298. Fifteenth Monday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 278 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Formation is necessary always.

The Gospel of today’s Mass puts before us the guidelines Jesus gave his Apostles before sending them out to preach to the towns of Israel: Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Our Lord takes great pains over the formation of the Twelve. He warns them of the dangers that lie ahead, and at the same time he assures them of victory if they put his advice into practice. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Just as our Lord did for the Apostles, so too the Work unceasingly provides us with a formation which is perfectly suited to the requirements of our supernatural vocation. As our Founder told us: The aims we seek corporately are sanctity and apostolate. And in order to attain these goals we need formation above all else. For our sanctity we need doctrine and for the apostolate, doctrine. And to acquire doctrine, we need time, the right place, and the right means.

Let’s not expect extraordinary revelations from God when he has no reason to grant them to us. For he does give us specific human means: study and work. You must be formed. You must study. Like that you will be preparing yourselves for your present and future sanctity and for your apostolate among men and women.

Have you seen how they prepare the leaven, how they keep it covered up, at a certain temperature, so that they can later mix it with the dough… ? I count on you as on a powerful motor to give an impulse to the apostolic work throughout the world. No one of you is ineffective. You are all full of effectiveness as long as you fulfil the Norms, and study, and work, and obey.

I understand very little about atomic material and what I do know comes from the newspapers. But I have seen photographs and I know that they bury it, if necessary, many metres underground. They cover it up with great sheets of lead and they keep it between thick cement walls. And yet it still acts, and they carry it around here and there, and they apply it to people in order to cure tumours. They use it for other things as well, and it acts in a thousand marvellous ways, with extraordinary effectiveness. That is what you are, my sons and daughters, when you are devoted to internal tasks or are in the centres of formation of the Work. You are most effective because you have the effectiveness of God when you become divine through your dedication, like Christ, when he emptied himself. And we empty ourselves, we apparently lose our freedom, while becoming entirely free with the freedom of the children of God.

Formation, then, in order to spread doctrine and for your personal sanctity. Formation for the necessary length of time, in the right place, with the right means. But thinking about the whole world, all mankind, thinking about all souls. And while your brothers and sisters are opening fronts in new countries, they will not be alone, because from within these walls - which seem to be made of brick and are really made of love - you will be sending them all the effectiveness of your sanctity and of your dedication. And those brothers and sisters of yours will know that they are not alone.

It’s not enough just to learn: we must also practise.

Formation is not rounded and complete until we put into practice the advice we receive and the resolutions we make. To learn something and not to practise it is worse than not having learned it at all.

This is the reproach God addresses to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah: What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams … Bring no more vain offerings … Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good.

Discite benefacere: learn to do good. In our Father’s words, a doctrine may be a marvellous one, with the power to save, but it will all be pointless if there is no one who has been taught how to put it into practice. The Work is ceaselessly giving us the specific training we need to make us consistent and effective, so that God our Lord won’t have to renew his lament: My people is like a flock that was scattered all over the face of the earth, because there was no one to search or seek for them. Your formation is never over; throughout the whole of your lives, in marvellous humility, you will need to go on improving your human, spiritual, doctrinal, apostolic, and professional training.

Apart from any other reasons, all this is a consequence of your secularity. You are to practise our God-given spirit with ease and confidence, not stiffly or awkwardly. By its very nature, this spirit is not bound up with any particular time or place, but will always respond to the most diverse changes and situations that may arise in society as the centuries go by.

If we are to discover new horizons we need to hear the same things time and time again and bring what we hear to our prayer. Besides, if we don’t put the spirit of the Work into practice we will never understand it properly. Without personal experience it is impossible to have a full knowledge of our way. That is why our Father tells us: the more you perfect your formation, and the more you become Opus Dei every day, then the deeper and clearer your understanding of our things becomes and the more you identify with them, until eventually they become completely second nature to you.

Progress in the practice of virtue requires a resolute struggle. One ancient writer says that enjoyment of the things of God is not wearying, and the more a person enjoys and savours them, the greater need he has of them. St Augustine remarked that this love improves them and makes them better known. Thus, if you improve in the charity which the Holy Spirit pours into your hearts, “he will guide you into all the truth.” We must develop more honest affections and grow in love of God, so as to identify ourselves with the spirit God has given us. In the words of St Thomas: this deep understanding of divine things is the result of the charity which unites us to God. It is vital to put into practice our Lord’s advice to the doctor of the Law when explaining the commandment of love. After expounding the parable of the Good Samaritan, he said to him: Go and do likewise.

Humility to acknowledge that we are never sufficiently formed.

The purpose of the formation we receive is to identify us fully with the spirit of the Work. It is a programme which can take a whole lifetime and which can never be fully achieved on this earth, because the spirit of the Work, which comes from God, causes us to be identified with Christ, to be ipse Christus: Christ himself.

It is not easy to assimilate completely the various aspects of the formation the Work offers us. We can always know God better. Our doctrinal-religious formation, which feeds our piety and guides us in all we do, is never finished. Regarding our spiritual formation, it is always possible to improve in the practice of virtue. The same is true of the apostolate, which is a sea without shores. Our professional formation remains ever open to new advancements in science and technology. And in the area of the human virtues, a glance at our own character will show us that we can still acquire and improve the personality traits proper to our spirit.

The panorama is so extensive that we can never say: Now at last I am formed! Even if we live to be eighty, we can always receive more formation and improve the formation we already have.

Added to this is the fact that, no matter how long it is since we asked for the admission, as far as the Work is concerned we never cease to be like little children. We must take advantage of the maternal care of this wonderful Mother of ours who puts herself entirely at our disposal to fill us with her good spirit. As the Book of Wisdom says: Set your desire on my words; long for them, and you will be instructed. We need to approach the means of formation like children, with the desire to learn and improve, for, in the words of St John Chrysostom: the word of God is food for the soul and its adornment and security. Not to hear it is to go hungry and be corrupted.

There is an inexhaustible wealth to be found in all these features of our spirit. We need to acquire them progressively, not only in breadth, but also in depth. We should be convinced of the value of going over the same points again and again. Therefore we ponder them continually, renewing resolutions we have made in the past, and directing our particular examination once again to things we thought we had mastered long ago. The knowledge thus acquired becomes a starting point for a better grasp of previous ideas; and the more we learn, the better we see what still has to be overcome. An ancient Church writer has asserted that the greater the effort the soul makes to grow and progress, the more keenly it experiences its own total poverty.

Let us have recourse to Mary, the Seat of Wisdom and our Hope. In the words of the prophet Amos: I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.