296. Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

Meditations no. 588 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Lord sends us as the Apostles.

Jesus called the Twelve and sent them out two by two, giving them power over unclean spirits. The Lord wants to count on the collaboration of the Apostles, who until then have continued to try not to lose a single one of their words. He sends them to nearby villages, with the charge to preach in his name, cast out demons and heal the sick. The disciples do not plead their incapacity or lack of means, and they begin to travel the territory to fulfill their task. They remember that occasion when, after the failure of a night of useless fatigue, obedience to Christ’s command - cast your nets - caused the surprising fact of the miraculous catch.

On another occasion he advises them to ask for divine help in the first place: the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send laborers into his harvest. He inculcates in them that they put supernatural means before anything else, because prayer is the most effective means of proselytism. You must be a “man of God,” a man of interior life, a man of prayer and sacrifice. Your apostolate must be a superabundance of your life “inwardly.”

Jesus does not limit himself to sending the Apostles; He also gives them detailed instructions: he commanded them not to carry anything for the journey, neither bread, nor bag, nor money in their purse, but only a staff; and that they should wear sandals and not wear two tunics. And he said to them: “If you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. And if they do not welcome you or listen to you anywhere, when you leave there shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them. He wants it to be deeply engraved in their souls that they are instruments in the hands of God, from whom all power comes.” This is what the Twelve did: they went away and preached that they should be converted. And they cast out many demons, and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

The Lord wishes to teach His disciples that the fruit does not depend on their personal qualities, their ability or their inventiveness: it is enough that they use the means that He Himself has indicated to them. The Apostle, explains St. Gregory the Great, “must have so much confidence in God that, even if he does not have what is necessary for this life, he must be certain that this will not be lacking; and thus, not because he focuses his attention on temporal things, he provides less of the eternal things to others.”

We have been sent not to do “our” apostolate, but to carry out the task that the Lord has entrusted to us. Our vocation as children of God, in the midst of the world. requires us not only to seek our personal holiness, but to walk the paths of the earth, to turn them into trails that, through obstacles, lead souls to the Lord; that we share as ordinary citizens in all temporal activities, to be leaven (cf. Mt 13:33) that must inform the whole mass (cf. 1 Cor 5:6).

But in the apostolate, we cannot limit ourselves to passively putting into practice, like inert instruments, the concrete indications that we receive. Shortly before his Passion, the Lord reminded the disciples of those first adventures, and asked them: “When I sent you without a purse, or saddlebags, or shoes, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. Then he said to them: “Now, however, whoever has a purse, let him carry it; and the same with the saddlebag; and whoever does not have, let him sell his tunic and buy a sword.” They have learned that the fruit comes from God, but now Jesus completes the teaching: the Lord also counts on our effort and our inventiveness.

Application to the work of San Rafael.

WE APPLY these considerations today to the work of St. Raphael, who is the apple of our eye and in whom we must all participate in one way or another. In fact, Father wrote to us, “the Christian formation of youth is decisive for the Church and for the future of civil society in all countries. This is the immediate goal of St. Raphael’s work. Moreover, if the preparation of young people is thoroughly cared for, what defines its immediate purpose is achieved: that some-many-receive the call to Opus Dei as Numeraries or Attachés; boys or girls with a complete availability to dedicate themselves to the formative or apostolic work of the Prelature.”

Our Founder told us: the Numeraries, the Aggregates and the Supernumeraries; the Aggregates and Supernumeraries of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, we form a single family, all with a single and identical vocation. And then there are those relatives whom we love so much: the Cooperators (…); and then so many friends and so many colleagues who in some way participate in our family. In line with these words, Father reminds us that “the unity of this family entails a permanent renewal of the effort to coordinate the work of Sts. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael, and of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, as well as to ensure that the instruments used in the apostolate are in optimal conditions, adequate to their purpose. In this way, the supernatural effectiveness of all and the great coherence in the formation that young people receive in families and in educational centers is facilitated.”

Let us try to provide the means and do everything in our power to collaborate in the growth of the work of St. Raphael: “With prayer and sacrifice, in the first place, but also by working personally, and taking advantage of every opportunity to serve souls, to speak of God. The young, in a preferential way, treating their friends and companions; the elderly, taking care that the young people around them, of the appropriate age, come into contact with the Centers of St. Raphael.”

