305. Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

Meditations no. 589 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Like Christ, we are to have compassion on the crowd.

THE LORD sees that the Apostles need rest after so much movement among thousands of people. They did not even have time to eat, St. Mark affirms in the Gospel of the Mass. That is why he now invites them: come alone to a secluded place, and rest a little.

Nor do we have time to spare for the children of God in Opus Dei. Right now we are especially grateful for these moments of prayer, which help us to rest with Jesus and to intensify our relationship with Him. The Lord sees us and hears us at all times, especially when we pray in front of the Tabernacle. The security that faith gives us, that is, the certainty that He is with us, moves us to tell Him our things, to listen to Him, to adore, to thank, to make reparation and to ask. In this way we obtain light, resolutions and grace to put them into practice.

St. Mark goes on to say that the people saw them marching and rushed to the place where the Lord was going. It was a great crowd. Our Father, commenting on another similar moment in the life of Christ, in which the people crowded around him anxious to hear the word of God, said: Like today! Don’t you see? They are eager to hear God’s message, even if they hide it externally. And Christ, who is the same yesterday and today, and forever, shows himself full of compassion for the crowd, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

Let us learn from the Master. The Lord has his eyes and his heart fixed on the people, on all men, without excluding anyone, and he does not refuse to attend to those who seek him. We too are in the Work, next to Christ, not to isolate ourselves, but, on the contrary, to give ourselves to the crowd; first to your brothers and sisters, and then to others (…). From time to time we will retire to the boat or go back to a mountain, like Jesus; but the ordinary thing will be to live and work among the people, as one of them.

Our task is to bring souls to Jesus. At our side we find many people who are eager to hear God’s message, even if they hide it externally. Perhaps some have forgotten the doctrine of Christ; others-through no fault of their own-never learned it, and think of religion as something strange. But be convinced of an ever-present reality: there always comes a time when the soul cannot take it anymore, the usual explanations are not enough, the lies of false prophets do not satisfy them. And, even if they do not admit it then, these people are hungry to satisfy their restlessness with the teaching of the Lord. The longing for God is the deepest part of the human heart, its deepest aspiration; so much so that, as St. Josemaría said, those who do not know themselves to be children of God do not know their most intimate truth. And we must be at the side of all, as faithful instruments, attentive to take advantage of every opportunity to lead them to the Lord.

Being instruments of Christ’s mercy is the reason for our call to the apostolate.

IN THE Second Reading of the Mass, taken from the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul refers to the Gentiles who lived without knowing Christ, alien to the citizenship of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. Yet, as the Apostle goes on to say, you who were once far off have been drawn near by the blood of Christ. It is great to know and to live the reality that we are consanguineous with Christ, through our insertion into his Mystical Body through Baptism and, most especially, through the reception of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. “Let us consider how great are the bowels of his mercy, which not only forgives us our sins, but promises the heavenly kingdom to those who repent of them.”

Our union with Jesus must lead us to feel sorrow for the distance of many who do not even know such a possibility, despite being called to enjoy divine intimacy. For this reason, as our Father said, that apostolic zeal must be continuous, which leads us to transform everything into prayer, to desire to burn others with doctrine, with the love of God. Our Lord has had a great predilection for each one of us, as he did for those first twelve; a predilection that you, my Son, and I must translate into a very great love for Jesus Christ, into a sovereign trust that rests on that divine choice.

The Lord has chosen us as messengers of his doctrine of salvation: he wants us to bring his word to all our companions, to all those around us, to all souls. For this reason, in the most unthinkable places where we have to work, there, a child of God in his Work must be eminently apostolic.

The reason for our vocation in Opus Dei is the apostolate: to be instruments of Christ in the salvation of souls. That is why we must have a merciful heart, like his, and be interested in all the people with whom we meet, with their joys and hopes, with their sorrows and joys, with their advances and setbacks. We cannot and do not want to hide our condition as Christians, called to serve everyone. We have the obligation to turn our whole life into a means of bringing souls to God. The apostolate is necessarily a constant jolt for us. We cannot remain indifferent: the Lord must dwell in every soul, and you and I have been mandated to carry out this divine enterprise.

