358. Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

Meditations no. 601 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Offering our bodies to God as a spiritual offering.

IN THE first reading of the Mass, the prophet Jeremiah exposes before God the paradox of his life: you seduced me, Lord, and I allowed myself to be seduced. You were stronger than I and you overcame me. The Lord has called us and, with his grace, we have responded freely, thanking for this gift from the depths of our souls. The light that has flooded our lives gives ordinary life a new shine, even in the details that may seem most insignificant, and gives us the assurance of fruit in the fulfillment of the mission that the Lord has entrusted to us.

However, there is a moment when Jeremiah feels dejected in the face of apparent failure: I have become a laughingstock all day long, everyone makes fun of me. His life is the object of ridicule and his message falls into the void, because they go against the tide and clash with the mentality of his fellow citizens; everyone despises him. Discouragement emerges in his soul: I said to myself: “I will not remember Him, nor will I speak in His Name again”. But he reacts immediately: because God is within me like a burning fire, enclosed in my bones. And he concludes his complaint with a song of hope: the Lord is with me like a brave warrior; therefore, those who persecute me will fall powerless.

God does not lose battles and has wanted to count on us as instruments. For this reason, no obstacle in the environment that surrounds us - there are, objectively - can diminish our hope, the certainty that it is the Lord who has called us to be an effective leaven and, by entrusting us with this mission, he also guarantees us that the help of his grace will never fail us to carry it out: the one who calls you is faithful, and therefore he will fulfill it.

In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul writes: “I exhort you, brethren, by the mercy of God, to offer your bodies as a living, holy, acceptable offering to God: this is your spiritual worship. The Lord purified us in the sacrament of Baptism, and then, whenever necessary, in the sacrament of Penance. Thanks to his mercy”we have been loosed from our chains (…) renouncing the devil and all his upholders … We have been delivered from them in the name and with the blood of Christ … Be sure of what you have received,” writes a Father of the Church, “preserve it with joy; do not want to sin any more. Keep yourselves pure and immaculate for the day of the Lord.”

The Lord calls everyone to holiness and, in order to achieve this goal, his grace is never lacking. But we must give him everything, without reservations of any kind: our whole life - soul and body - must be entirely oriented to him. Today we pause to consider the virtue of chastity, which, although not the only or the first, nevertheless acts in the Christian life as the salt that preserves against corruption, and constitutes the touchstone for the apostolic soul.

Holy purity is an indispensable condition for living as children of God and for carrying out a fruitful apostolate, since it allows us to look with clean eyes at the Lord and at those around us. Therefore, the Apostle exhorts: do not be conformed to this world, but, on the contrary, be transformed by a renewing of your mind, so that you may be able to discern what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect.

It is a matter of making a reality, with particular commitment, as our Father explained, what I have been preaching from the beginning: immersed in the circulatory stream of society, we must bring to everyone the bonus odor Christi (2 Cor 2:15), bringing with us our own environment, which has as an integral part the Christian virtue of holy purity with its procession of minor but indispensable virtues.

Holy purity, the affirmation of love, is indispensable in the apostolate.

QUESTION St. Paul: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (… ). The temple of God, which is you, is holy. The temple of God, which is each one of us, with our soul and body, with our senses and powers, is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and in it must reign the desire to do the will of the Lord, not the satisfaction of passions or the search for ourselves. How well we understand the indignation of Jesus when, as he enters the temple of Jerusalem, he sees it occupied by the tables of money-changers and animal sellers, and hears the shouting of the people! He expels them with holy violence: It is written: “My house will be a house of prayer,” he says to them, “but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” It is time to ask ourselves: is there any obstacle in me that prevents me from being totally of God? Can the Lord speak in my soul, without his voice being drowned out by the noise and not reaching my ears?

St. Paul adds: those who live according to the flesh feel the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit feel the things of the Spirit. For the tendency of the flesh is death; while the tendency of the Spirit, life and peace. For the tendency of the flesh is the enemy of God, since it does not submit - and cannot even - to the Law of God. Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. They cannot please Him, because “chastity” is the humility of the flesh, which submits to the Spirit, and thus paves the way for living according to the Spirit. Jesus himself assures us: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

In the face of the wave of sensuality that was spreading throughout the world, St. Josemaría warned his daughters and sons with words that are still fully relevant. In many circles, he said, a climate of sensuality has become widespread which, together with doctrinal confusion, leads many to justify any aberration or, at least, to the most indifferent tolerance for all kinds of licentious customs.