To accomplish all this formative task of the work of St. Raphael, we have a great variety of means and apostolic activities. Among these means, some, which are already traditional, have been used with proven effectiveness for the good of souls since the beginning of our Work: Formation Courses, catechesis and visits to the poor of Our Lady, meditations, spiritual retreats and, in general, liturgical acts of piety that take place in our Residences.

These means are perennial and must always and everywhere be used in carrying out the work of St. Raphael: because they characterize this apostolate and give life to all the other activities that are developed around this work of St. Raphael.

“The traditional means of St. Raphael’s work - which strengthen friendship with Jesus Christ in young people - retain all the freshness that caused, in the beginning and always, a mobilization among boys or girls; for this reason, in all countries we must strive to organize and develop with liveliness, with apostolic zeal.”

Alongside these traditional means, there is room for other initiatives that contribute to personal formation and to the extension of apostolic work. There are so many works of all kinds, so many external manifestations that must be put into practice and that are like nets for fishing - divine fishing - the souls of those who are around the work of St. Raphael! Certainly, among these external manifestations, two are obligatory: catechesis and visiting the poor; then there are activities of sports, science, literature, cinema, whatever you want!, excursions, and a hundred thousand other things, but always with a profoundly apostolic heart: otherwise, they are useless.

Fidelity to the specific means of that work.

THE APOSTLES had faith in Jesus Christ, put his instructions into practice, and returned laden with fruit. Likewise, we are convinced that the work of souls will be effective if, with prayer and mortification, which always come first, we faithfully use the means that our Founder has indicated to us. In this way we will follow the Apostle’s exhortation: what you have learned and received, what you have heard and seen in me, put into practice; and the God of peace will be with you. By living the spirit that the Lord has wanted for us and has given us through St. Josemaría, we will be certain that we are doing the Work of God, not our task; and we will reap abundant fruit, because once again what St. Paul says will come true: I planted, Apollo watered, but it is God who gave the growth; so that neither the one who plants is anything, nor the one who waters, but the one who gives the growth, God.

The Lord counts on our zeal, on that divine madness of an apostle, which I desire for you, and it has these symptoms: hunger to deal with the Master; constant concern for souls; perseverance, which makes nothing faint. We will not stop in the face of difficulties, because when there is zeal for souls, good people are always found, fertile ground is always discovered. There is no excuse! And our Father adds: Be convinced: there too there are many who can understand your way; souls who, consciously or unconsciously, seek Christ and do not find him. But “how will they hear about Him if no one speaks to them?” Therefore, when you throw yourself into the apostolate, be convinced that it is always a matter of making people happy, very happy: Truth is inseparable from authentic joy.

What joy we experience when the Lord blesses our apostolic work! St. Gregory comments that “to one of our own works we owe two rewards: one on the road and the other in the homeland; one that sustains us in work and the other that rewards us in the resurrection. So that the reward that is received in the present must serve us to tend to the other reward with greater effort.” God will bless us with an abundance of fruits if we put into practice the specific means of St. Raphael’s work. We must live them, my children! -our Founder exhorted-. It is necessary to begin there. And we must continue with the same work, and we must always continue with the same work.

You must have … a great assurance in the supernatural efficacy of your apostolic work: if you use the traditional means faithfully, everything will go well. There may be difficulties of one kind or another at times, but they are always overcome; they are things of ordinary administration, which you will overcome with your sacrifice, with your prayer and with your joy.

With this trust, and knowing that we have effective weapons - because they are not ours, but the Lord’s - we will make plans of apostolate for each of our days, living with extreme delicacy the spirit of the Work as our Founder has left them. In this way, the work will bear fruit: those who proselytize, get vocations; those who proselytize a little, get few vocations; those who proselytize a lot, get many vocations.

The Blessed Virgin always watches over us and, as at Cana, tells us to turn our eyes to Jesus: to his words, to his teachings, to the way he expects of us. In this way we will walk the path to holiness with confidence, and we will carry out an effective and constant apostolate: do whatever he tells you.