When we receive Jesus Christ into Communion, it is a good time to tell him that we do not want to disappoint him, that we want our life to be radically apostolic. Let him ask us: do you pray and mortify yourself for the people whom I myself have placed next to you? Do you really have a daily apostolic plan? Do you make an effort to carry that plan forward?

We must be good shepherds for many souls. Apostolate of Confession.

WE HEAR God’s complaint through the prophet Jeremiah: Woe to the shepherds who lose and scatter the sheep of my flock! (… ). You have scattered my sheep, you have driven them away, you have not cared for them. … I will gather the remains of my sheep from all the lands where I drove them out, and I will bring them back to their pastures, that they may grow and multiply.

Then the prophet announces that a time will come when God himself will be the Shepherd of the sheep, through shepherds after his Heart, who will take care of the flock and lead it to pleasant and safe places. The responsorial psalm gathers this aspiration so characteristic of all souls: the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. In green meadows he makes me rest; he guides me to still waters; he comforts my soul, he leads me along straight paths for the honor of his Name. Even if I pass through dark valleys, I fear no evil, because You are with me This prophecy was fulfilled in Our Lord, who, as we see in the Gospel, shows himself full of compassion for those people who were like sheep without peace.

We ask him to continue to send good shepherds to the earth. In the first place, priests, who represent Christ among the rest of the faithful and are the channel for the distribution of the grace that comes to us through the sacraments. How many times did our Father exclaim: my souls hurt! Like Jesus, he was moved by love for God and for men, so much in need of someone who listens to them, guides them, understands them, helps them to rectify and leads them to knowledge of the doctrine of the Church, to the practice of the sacraments, to a coherent Christian life. “Just as the care of the doctor is manifested in the sick, so God manifests himself to men.”

But not only sacred ministers. All Christians, by virtue of the priestly soul received in Baptism, are called to make Jesus Christ present in the place where they are. In Opus Dei, this apostolic vocation shines forth in all its intensity. Let us not fail to see every day whether this is indeed the case: if we pray and mortify ourselves generously for our families and friends; if we show interest in their things, if we try to bring them closer to God; if we punctually carry out our personal apostolic task.

Today, customs, laws, circumstances or social structures - and perhaps the errors and omissions of Christians themselves - sadly contribute to the fact that many people walk like sheep without a shepherd. Therefore, even if we are little, they await us in all environments, in a thousand different situations. In many cases, it will be necessary to speak to them of the sacrament of Penance, making them consider what St. Gregory the Great says: “He who before the sin forbade us to sin, when it has been committed, does not cease to wait for us to grant us his forgiveness. See that he who we despise calls us. We separate ourselves from him, but he does not separate himself from us.”

Don Álvaro explained that our Founder “emphasized that there is no true apostolate if it is not possible to make souls understand the need for a good confession, in order to enter into paths of repentance and struggle. If you do not get there in your dealings with friends and companions, if you limit yourself to theoretical or inoperative conversations, you are beating around the bush. It draws practical consequences from this behavior of the Father and from his teaching, which so clearly orient the whole apostolate and the work of souls.” And he added, encouraging us to be constant daily in this apostolate: “Waste a lot of patience with the people you meet, without being discouraged when they do not respond. Dedicate time to them, love them truly, and they will end up surrendering to the Love of God that they will discover in your conduct.”

Let us ask Our Lady that those words of our Father during one of his catecheses in America may be engraved well in our hearts: The Lord is waiting for many to take a good bath in the Sacrament of Penance! And he has prepared a banquet for them, that of the wedding, that of the Eucharist; the ring of the covenant and of fidelity and friendship forever. Let them go to confession! You, daughters and sons, bring souls closer to Confession. Do not make my coming to Chile useless! May many people come to God’s forgiveness!