400. Twenty-sixth Thursday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 358 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Universality of our apostolate.
Christ, who wants all men to be saved, also wants to involve us in his redemptive work. In the course of his public life, he called the twelve Apostles, and also appointed seventy-two others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come.
Since then, almost two thousand years have passed. Our Father asked: Is it possible that Christ has been acting on this earth for twenty centuries and the world is still as it is? Is it possible that there are still people who donât know our Lord? It is we who are to blame, we who have been called to be co-redeemers and sometimes donât respond to Godâs will. For opposing Godâs redemptive plans are Satan - who really exists, along with his unclean spirits - and our evil passions and our freedom, and so we have the terrifying capacity to choose Death instead of Life.
Christ, who ascended the Cross with his arms thus open wide, with the gesture of an Eternal Priest, wants to count on us, who are nothing, to bring to men and women the fruits of the Redemption.
We find here an imperative call to keep our apostolic zeal always enkindled. We cannot deny that a great deal remains to be done. On one occasion, when he was looking perhaps at the swaying wheat fields, Jesus said to his disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. Now, as then, labourers are needed to bear the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
Just as our Lord sent those seventy-two disciples into every town and place, so he sends us. We are not here, our Father wrote, to meet the particular need of one country or a specific period in history. From the outset Jesus wanted his Work to be universal, catholic. Recalling the words of Psalm Two, we strive to foster this universal outlook in all our activity: I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. For us there can be no geographical, social, political or racial boundaries: All are yours, and you are Christâs. In all truth we can say: âChristianâ is my name, and âCatholicâ my surname.
We have to go out to all souls, and make every circumstance an opportunity for apostolate.
The Church founded by Christ transcends all human divisions; she excludes no one. St Augustine wrote: She invites citizens from all nations and all tongues, and unites them into a single pilgrim band. She does not take issue with the diversity of customs, laws and traditions whereby human peace is sought and maintained. Instead of nullifying or tearing down, she preserves and appropriates whatever in the diversities of races is aimed at the single objective of human peace. Every honest human reality can be sanctified and share in the glory that we who are his children render our Father God.
The prophets had announced the limitless expansion of Godâs kingdom. The coming of the Holy Spirit was to have marvellous consequences: The Lord sent his thunder from heaven, the most High let his voice be heard⌠the very foundations of the world were laid bare. Godâs voice will reach every corner of the globe: From the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering.
Every Christian has a personal responsibility to spread Godâs kingdom. Each has a definite part to play. Our Father wrote: My daughters and sons, some important advice. Look at our Lordâs example: he doesnât just preach to the multitudes; he gets involved in the lives of those close to him. He helps Nicodemus to deepen his knowledge of divine truth; he moves the Samaritan woman to change her life; he teaches Martha how to carry out her work.
Your apostolic spirit must be shown in a definite concern to sanctify the people around you, those you work alongside or come in contact with for whatever reason. May no one who gets to know you be able to say that they didnât feel urged to draw closer to Christ, to love God more.
We cannot remain passive. God has left us the whole world as our inheritance; he wants us to bring to him, one by one, many souls who donât yet know him. As Tertullian wrote of the early Christians: We donât stop frequenting the forum, the marketplace, the baths, shops, offices, inns and fairs. We donât stop working with you and living alongside you in the world. We sail with you, we join the army, we farm the land and sell to you its fruits, the product of our work and weariness. Amid their activity, the early Christians came into close contact with the pagan world around them. What zeal was theirs to draw their fellow citizens to the warmth of the faith! Nor can our zeal be less today. As our Father said, we deeply love all those who love Jesus Christ. And we also deeply love all those who donât love him. But for these we also feel sorry. So we try to treat them kindly, to befriend and help them, seeking to drown evil in an abundance of good.
The importance of the apostolate ad fidem.
There are many good people in the world who donât know Christ, people like the centurion Cornelius, a God-fearing Gentile, whose conversion St Luke relates in the Acts of the Apostles. This is an important event, for the noble centurion is the first Gentile called to Christâs Church. As St Peter exclaimed: Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Jesus himself had told the Apostles: I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. To further this unity, we work with special zeal at the apostolate ad fidem.
Our Mother the Church has always had an ardent concern to reach all souls, to proclaim the truth to all who have not yet heard it. In our day, God has placed the Work at the service of the Churchâs zeal to spread the Gospel. We cooperate, alongside many other people, in the task of helping to create, as our Father said, a Christian tone in the large, sparsely-populated territories of America, Australia and Africa.
Each of us in our place can carry out a very effective work of evangelization: by making use of the supernatural means, prayer and mortification; by our work and the faithful fulfilment of our duties; by our understanding and cheerfulness. As ordinary faithful, we can turn our job, whatever its social status, into an instrument for apostolate, an eloquent testimony of our faith.
As our Father wrote in one of his homilies, I can assure you with holy pride and without any false ecumenism that I was overjoyed when in the recent Second Vatican Council the Church expressed with renewed intensity its concern to bring the Truth to those who walk outside the only Way, that of Jesus; because I am consumed by a hunger that all may be saved.
Yes, I was very glad; glad too because it confirmed anew a favourite apostolate of Opus Dei, the apostolate ad fidem, which rejects no one.
We are happy to have a chance to work alongside people who do not have the Catholic faith, or with Catholics who are separated from it. There we can strike up friendships with them, and win their affection for the Work and the Church. They begin to cooperate in our apostolates, and so often receive the grace to know and love Jesus Christ.
The apostolate ad fidem should have a special place in our hearts, since we long to bring everyone the redeeming power of the Cross. Let us ask Jesus to make the fruit of his redemption abundant: ever more abundant, divinely abundant! And to achieve this, we ask him to make us good children of his blessed Mother.