384. Twenty-fourth Saturday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 346 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

To enable God’s word to bear fruit in us, we need active good will.

And when a great crowd came together and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed.” He sowed generously, lavishly: soon, both rich field and rocky ground alike were covered with seed. By this parable, St John Chrysostom comments, our Lord wanted to make clear that he was generously addressing everyone. Just as the sower paid no attention to the quality of the land but cast the seed indiscriminately, so our Lord makes no distinction between rich and poor, wise and dull, lukewarm and fervent, courageous and cowardly.

Without regard for our talents or merits, Jesus has sown in us the seed of his word. He wants us, in response, to prepare our soul so that the seed may take root and bear fruit; he wants us to open up, in our heart, furrows of docility to God’s grace; and to ensure that the divine seed meets no resistance. The parable continues: as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it.

Many impediments stand in the way of the Divine Sower’s generosity - in the first place, those within us. The fomes peccati (the “tinder of sin”, or disordered concupiscence), our Father warned, is an unfortunate part of everyone’s heritage, and we have to struggle against it. Therefore, we need to perceive sin as wrong, the only true evil; and we need to recognize our own weakness and not place ourselves foolishly in dangerous situations.

A farmer isn’t surprised to find thorns growing among his wheat, but he knows he has to uproot them. That is also what we have to do when we discover the weeds of laziness, pride, sensuality or selfishness sinking their roots into our souls and threatening to stifle the good seed.

We discern God’s voice in our Directors’ advice and in the depths of our soul: sometimes it’s a reprimand, but always it’s a stimulus, a guide. We also hear it in the teachings of the Church, though we have to make them bear fruit in our lives by our daily response to grace. Personal struggle and sincere sorrow for our sins and faults is the best fertilizer for supernatural fruit to prosper. Our Father wrote: Tell your Guardian Angel - as I tell mine - not to look at our faults, for we are sorry and contrite. And ask him to bring to God this good will of ours, which flowers in our heart like a lily on a dunghill.

What God asks from us is ascetical struggle, which by the help of his grace should last our whole life. Everything else - the sprouting of the seed and its bearing fruit - is his workmanship.

Fruitfulness depends on our generous response to God’s calls, through our prayer and ascetical struggle.

The sower’s seed fell everywhere, the rain was abundant, but it was only the good soil that yielded ears of wheat: that soil which was free of stones, and thorns, and casually trodden paths.

This parable is repeated in our interior life. God grants his grace abundantly to everyone. But he always respects our freedom, so that a person who is quicker to remove the obstacles reaps more abundant fruit of holiness. It is only human beings who can tell God: I don’t want to! Therefore, our Father wrote, for me the most supernatural reason is “Because I want to, Lord. You stretch out your hand lovingly and I, by your grace, strive to grasp it: because I want to, because I love you!”

God is so good that he left man free. He gave us a wonderful capacity for all the virtues, but also the sad capacity - the reverse side of that perfection, as a result of our creaturely condition - for every failing, every aberration, and the loss of the freedom as God’s children which he won for us. Against God’s marvellous plan stands man pronus ad peccatum after the fall, inclined toward evil.

Together with the decision to uproot whatever separates us from God, we need to do all that we can to make our soul into good soil. We have to work patiently, striving to respond effectively, lovingly, to this outpouring of God’s love. This is our struggle: each one does what he can, and God does the rest. And these are our weapons: prayer, and war against oneself. Otherwise we’d accomplish nothing. If we were to stop praying, if we were to stop struggling, our efforts would be fruitless.

The mercy of God, who wants us to sow his word in many souls, will come to the aid of our weakness. If we don’t let up in our humble and trusting efforts, if we don’t abandon our ascetical struggle, we will become contemplatives; we will truly be souls nourished by God. Contemplative life, our Father stressed, is a logical consequence of the spirit of the Work. Therefore a person who fails to grasp this facet of our spirit, may win a battle or two, but he will lose the war. Whereas a person who lives this way may lose a battle or two, but he will win the war.

Look at the great difference between a natural and supernatural way of acting. The first begins well, but later ends up slackening. The latter begins equally well, and later struggles to become even better.

Struggling in small things without getting discouraged by failures.

God asks for our good will, but a good will that is combined with continuous responding to the promptings of grace. Then the fruit will not be long in coming, for as St John Chrysostom explains, it is not like fruit from trees, which takes a long time to appear and is subject to the laws of the seasons … For us it is sufficient that we want to, and immediately the fruit appears.

Our Founder advises us to foster deep down in our hearts a burning desire, an intense eagerness to achieve sanctity, even though we see ourselves full of failings. Do not be afraid: the more one advances in the interior life, the more clearly one sees one’s own faults. Grace works in us like a magnifying glass, and even the tiniest speck of dust or an almost invisible grain of sand can appear immensely large, for the soul acquires a divine sensitivity, and even the slightest shadow irritates one’s conscience, which finds delight only in the limpid clarity of God. Speak now from the bottom of your heart: “Lord, I really do want to be a saint. I really do want to be a worthy disciple of yours and to follow you unconditionally.” And now you should make a resolution to renew each day the great ideals which inspire you at this moment.

Oh, Jesus, if only we who are united in your Love were truly persevering! If only we could translate into deeds the yearnings you yourself awaken in our souls! Ask yourselves often, “What am I here on earth for?” It will help you in your efforts to finish all your daily tasks perfectly and lovingly, taking care of the little details. Let us turn to the example of the saints. They were people like us, of flesh and bone, with failings and weaknesses, who managed to conquer and master themselves for love of God. Let us consider their lives and, like bees who distil precious nectar from each flower, we shall learn from their struggles.

The full response which God asks from us is made up of small deeds. How our Father would stress this, so that we might never forget it! Our love for God is shown in small everyday things, which seem unimportant but which have all the importance of love.

The holiness required of God’s children in Opus Dei is a specific, concrete, holiness that is shown constantly in daily deeds. It’s not an abstract ideal, but a concrete reality, both human and divine. To attain this holiness, it’s enough for you to fulfil our Norms and Customs lovingly, to love Christ’s Cross, to place yourself lovingly close to your Mother in heaven.