420. Twenty-eighth Saturday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 374 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

At times of darkness, we must nurture our hope.

In St Paul’s Letter to the Romans we read that Abraham believed in God’s promises, hoping against hope. Our Father wrote: For our Lord to act in us and for us, we must tell him that we are ready to struggle each day, even though we realize we are feeble and useless, and the heavy burden of our personal shortcomings and weakness weighs down upon us. We must tell him again and again that we trust in him and in his help: if necessary, like Abraham, hoping against all hope.

It may happen in our life that the way becomes dark for a time, that we lose our perspective and our sense of direction. A cloud of discouragement may hide the path-markers. Then more than ever, we need to rest on the solid rock of faith and hope.

Our Father emphasized our need to be always faithful to God, especially when coldness or discouragement try to creep in. In 1935, shortly after the first May pilgrimage, he wrote: As we walked from Avila we could see the shrine in the distance. But, as could be expected, when we reached the bottom of the hill, Mary’s house disappeared from view. We commented: God often does the same with us. He shows us our goal clearly, and asks us to contemplate it, in order to strengthen us on the path of his most lovable Will. Then, when we are already drawing close to him, he leaves us in darkness, apparently abandoning us. It’s the time of temptation: doubts, struggles, darkness, tiredness, the desire to lie down along the way… But no: forward. The time of temptation is also the time of faith and filial abandonment in our Father God. Away with doubt, hesitation and indecision! I’ve seen the path clearly; I’ve set out on it and I keep on it. So, onward, upwards, gasping for breath. Not stopping to gather the flowers which, to right and left, offer a moment’s respite and the charm of their fragrance and colour… and their possession. I know very well from bitter experience that these flowers wither the moment they are plucked: and in them, there is neither colour, nor fragrance, nor peace for me. So, upwards! In complete darkness. God showed me the light once and I have teachers, guides for my momentary blindness, the Directors in the Work: I will obey, after opening my heart to them, simply and sincerely.

We’re almost there. Once again we can see Mary’s shrine. The same happens to souls who persevere on their apostolic path. The night passes, and they see with a new, unfading light, that will last till they possess our God who is Love.

If we react like that during any moments of blindness, God will work marvels in us. We’ll go forward purified and clear-sighted, and with a new joy. Jesus only asks us to trust as Abraham did, to hope against all hope.

Supernatural value of this approach.

St Augustine wrote: There would be little merit or glory for believers if our Lord always showed us his risen body. For this reason the great gift which the Holy Spirit gives to those who believe is to make them desire him whom they cannot see with their bodily eyes. Undoubtedly, he is always with us in his divinity; but if he had not disappeared bodily from our sight, our eyes would always be contemplating him bodily and we would not believe spiritually. By this faith, which is the beginning of our justification and glorification, we come to merit the reward - once our hearts are purified - of contemplating God, the Word himself, God in God.

If God takes away all human consolations, it’s so that our faith and hope may grow, and we may find our support only in him. Sometimes, when things turn out the very opposite of what we intended, we cry out spontaneously: “Lord, it’s all going wrong, every single thing I’m doing!” The time has come for us to rectify and say: “With you, Lord, I will make steady headway, because you are strength itself, quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea.”

I have asked you to keep on lifting your eyes up to heaven as you go about your work, because hope encourages us to grasp hold of the strong hand which God never ceases to reach out to us, to keep us from losing our supernatural point of view. Let us persevere even when our passions rear up and attack us, attempting to imprison us within the narrow confines of our selfishness; or when puerile vanity makes us think we are the centre of the universe. I am convinced that unless I look upward, unless I have Jesus, I will never accomplish anything. And I know that the strength to conquer myself and to win comes from repeating that cry, I can do all things in him who strengthens me, words which reflect God’s firm promise not to abandon his children if they do not abandon him.

Our Lord has come so close to his creatures that we all hunger in our hearts for higher things, to be uplifted, to do good. If I am now prompting similar aspirations in you, it is because I want you to be convinced of the confidence he has placed in your soul. If you let him work in you, you will become, right where you are, a useful instrument, more useful than you could ever have imagined. But to make sure that cowardice does not make you betray the confidence God has placed in you, you must avoid the presumption of naively underestimating the difficulties that you will meet in your Christian life.

These difficulties shouldn’t surprise us. As a consequence of our fallen nature, we carry within us a principle of opposition, of resistance to grace. It comes from the wounds inflicted by original sin, and is aggravated by our own personal sins. Therefore we have to strive ever upwards, by means of our everyday tasks, which are both divine and human and always lead to the love of God. In this we must be humble and contrite of heart and we must trust in God’s help, while at the same time devoting our best efforts to those tasks as if everything depended on us.

As we fight this battle, which will last until the day we die, we cannot exclude the possibility that enemies both within and without may attack with violent force. And, as if this burden were not enough, you may at times be assailed by the memory of your own past errors, which may have been very many. I tell you now, in God’s name: don’t despair. Should this happen (it need not happen) then turn it into another motive for uniting yourself more closely to our Lord, for he has chosen you as his child and will not abandon you. He has allowed that trial to befall you so that you may love him the more and may discover even more clearly his constant protection and Love.

Letting ourselves be led with humble docility: acting out a human play with a divine spectator.

At times a son of mine has told me: “Father, I feel tired and cold. When I do the Norms, I seem to be play-acting.”

To that brother of yours, and to all of you, I answer: “Play-acting? How marvellous, my child!”

We are small, clumsy children before God’s infinite Truth, Goodness, Beauty and Power. Our Father wrote: We read in Scripture: ludens in orbe terrarum, that God plays over the whole face of the earth. But he does not abandon us, because he adds immediately afterwards: deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum, my delight is to be with the children of men. Our Lord is playing with us! So when we feel that we are just play-acting, because we feel cold and uninspired; when we find it difficult to fulfil our duties and attain the spiritual objectives we had set ourselves, then the time has come for us to realize that God is playing with us, and that he wishes us to act out our “play” with style.

Our Father used to recount a medieval legend to explain the divine “comedy” that we have to act out at times: There was once an old monastery of contemplative monks. Like ourselves, who also lead a contemplative life but in the middle of the street…

Among so many learned monks in that monastery, there was an uneducated lay brother. He’d been an acrobat before, and only knew how to juggle and turn somersaults. One day he became concerned that he didn’t love our Lady enough. He went to the church at night when the others were asleep and stood before the altar. He said to our Lady: “Lady, my Mother, the Father Abbot is very wise and has written many books; besides, he loves you a lot. And the Prior’s virtues go without saying. As for the monk in charge of provisions, he arranges for us to have everything we need for your service in this house! And the others, how they study! But I can barely read. How can I possibly please you?”

Then he had a brilliant idea. He ran to his cell, took off his habit, put on his circus clown outfit and returned. He began to do somersaults and juggle in front of the statue. The Prior found him at it, but he didn’t dare scold him. For he was amazed to see, on the solemn face of the image, a mother’s smile!

My daughters and sons, God our Lord and his blessed Mother look on us and smile with affection all the time. They are always helping us! Let’s strive to live in God’s presence. Then we’ll be joyful. And when something goes wrong, run to tell everything! I advise you to do so not just in Confession, but also in your chat as well: speak about whatever weighs on you, ties you down, causes you to suffer, or claws at your heart.

And afterwards, what peace and assurance are ours! How our dedication is strengthened! And how wonderfully the Work will spread and is spreading, thanks to each of you! But each of you by the grace of God, quia tibi sine te placere non possumus (for without you we cannot please you); for we cannot please our God, our Love in heaven, if He doesn’t help us to be pleasing to him.