334. Nineteenth Monday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 306 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Difficulties in daily work.

God looks after us all day long, hour by hour, helping us grow in holiness. He is always there, as a loving Father, ready to comfort and support us. Every day we have to renew our desire for holiness. It is precisely through our work and our daily duties that we become saints. We should always be ready to live our life as God wants, so that we lovingly raise the ordinary small events of the day onto a supernatural level and make them apostolically fruitful.

That way, each day is different. Every new day has its own flavour, its own sense of anticipation. We are children in God’s eyes, our Father reminds us, and if we learn to see our daily life like that, even though in one sense it may seem quite unchanging, then every hour becomes quite unique and takes on new meaning, filled with wonder and beauty. All we have to do is open our eyes to God’s light, because he speaks to us through all the little events of the day.

We know that in our journey through life we are going to meet Christ’s Cross, because it is through embracing the Cross that we become like him. In the Gospel of today’s Mass Jesus tells the disciples about his forthcoming Passion: the Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. Our Lord awaits us in our ordinary daily activity; that is where we can help him carry the Cross. Today’s trouble is enough for today, he tells us; so let us try to be faithful, and undertake our little battles in a sporting spirit, without remembering “yesterday”, which has already passed, or worrying about “tomorrow”, which for all you know may never come for you.

In our apostolate we are bound to encounter opposition. I have often written to you, our Father tells us, that while you are sowing love throughout the world - exiit qui seminat seminare semen suum, the sower went out to sow - you will meet difficulties. Usually they are nothing more than little setbacks which make life inconvenient: our plans are upset, perhaps, and we may get annoyed, impatient or discouraged. Then we should heed that recommendation of St James: Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

For a son or daughter of God who sees things from a supernatural viewpoint, the ordinary setbacks of the day are an opportunity for drawing closer to God, for increasing our spirit of sacrifice and improving in some specific aspect of our life. That is how to show clearly that our self-surrender is genuine, based on love. How many, who would let themselves be nailed to a cross before the astonished gaze of thousands of spectators, cannot bear with a Christian spirit the pinpricks of each day! -Think, then, which is the more heroic.

Most of our problems are subjective.

Sometimes we may have to face real, objective difficulties, caused perhaps by problems in relating to others, or lack of money, or friction in our workplace; there may be obvious difficulties in the apostolate, or perhaps some carefully-planned project does not work out… Nevertheless we should keep it all in perspective: there’s no point in exaggerating things. What have you suffered, St John Chrysostom asks, that can compare with what Christ suffered? He was bound, beaten, scourged, spat upon. And then, having done countless good things for others, he was subjected to the most ignominious of deaths.

Apart from such objective difficulties, there are many others which are not really difficulties at all. It is not at all uncommon, among souls dedicated to God, to find people who create lots of silly problems for themselves which have no basis in reality. In fact, most of the time our problems are subjective. We tend to have the problems we look for. When people are concerned with God alone they have very few problems, because when something really difficult comes along they see it as God’s Will, they ask for light to see things clearly, and that’s that. Everything else is more imaginary than real, and is often the result of pride or sensuality. Our Father tells us: my daughters and sons, there are two enemies which we’ve got to fight especially: sensuality and pride. We are always saddled with the burden of sensuality: to fight it we need to mortify our senses generously, and strive to live continually in God’s presence. Pride is worse. Pride has done really great damage. I want my daughters and sons to get rid of their pride, leaving any touchiness at the door - or better still, outside the door: that’s the way they will be calm, prayerful and happy.

If we allow the reactions of unredeemed nature to gain the upper hand, then what at first was nothing becomes tremendously complicated. We create ninety-nine per cent of our own problems, our Founder used to say. We invent them: they are conflicts grown out of all proportion, well-thought-out nonsense; they are a smoke-screen to cover our concupiscence.

And do you know what is behind all this, what the source of it all is? Lack of humility: pride. “I’m not loved, nobody cares about me, my talents are not recognized, nobody realizes what I can do and how much I am worth…” Here we have a soul which could be wonderfully at peace, very happy and contented, and which nevertheless, through pride, through wanting to stand out and be the centre of attention, to get special treatment, becomes miserable and unfruitful. If ever a soul heads down that road, and fails to open up and be humble, then, besides suffering itself, it will make others suffer too, and will make no progress whatsoever.

All these difficulties stem from a single source, namely, disordered self-love; they are all manifestations of excessive concern for oneself. Use the same method as I do. Our Father says: I forget that I exist. I can’t have any personal problems because I can’t think about my own affairs - I don’t have time to.

Those of us who have received a divine vocation have to fill the world with light, because ours is a service that has to be performed joyfully. May good humour always be found wherever there is a child of God in his Work, a good humour that results from interior peace. From interior peace and dedication: serving others is so efficacious that God rewards it with a humility filled with spiritual joy.

Coping with problems successfully.

The first thing we must do to ensure that our interior struggle is fruitful, is to acknowledge our limitations and accept them humbly and joyfully. That’s why we ask for light in our conversation with Christ in the Blessed Eucharist and try to be completely open in the fraternal chat. Although it hurts your sensuality a little, and your pride as well, it is worth while fighting the good fight, our Father says, because there are many beautiful and wonderful things waiting for you to do.

If we don’t struggle against our bad inclinations we are hindering the apostolate. There is no justification for getting wrapped up in our own problems, because we have all the resources we need to sort them out. As our Father tells us: pride and sensuality are overcome through prayer and mortification. And prayer and mortification mean giving yourself to others and forgetting about yourself. If you do that, you will see how most of your problems disappear.

If we rely only on our own resources to solve those problems, we may in fact produce the opposite result, as pride increases, sensuality becomes more of an issue, and in general, difficulties end up even harder to overcome. That’s why our Father tells us: you must say to those who are complicating their lives: if you think about others you’ll see how your problems begin to disappear. That is our spirit. When somebody starts mulling over things endlessly, obsessively, just tell them: eat, sleep, and forget about yourself. Give your attention to others. You are an instrument in God’s hands. If you do this, everything will begin to sort itself out.

If things are tackled in that way, then setbacks and difficulties help the soul to grow in the practice of virtue and to acquire interior life and apostolic effectiveness. When we see happenings and events from God’s point of view, we discover wonderful opportunities to progress in holiness, precisely in and through those difficulties and setbacks. But if Love is what motivates us, then in the course of our life how many little things we will find that need to be looked after; how many opportunities for doing some small service; how many difficulties - unimportant ones - we will learn to treasure. Little things that can be difficult for us, and that we offer up for a specific intention: the Church, the Pope, the others in the Work, all souls. And so we begin again, as often as necessary, without losing our joy or our peace. My children, you know as well as I do that we have to fight continually. You know, as I do, that at times little trifles can look like major difficulties, when in fact they are not. Don’t worry. Press on, with more love of God, more self-surrender, more spirit of sacrifice. And if you want to be happy, forget about yourself and devote yourself to the service of others, for the sake of God. So that when the time comes to examine your conscience at night, you will be able to say to Him: “Lord, I haven’t thought about myself! I haven’t remembered myself all day long!” That’s the path that takes us straight to our goal.

Let’s place our resolutions from today’s prayer in our Lady’s hands. She can help us to seek only and in everything what pleases her Son.