346. Twentieth Thursday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 316 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

To enter heaven one has to be in the state of grace.

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast.” God spoke to the Chosen People first of all through the prophets, in most of whom the message of today’s Gospel was fulfilled: “Tell those who are invited, Behold I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.” But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully and killed them.

With the coming of Christ, God’s invitation has been extended to all mankind without exception. In spite of the wretchedness of our fallen nature and our sins, God insists on summoning us to his great banquet: And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. Clement of Alexandria writes: In his great love for mankind, God sets out after man, as the mother bird circles over her fledgling if it falls from the nest. And if a snake has seized it, “the mother flutters about shrieking for her chicks.” That is how God seeks out his creature with fatherly care, healing it after its fall, chasing the predator away, gathering up the fledgling and encouraging it to fly back to the nest.

To enter heaven, to take part in God’s great wedding feast, it is absolutely essential to possess the wedding garment of sanctifying grace, which cleanses the soul from all its sins and makes it worthy to dwell in such a holy place. God grants this grace freely in Baptism. But, through weakness, we human beings stain that wedding garment by sin. Even so, thanks to God’s goodness we can still recover our baptismal purity: Induimini Dominum Iesum Christum - “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” St Paul said to the Romans. -It is in the Sacrament of Penance that you and I clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ and his merits.

The sacrament of Confession can forgive any sin, however great it may be, and restore us to the life of sanctifying grace. Furthermore, our God is so very good-natured, our Father says, that no matter how little we struggle, he responds by overwhelming us with his grace. God with his fatherly heart - greater than all our hearts put together - is Omnipotent and he wants us all to be close to him. His delight is to be with the children of men - his joy is to fill with joy those who come to him. Do you know how we get close to God? With acts of contrition, that purify us and help us to be cleaner.

The importance of the sacrament of Confession.

But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” St John Chrysostom comments: Listen and hear whence you were called. And what were you then? Lame and mutilated of soul, which is far worse than being crippled in body. Do not abuse the goodness of the one who has invited you, and let nobody present himself with dirty clothing. You have to take the most diligent care of the garment of the soul.

Not only have we been invited to the wedding-feast, but we have also been assigned a pre-eminent place there. Our Lord has called us to his Work, and our clothing has to be especially worthy and becoming. As we can see from the parable, what makes us pleasing to God is not just the invitation, but the way we respond to it. We are required to put to death the “old man” and put on our Lord Jesus Christ. We receive the invitation in spite of having defects, failings and errors; and we still retain habits or character traits which perhaps do not correspond to the high honour God has bestowed on us.

St Gregory writes: We are invited to the wedding of the Word; we believe in the Church; we feed on the food of the Holy Eucharist; we rejoice that the Church is espoused to God. I ask you to consider whether you have come to the feast wearing your wedding garment. Carefully examine your thoughts, examine your heart.

We have to ask our Lord for light to let us see our faults clearly. We must act like a little child who knows that his face is dirty and decides to wash it so that afterwards his mother will give him a loving kiss. But in the case of a contrite soul God is the one who purifies us. And like a mother, he doesn’t scold us then or later. Instead he hugs us, he helps us, he holds us close to his breast He looks for us. He cleanses us and gives us grace, Life, the Holy Spirit He not only forgives us and consoles us if we go to him well disposed, but he cures us and feeds us as well.

This means that we have to prepare our weekly Confession very well, because of the danger of falling into routine, of being careless about contrition, of not giving importance to venial sins or of concealing our defects. We are not asked to change any of the good things in our character, but we do have to die to self-centredness, sensuality and pride.

The sacrament of Penance is a source of grace, a spring of waters which cleanse the soul. It is natural, our Father commented, that, as Scripture says, we should feel like the deer that longs for running streams. Go often to drink at those waters, at least when you need to, because of some fault; and if you don’t have anything serious, go to renew your sorrow, return to our Lord and tell him you’re trying to be better, and ask him for his grace, and, through the priest’s absolution, for greater strength in the struggle.

Have recourse to the holy sacrament of Penance. That is a sign that you’re fighting and trying to preserve purity of soul; and also a sign of love and gratitude to Jesus Christ, who opens to us those fountains of living water.

The “Good Shepherd” in the Work.

If we want to share in the banquet of eternal life, we must go to Confession as often as necessary, really wanting to be cured. We have to recognize that everybody has defects and needs to be cured; and we must be very sincere with the person who is, for us, the Good Shepherd.

This has always been the teaching of our Founder, who, while leaving us completely free to go to Confession to any priest who has faculties, strongly advised us always to go to the priests who are our brothers. You are completely free. The majority of the people of the Work don’t live in our Centres. They will not always be able to get to a priest of the Work and sometimes will have to confess to others. When they do, as they open their conscience, they will exude the beautiful aroma of a field which the Lord has blessed, the fragrance of a life fully dedicated to God and embellished by a delicate conscience. But if in some instance this were not the case, it is best for them to go to their brother the Good Shepherd, even when that means having to make a special effort to do so.

If a soul in special circumstances needs more careful medical treatment, so to speak, that is, if it needs helpful and prompt advice, or more thorough spiritual direction, it shouldn’t go seeking it outside the Work. Anyone who acted differently would be deliberately going astray and would be heading for the abyss; without doubt, that soul would have lost its good spirit

A sick person who wants to be cured will go to a doctor who knows him well and not just superficially. He does not object to the doctor making a thorough examination of him.

If the doctor does his duty, he will see to it that the patient tells him everything. He will make sure that the patient does not hide, out of weakness or forgetfulness, anything that might be significant. Moreover, if the patient is not insane, he will make every effort to tell the doctor all the symptoms and circumstances, even the tiniest ones, that may be signs of his illness.

No reasonable person would think of going to a doctor who knows little or nothing of his clinical history, and who in good faith may well prescribe a generic treatment which will probably be useless, if not actually harmful.

You, my dearest daughters and sons, should always go to your brothers, but especially whenever you have an illness of the soul and need a doctor. You should open your heart wide to them, sincerely, with a true desire to get better. You need to do so in the Confidence with the lay Director, and in Confession with the priests appointed by the Counsellor.

If you act like this, with that loving refinement which has always been customary in the Work, then spiritual direction is fruitful, and souls are sanctified and work well. They are, and are doing, Opus Dei, with joy and with peace.

Let us ask our Lady, who is our Mother, to accept and strengthen our good desires to respond to divine grace.