Under the pretext of naturalness, psychological maturity, etc., neglect and even contempt for the virtues that make up the clean life, the purity of soul and body, have been introduced into the mentality of many people.

This climate, which is undermining - at the individual, family and social levels - the foundations of an authentically Christian life, has many manifestations: light-heartedness in dress, speech, writing, conduct; a continuous and scathing criticism of what they falsely describe as old prejudices; the aggressively erotic tone of many shows and publications; the acceptance of lurid situations as normal relationships; the licentiousness that rebels against the objective moral law: the habitual ridicule of classic treatises on morality and ascetic literature, etc., etc.

The Father recalls the relevance of this crusade, “of which our Father spoke and wrote so many years ago: it continues to appeal to all men and women of good will. Let us not admit fatigue or false tolerance in this battle for peace. If at times it seems difficult, it is also clear that divine grace assists us in these cases with greater abundance.”

We have to fight this battle every day, convinced that there are no oddities or silliness in our attitude when we do not compromise with ways of thinking or acting that, although widespread and may seem normal, are not. We will always keep in mind our Father’s reasoning: “And in a paganized or pagan environment, when this environment clashes with my life, will not my naturalness seem false?” you ask me.

“And I answer you: Your life will undoubtedly clash with theirs: and that contrast, by confirming your faith by your works, is precisely the naturalness that I ask of you.”

Weapons to win in battle.

WITHOUT SCRUPLES of any kind, but always with a clear and well-formed conscience, we know that we carry this treasure in earthen vessels. Holy purity is not only the fruit of our effort, it is also a gift that God gives when it is humbly asked. To preserve it and spread everywhere that good smell of Christ, “we must fight, first, within each one. We are all weak: if we do not live vigilantly, if we do not go through the path of mortification, active and passive, the devil will haunt us to attack us from there, spoiling the gifts that God has poured into our souls.”

Against the clean life, holy purity, there arises a great difficulty, to which we are all exposed: the danger of bourgeoisification, in the spiritual life or in the professional life: the danger - even for those called by God to marriage - of feeling that they are singles, selfish, people without love.

Fight against this risk at the root, without concessions of any kind.

Jesus announces to his disciples that, in order to fulfill the redemptive mission, he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things for the sake of the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be put to death and rise again on the third day. The journey, which ends in the light of the Resurrection, presents rough edges and obstacles, which counteract our disordered tendencies. Saint Peter tries to dissuade the Lord, but he receives a clear answer: Depart from me, Satan! You are a scandal to me, because you do not feel the things of God but those of men. In the face of temptations, we must react with the same energy, delicately distancing ourselves from occasions, however remote they may seem: do not have the cowardice to be “courageous”: flee!

The Father reminds us of what Don Alvaro said “when he urged us … to collaborate in the new evangelization of countries where the plague of hedonism is wreaking the greatest havoc. The first thing that each one of us must put into practice,” he said, “is to clean ourselves well,”of our own body, of our own soul. We must clean them well, we must remove the part of the old person that we all have, in order to put in place the new person that Christ brought us with Baptism, with his Redemption, and live a new life: the new life of the daughters and sons of God in Opus Dei.”

In order to cultivate holy purity effectively, we are advised to use the traditional means of Christian asceticism. Take careful care of chastity, and also those other virtues that make up your courtship - modesty and modesty - which are its safeguard. Do not pass lightly over those norms that are so effective in keeping oneself worthy of God’s gaze: attentive care of the senses and of the heart; courage - the courage to be a coward - to flee from occasions; the frequency of the sacraments, especially sacramental Confession; full sincerity in personal spiritual direction; pain, contrition, reparation after faults. And all anointed with a tender devotion to Our Lady, so that she may obtain for us from God the gift of a holy and clean life.

We have learned to approach the struggle at points that are far from the capital walls of strength. We cannot balance on the frontiers of evil: we must strongly avoid voluntary in causa, we must reject even the smallest lack of love; and we must foster the desire for a Christian apostolate, continuous and fruitful, which needs holy purity as a foundation and also as one of its most characteristic fruits. Moreover, we must always fill our time with intense and responsible work, seeking the presence of God, because we must never forget that we have been bought at a great price, and that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And together with these means, our Father continues to advise us, assiduous contact with the Lord in the Eucharist, filial invocation to the Blessed Virgin, humility, temperance, mortification of the senses (…) and penance.

Let us turn to the intercession of Holy Mary, Mater pulchrae dilectionis, asking her to always accompany us on our journey of love.