435. Thirtieth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 385 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Awareness of divine filiation fills all our activities.

God calls us to sanctify ourselves in our everyday work, and so sanctify all honest human activities and our fellow-workers. This is an immense task, a divine task that far exceeds our capabilities. But God has given us the guarantee of victory: we are his children. St Paul reminds us: for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.

Our Father wrote: the spirit of the Work leads us to a deep awareness of our divine filiation: Carissimi, nunc filii Dei sumus; beloved, we are now children of God. This joyful truth is the foundation of our whole spiritual life. It fills our interior struggle and apostolate with hope, and teaches us to get to know, to talk to and to love God our Father with the trusting simplicity of children. And precisely because we are children of God, we are able to contemplate, lovingly and reverently, everything that comes from the hands of our Creator and Father.

The world, my children, all God’s creatures, are good. Sacred Scripture teaches us that after completing the marvellous work of creation, heaven and earth in their splendid array, God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

It was Adam’s sin that broke this divine harmony of creation. But in the fullness of time, God the Father sent his only-begotten Son to re-establish peace, so that by redeeming man from sin, adoptionem filiorum reciperemus, we might receive adoption as children and share in God’s inner life. Thus a new man, a new branch of the children of God, was established, in order to free all creation from disorder, restoring all things in Christ, who has reconciled them with God.

While working at our human and supernatural task, we should never forget the joyful reality of our divine filiation. I want to insist especially on our need to be remade, our Father told us, to wake up from the sleep that so easily overcomes us and return to a deeper awareness of our condition as children of God.

Filiation leads us to abandonment in God’s arms.

The enterprise God has entrusted to us is enormous, but greater still is the grace and love he bestows on us: see what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. Trusting firmly in God, we can confront all human tasks with daring and divine self-mastery. We can always be serene since we are children of God, bearers of the only flame that can light up the paths of the earth for souls, of the only brightness which can never be overshadowed.

The Lord uses us as torches, to make that light shine out. Much depends on us; if we respond, many people will remain in darkness no longer, but will walk instead along paths that lead to eternal life.

As God’s children, we have complete trust in his loving Providence. Therefore do not be anxious saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Whether the need arises in our interior life or in our apostolate, we place everything in God’s hands: Cast all your cares upon him, St Peter says, for he cares about you.

Abandonment in God’s hands leads us to draw near to him as good children: the Father nourishes our piety through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Our conversation with God should always have a sensitive and loving filial tone. And our life of piety, in turn, will give strength to our apostolate. I want my children to be pious, with a child’s piety, our Father wrote. Piety, my daughters and sons! You have to sow the seed of doctrine with the seed of piety. Your work as sowers of doctrine will never be sterile, if you are pious. My children, this is the spirit of the Work: be faithful, with sincerity, with piety, with a sense of your divine filiation, with a wonderful devotion to our Mother in heaven. Then there will arise in our life, like a constant background to the intimate pulse of our prayer, the zeal to win new apostles.

We can never abandon our life of piety. If we don’t strive to live as children of God, we will lose our trust in him, which is to lose a good part of our Love. Then life becomes hard and bitter. Don’t forget that we’re not only children of God, but also brothers and sisters of Christ, primogenitus in multis fratribus (the first-born among many brethren).

Divine filiation fills us with security and joy, making our work effective in the world.

Trust in our Father God, the assurance that he always watches over us, fills our lives with deep joy. It’s not that we find everything easy in our interior life and apostolate. There will always be difficulties in the interior life and in the apostolate. Individually we amount to very little, and we’re all full of wretchedness: physical or mental tiredness, coldness in fulfilling the Norms, reluctance for the apostolate, and so on. Faced with things like these, we call to mind anew this fundamental truth: we are God’s children. Divine filiation is the only real source of deep security. And the result is always joy, strength, optimism, victory.

Nothing can discourage us or destroy our peace of mind: not even pride, our worst enemy. We should consider our divine filiation frequently; and do so always when things are going badly, especially when we feel proud. To keep from falling, and to get back on our feet again, this is the thought that makes us stronger: I am a child of God.

Our cheerful example will help many others to appreciate the fact that they are God’s children, and live accordingly. And faced with the enormous task of sanctifying all earthly realities and temporal structures, we will find in our divine filiation a solid support, the only firm foundation. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.

As our Father said: Divine filiation: so as not to lose our joy, nor our serenity, so as to feel secure. And also to return if we have gone astray in some skirmish in our daily struggle, or even suffered a big defeat. For we can, and in fact do sometimes go astray. The sense of our divine filiation makes it easy for us to return and do so gratefully, assured of our Father’s welcome. Presence of God, divine filiation: everything else is a means to achieve this.

Divine filiation, although our wretchedness threatens to overwhelm us. Everything we do is a search for God, for the presence of God, who is our Father. Thus we’ll feel secure, serene; we’ll feel loved and be able to love, like a very small child.

The Mother of God, who is also our Mother, will help us to grasp more deeply that we are children of God, brothers and sisters of Christ. Then, no matter what happens, we’ll always be secure and serene.