328. Eighteenth Thursday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 302 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Jesus conferred on Peter supreme authority in the Church.
Our Lord was travelling with his Apostles through the territory of Caesarea Philippi, and in the course of their journey they had one of those intimate conversations which were a common feature of his three years of public life. This time it is Jesus who asks the question: Who do men say that the Son of man is? After hearing a number of answers, all of them incorrect some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets - he asks them again: But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter is the first to reply: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answers him: I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.
With these words Christ promises Simon the primacy of the universal Church. Peter will receive the fullness of the power of binding and loosing, and will become the steward of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven in its earthly phase. All who wish to belong to the People of God will have to obey his voice.
Among the prerogatives which our Lord chose to bestow on Simon Peter and his successors, for the faithful fulfilment of the mission entrusted to them, is the supreme power of Magisterium, to which all Catholics are subject. The First Vatican Council stated that by divine and Catholic faith everything must be believed which is contained in the written word of God or in tradition, and which is proposed by the Church as a divinely revealed object of belief either in a solemn decree or in her ordinary, universal teaching.
If we want to possess the fullness of Christâs doctrine then it is absolutely essential to follow the Churchâs Magisterium. The absence of this communion leads to darkness and sterility. Our Father writes: We have to become bread for the altar and bread for the table: divine and human. And the only way to achieve this is by following the Magisterium of our immaculate Mother the Church: loving the Roman Pontiff, loving the unity of the Church - this Church which God has made divine - unswervingly united to that stem which is forever fruitful: ego sum vitis, vos palmites: qui manet in me, et ego in eo, hic fert fructum multum: quia sine me nihil potestis facere (I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing).
The Magisterium of the Church is the guarantee of our faith and our supernatural effectiveness.
In the Church of Christ, everyone is obliged to make a tenacious effort to remain loyal to the teaching of Christ. Our Father warned us to be on our guard against the dangers of doctrinal deviation. St Augustine says that Christ himself wished to forewarn us against those who, as he himself had predicted, would arise throughout history saying, âLo, here is the Christ, or there he is.â He instructed us not to give them any credence. We have no excuse at all if we disregard the Shepherdâs voice; it is so clear, so open, so evident, that not even the most short-sighted and stupid of individuals could say: âI didnât understand.â
Moreover, when the Church, drawing on her authority in matters of faith, clarifies their exact meaning for us, she helps us not to make mistakes; she frees our minds from the danger of error, and makes it possible for us to yield supernatural fruit. We can be that good wheat, writes our Father, by obeying the Churchâs Magisterium, especially today when all the old heresies are being renewed. Our times seem just like those of the French Revolution, or those of Protestantism which rent the Churchâs garment, or even like those more distant times of which St Augustine wrote: Many contradictory voices ring out; different heresies and schisms appear, and many voices contradict the true doctrine. Run to the tabernacle of God, be of the Catholic Church, do not deviate from the rule of truth.
We cannot forget that Christâs Vicar the Pope, and the Pastors of the Church in communion with him, exercise their authority for the benefit of all souls. We ought to respond to that dedication by having a deeply filial love for the Supreme Pontiff, who calls himself, and who really is, the servant of the servants of God, and who carries out a mission which is often hard and difficult. This same love will lead us to embrace the faith willingly and to defend it fortes in fide, strong in the faith, whenever necessary.
But that is not enough. As Christians we have to feel the urgency of bringing Christâs light to all mankind. This light is not something that shines forth just for a moment, but the perennial light of God and of his Church. Love the Church, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman, and One! our Father tells us. And then it wonât matter if we are very conscious of our own insignificance. Then, with our dedication to the service of God and of all souls without exception, by unswerving obedience to the Magisterium of Peter, we will achieve the consecratio mundi (the sanctification of the world) that we desire, and become good wheat and healthy nourishment for the whole human race.
Fidelity to the Churchâs Magisterium.
In Opus Dei, my beloved daughters and sons, we always try in all things to sentire cum Ecclesia, to be of one mind with our Mother the Church: corporately we donât hold any other doctrine than that taught by the Magisterium of the Holy See.
We accept everything the Magisterium accepts, and we reject everything it rejects. We believe firmly everything it proposes as an article of faith, and we also make our own everything which is part of Catholic teaching.
Fidelity to the Magisterium is fidelity to our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Truth is perennial: Christâs word never changes. The Christian must be faithful to that truth, even though it is uncomfortable, even if at times it can be the cause of friction and misunderstanding. Because Christ himself, who gave us the divine gift of peace, also pronounced those other words: putatis quia pacem veni dare in terram? Non, dico vobis, sed separationem: do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
We have to overcome the temptation to falsify the truth, to defend our own personal interests âŚ
Some unscrupulous individuals donât hesitate, without admitting it, to bend the truth as it suits them. Not only is it possible to âadaptâ the truth, one can even go so far as to âcreateâ it. I once heard a story (I donât guarantee that it is true) about how in a certain country a writer proposed to resurrect a forgotten literary figure of bygone days. He began to write newspaper and magazine articles about this unjustly-neglected man of letters: other writers, he said, have noble monuments in our city, but this great literary giant doesnât have even the smallest statue to commemorate him. Public opinion became outraged, money was raised, and eventually a design was commissioned. When everything was ready, the promoter of the forgotten writer announced that it would be impossible to make the statue, because⌠that great literary genius had never existed.
Modifying the truth, creating the truth, subjectively, can be easy; the difficult thing is to defend it charitably. Even in human affairs, there is something disgusting and repulsive about a person who is not prepared to be faithful to his convictions. On the other hand a person who, though mistaken, works in good faith, always deserves affection and respect. Anyone who, though possessing the truth, hides it through cowardice, incurs the severe censure pronounced by Pope Paul the Sixth: One of our most painful sorrows is the infidelity of some good people who forget the beauty and gravity of the commitment that binds them to the Church. This is a phenomenon which the evolution of modern life painfully accentuates, both in the sphere of doctrine and in moral behaviour. How much weakness, how much opportunism, how much conformity, how much vileness!
We want to be faithful to the deposit of faith protected and promulgated by the Churchâs Magisterium; we want to preserve it in all its purity, integrity and genuine meaning, because otherwise it wouldnât be a wealth of divine truths, but something human, which neither saves nor redeems: it would be salt that had lost its taste. The sure guideline for our fidelity is to obey the Magisterium of the Roman Pontiff.
Do whatever he tells you. With these words our Lady discreetly invites us to be very docile to the teaching of Christâs Vicar on earth.