389. Twenty-fifth Tuesday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 349 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Reciting and meditating on Psalm II deepens our sense of divine filiation.

Every Tuesday, each one, after invoking their holy Guardian Angel with a request to accompany them in their prayer, will kiss their rosary, as a proof of love for our Lady and to show that prayer is our most effective weapon. And then they will recite Psalm Two, in Latin. I advise you … to use this text for your afternoon prayer on Tuesday. And you will understand, after you have prayed, why this is the cry we echo on earth and raise to heaven before beginning our great battles and always.

Our Founder wrote this in 1939, when he was preparing to begin a new stage in the apostolate, which the three years of civil war had not interrupted. He wanted to encourage the handful of his sons who then made up the Work to undertake a daring, boundless apostolate, relying above all on God’s grace.

Repeated reflection on Psalm Two should lead us to consider how God cares for us and is always ready to listen to us - waiting for man to speak, because he loves us as dear children.

The Blessed Trinity’s loving providence led the Word to become flesh in order to redeem sinful humanity. As the fruit of his Incarnation, Life, Death, and Resurrection, Christ sent from the Father his most precious gift, the Holy Spirit, who moves us to cry out Abba! Pater! - who identifies us with Christ and makes us God’s children.

Every Tuesday, while meditating on Psalm Two, we contemplate our identification with Christ and ponder God our Father’s words: Filius meus es tu; ego hodie genui te. Postula a me, et dabo tibi gentes hereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae - You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. St John Chrysostom said: No longer are we given the promise of lands overflowing with milk and honey, long life, many children, wheat, wine and herds. We are promised the very riches of heaven: divine filiation and brotherhood with the only-begotten Son, a share in his inheritance, to reign and be glorified with him.

The rebellion of refusing to submit to God.

Astiterunt reges terrae, et principes convenerunt in unum adversus Dominum et adversus Christum eius -The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed. These inspired words are fulfilled again today. When we consider, in our times and in those which are to come, the sad condition of so many souls who do not remember that they belong to God, that they are God’s children; the lamentable behaviour of so many governments, in so many countries; the wounds which the Church bears, in her Mystical Body; the slander and calumny which, on many occasions, have to be endured for love of God; then it is time to meditate on Psalm Two, as we do every Tuesday.

Dirumpamus vincula eorum et proiciamus a nobis iugum ipsorum! - Let us burst their bonds asunder and cast their yoke from us! Many people, including those who govern the world, have tried to cast off the yoke of God’s law. We refer not so much to objective moral norms (which are scarcely even mentioned) as to common moral sense. Everywhere we hear the same clamour: Let us burst their bonds asunder and cast their yoke from us. They break the mild yoke, they throw off the burden, a wonderful burden of holiness and justice, of grace, love and peace. Such love makes them angry; they laugh at the gentle goodness of a God who will not call his legions of angels to his help. If only God would make a deal, if only he would sacrifice a few innocent people to satisfy a majority of blameworthy people, there might be a chance of reaching some understanding with him. But that’s not the way God thinks. Our Father is a real father, he’s ready to forgive thousands of evil-doers, if there are even ten just men. People motivated by hatred cannot understand this mercy; they get more and more settled in their apparent earthly immunity, feeding on injustice.

It is good to remember this. We mustn’t get discouraged by seeing the evil in the world. We have to be optimistic, but our optimism should come from our faith in the power of God who does not lose battles, and not from any human sense of satisfaction, from a stupid and presumptuous complacency.

The fact of being children of God should fill us with a sense of apostolic responsibility.

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury. How righteous is God’s anger, how just his ire, and how great his clemency!

I have been set as a king by him on Sion, his holy mountain, to tell of his decrees. The Lord said to me, “You are my son, today I have begotten you”. The kindness of God our Father has given us his Son for a king. When he threatens, he becomes tender; when he says he is angry, he gives us his love. “You are my son”: this is addressed to Christ - and to you and me, if we decide to become another Christ, Christ himself.

Words cannot go so far as the heart, which is moved by God’s goodness. He says to us: “You are my son.” Not a stranger, not a well-treated servant, not a friend - that would be a lot already. A son! He gives us free access to treat him as sons, with a son’s piety and I would even say with the boldness and daring of a son whose Father cannot deny him anything.

True, many people are bent on injustice. But the Lord insists: Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. That is a strong promise, and it’s God who makes it. We cannot tone it down. Not for nothing is Christ the redeemer of the world; he rules as sovereign, at the right hand of the Father. It is a terrifying announcement of what awaits each man when life is over - for over it will be. When history comes to an end, it will be the lot of all those whose hearts have been hardened by evil and despair.

But God, although he can conquer, prefers to convince people: Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled… .

This deed is the working of salvation, the kingdom of Christ in souls, the manifestation of the mercy of God. Blessed are they who take refuge in him. We Christians have the right to proclaim the royalty of Christ. Although injustice abounds, although many do not desire the kingdom of love, the work of salvation is taking place in the same human history that harbours evil.

Meditating on Psalm Two always fills us with encouragement. I want you to prepare for the age-old battle, our Founder wrote soon after the Spanish Civil War, which is “militia and service” of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, by praying the Psalm of Christ’s kingship with the spirit of a monk and a warrior, for such is the temper of our calling…

My sons, on another occasion I referred to you, using St Paul’s words, as gaudium meum et corona mea, my joy and my crown. Now I tell you also with the Apostle: “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Stir up your faith in our supernatural mission. Redouble your trust in God and in this sinner whom the Lord has given you as a Father. Thus we shall win out in all the battles, when we have to fight in the world, with the world “that conspires and, plotting vain projects, unites the powers of the world against the Lord and his anointed.”

Mary, our Mother, Virgo potens, Virgin most powerful, help us to be victorious in the battles of love and peace that we are waging to further your Son’s kingdom.