390. Twenty-fifth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 350 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Jesus teaches us how to do the apostolate of friendship and confidence.

And he called the twelve together … and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God. Strengthened by the Master’s grace and instructions, the Apostles go forth to spread the Gospel. And the Church continues their mission until the end of time.

As Christians, we all share in the mission to evangelize. And in the light of our divine calling to Opus Dei, we are especially aware of our duty to do so, with our specific God-given apostolic means.

Vos autem dixi amicos, quia omnia quaecumque audivi a Patre meo, nota feci vobis. I have called you friends, for I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father. My dearest daughters and sons, Christ our Lord’s words show us the path we should follow in our apostolic work. God has called us to bring his teaching to every corner of the world, to open up the divine pathways of the earth and make Christ known to so many who as yet know nothing of him. And, in willing to have us in his Work, he has also given us an apostolic way of working that moves us to be understanding, to be forgiving, practising attentive charity towards all souls.

Jesus is our Model. To reproduce his life in ours is to be holy and effective. Christ himself taught us by his example to have many friends. We want to make them friends of his, to save them. Therefore our Father taught us to contemplate Gospel scenes that show the divine depth of our apostolate of friendship and confidence. One day John the Baptist was beside the Jordan with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The Baptist pointed out our Lord to John and Andrew. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus… and stayed with him that day. They became our Lord’s friends. And they began to do apostolate. Andrew brings Peter, his brother. And when Jesus calls Philip, he goes to find his friend Nathanael. And most likely John will have brought his brother James.

On another occasion, Nicodemus approaches Jesus by night, in confidence: Rabbi, says this leader of the Jews, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. Jesus, my children, answers with a phrase which is apparently unrelated to what Nicodemus had asked, but which catches his attention and wins him over. He starts up a dialogue: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Thus began the conversation with which you are all familiar. You also know the outcome: at the hour of the “failure” of the Cross, Nicodemus will be there to ask Pilate boldly for our Lord’s body.

We try to have a lot of friends to bring them close to Christ.

We should have many friends. What is more, our Father wrote, we positively set out to become friends with people, to win friends in order to make them friends of Christ. Our Lord wishes to make use of us - our dealings with others, our God-given capacity to love and be loved - so that he can continue making friends on earth, just as he made use of John the Baptist to meet that other John who was to be the favoured friend.

A necessary condition for carrying out apostolic work is that our friendship be deep. We have to take a real interest in our friends’ problems, working alongside them, sharing in their activities and interests, setting aside time for our friends, while overlooking the small annoyances that any relationship entails. You should try to make friends with your colleagues at work, our Father wrote, and with those people you come into contact with for any other reason.

You will do this, my daughters and sons, not indeed to use friendship as a tactic of “social penetration”: that would rob friendship of its intrinsic value. Rather, see friendship as a requirement - the first and most immediate one - of human fraternity, which we Christians are obliged to foster among our fellow-men, no matter how different they may be from one another. And at the same time we act out of love for God. For friendship gives people the confidence to open up, and thus makes the doctrinal apostolate possible, enabling us to bring those people around us, those friends of ours, whose good we desire, closer to our Lord.

When friendship is genuine, it soon engenders trust. How easy it is to open our heart to a person who truly loves and understands us! We love our friends, and therefore want to give them the best we have: God himself. For a person truly in love with God, friendship is always apostolic. If you behave as I imagine my children behaving, your friends will very often open their hearts to you and ask you a question in confidence. That will be the moment to do a great apostolate. Bring them to God gently, with sensitivity, without ever taking away their freedom. If there is a loyal, noble and pure friendship, apostolate will follow on immediately. You will give true spiritual direction to these friends of yours and you will be able to bring them to God.

My children, be convinced that, if we possess God’s charity, we are all-powerful. We would like to set all souls on fire with divine love, placing them within the heart of Jesus Christ, showing affection and understanding for all. My children, we have to pray! We have to love them! Don’t let anyone come close to Opus Dei and leave empty-handed. Let them feel attracted by the fact that we respect them, that we understand them, that we seek what is best for them.

We have to do apostolate in all circumstances. Apostolic effort brings fruits of proselytism.

In every circumstance of his life, amid the crowd or on a lonely mountain, along the lake shore or in the fields of Palestine, Jesus showed us how to be apostolic. There is still another example, the one Jesus gave us from the Cross, as if to teach us that our zeal for souls, our concern to reach those around us, should express itself even at the moment of death. Jesus engages in that moving conversation on Golgotha with the two thieves crucified alongside Him.

This time it was not Jesus who began the conversation. But his presence on the scaffold and his sufferings are more eloquent than words. If you are the Christ, save yourself and save us! blasphemed the bad thief. But the good thief said, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Domine, memento mei… Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. My children, Jesus’ brief intervention in that conversation between the two criminals meant salvation for the repentant thief: Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

If we live our apostolic dedication as Christ showed us and our Father taught, the Work will have abundant vocations in every sector of society. Our aim is to ensure that there are many souls dedicated to God’s service in the middle of the world. It’s time to take stock. How many vocations have you brought?

Proselytism, which crowns our apostolic efforts, requires us to take special care over those who show signs of having a vocation. If you pray and sacrifice yourselves for them, fulfil a plan of life, do your ordinary work well, and smile… , you are achieving the purpose of Opus Dei. Like that, God’s grace will reach the furthest corners of the earth. For you are a Christ-bearer, and you should carry him in your heart, in your mind, in your word, in your example. My children, proselytism is a duty. We need to say in the chat: I’ve done this, I’ve thought of that, I’ve prayed so much, I’ve offered mortifications, I’ve prepared this visit. And if your brother or sister doesn’t ask you, you should say it just the same.

Let us ask our Lady, Regina apostolorum, to spur us on to have many friends, to be apostles to those around us, and bring many vocations to the Work. It can truly be said, my dearest children, that the greatest fruit of Opus Dei’s work is what its members obtain personally by their apostolate of example and loyal friendship with their colleagues at work: in a university or factory, in the office, down a mine or in the fields.

Their work radiates outwards. Teaching by their example, they carry out a constant, humble, silent, but most effective work, whose fruits cannot easily be reflected by statistics.