord. What could I have done better?” - and a resolution. It just takes two minutes, or half a minute. Then there’s the particular examination, that specific area where you have been bringing the enemy to battle, just to make sure he doesn’t bring you to battle on a point that would be harder for you. Never omit it!

A fourth enemy of perseverance is lack of love. My dearest children, if there is no love in our lives, then our celibacy is meaningless. If we don’t fall in love, then instead of being saints we’ll just be repulsive old bachelors or spinsters. Build up your relationship with Christ! When people came to see me in the early days I often got them to read books on our Lord’s Passion. Fall in love with Jesus! Be another of the people with him; allow your heart to delight in him! You will find yourself coming closer to him and will fall in love with him. In spite of all your passions and weaknesses, you will be faithful, you will persevere.

Sincerity is essential if we are to be faithful.

My children, he who endures to the end will be saved: these are the words of Jesus himself. With supernatural and human clarity I have written that our perseverance in the Work is totally voluntary. You are here because you want to be, which seems to me to be the most supernatural of all reasons. A person receives God’s grace, feels its strength, and responds: ecce ego, quia vocasti me: here I am, because you have called me.

In Opus Dei we don’t browbeat anybody. Perseverance depends on each of us individually. Everybody, absolutely everybody, helps you, for we are all members of the same body and are obliged to give one another strength and support by injecting virtuous acts into its bloodstream. If you’re going through a difficult patch your brothers or sisters will reach out their hand to help you. But if you insist on letting go of that hand, then you’ll slip away …

How can we be faithful and persevering in our vocation? By being sincere. Firstly, sincere with God. This can be hard, because human beings tend towards anonymity. People in influential positions in society receive tons of anonymous correspondence. If I get anything like that I just throw it away. But… many men and women prefer to remain anonymous before God. I have seen communist mobs organize atrocities, and many good people going along with it I have seen churches burned, convents and monasteries set alight, innocent people murdered, with hardly anyone realizing what was happening: all done by an anonymous crowd. How pitiable if, instead of living face to face with God, we prefer to live in anonymity! I love vocal prayer, and I have often recommended it to you. But what about mental prayer, where we are face to face with God without set forms of words? Without anonymity, Lord, I come to take my place at your side. Take good care of your mental prayer and your continual presence of God.

Be sincere with yourselves as well. That’s even more difficult. You’ll have heard it said that the best business on earth would be to buy people up for the price they are worth, and then sell them for what they think they are worth. It’s very difficult to be truly sincere. There is always a reason not to be.

And finally, we need to be sincere with our Directors. Why have we come to Opus Dei, my children? We have come for something very specific: to be saints. It is like when someone goes to hospital for treatment. If, when the time comes for them to take their clothes off and be examined, they say “no way”, and if, when asked to describe their symptoms, they refuse to talk, then instead of being admitted to hospital they should be locked up in an asylum. We have come to Opus Dei to be saints. And so we have to overcome our fear of letting ourselves be known for what we are, because if we don’t we can’t be cured. Your Directors and the priests need to know you well. Don’t ever try to hide anything! Without that sincerity with God, with yourself, and with those in charge, I see your perseverance as being in jeopardy. On the other hand, if you are always simple with God, with yourself, and with the Directors, you will persevere with ease.

It should also be said that being reluctant to say what has happened to us is the height of folly. What some people try to hide, others have no problem in talking about publicly, sometimes even exaggerating it, over a cup of coffee. But when serving God, some people are overcome by an extraordinary sense of embarrassment… Let me recall what my mother used to say when I was a small boy and wouldn’t come out to meet her visitors: “Josemaría, you should only be ashamed to sin.” Is that clear? We should only be ashamed to offend God! If you have offended him, then go straight to the doctor to show him the injury, to describe the symptoms of the disease. If you don’t you can’t be cured. But if you speak out, it will always be easy to persevere …

To finish, let me remind you of another important point, one which has been written into our particular Law. There are three things which ensure happiness on earth and an eternal reward in heaven: a firm, virginal, joyful and unquestioning fidelity to the faith, to purity and to one’s own vocation or calling.

God wants our fidelity to be virginal; he wants our purity to blossom once more - if it happens that we have gone down other paths - in such a fashion that it can be described as virginal; and the same applies to vocation. These three things are untouchable; they are not to be tampered with. Is there a single person who would allow his mother’s honesty to be questioned? My faith, my purity, my calling: untouchable, firm, virginal, joyful, and unquestioning. That is how to persevere to the end. As Jesus has said, He who endures to the end will be saved.

Mary, Virgin most faithful, help us to persevere in Opus Dei to the end of our lives.