444. Thirty-first Wednesday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 392 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Perseverance is a grace from God, which requires our full response.
Today at Mass we read from St Lukeās Gospel: For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, āThis man began to build, and was not able to finish.ā
Our Father commented on this passage: it seems as if everyone in the Gospel is pointing at that unfortunate man and laughing at him: coepit aedificare et non potuit consummare! (He began to build, and could not finish!)
But we can! We have the means! Anyone who lags behind, entangled by the thorns along the way, does so because he wants to be wretched, because he doesnāt want to love Christ.
What sort of person does not even think of the means required to put a roof on his building, so as not to leave his house unfinished?
Perseverance is a special grace from God that we hope to receive by his mercy. But like all graces, it also requires our free response, today and now, to Godās will. Our Father taught us to defend it with all our strength, while putting us on our guard should the temptation against perseverance come, suggesting slyly, ādonāt you see that people are needed who have more virtue, more talent and more money than you?āā¦
Let their reply be, āJesus did not choose me for that. He chose meā¦ because he did so, because he wanted to.ā There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijahā¦ and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Sarepta, in the land of Sidon, to one woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. There were others among our Lordās people, others who were closer to him, but he remembered me. And I must do his will, without asking the reason why. Spiritus ubi vult spirat, the Spirit of God blows where it wills. That is the reason: because Jesus wants it, as Iāve already said.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that we have all come to Christ, and he told us: Nemo potest venire ad me, nisi fuerit ei datum a Patre meo; no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father. Weāve been brought to the Work by our Father God!
God who called us will give us the means to respond faithfully to his subsequent calls, until our very last breath. We can learn a great deal from the example of the early Christians. This is the secret of their perseverance in the midst of cruel and continuing external persecutions, and the interior trials permitted and even sent by the Sanctifier: Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea: quem timebo? The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Dominus protector vitae meae: a quo trepidabo? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Enemies of perseverance.
Along the way - yours and mine - I see only one difficulty, appearing in different forms, which we have to fight against constantly ā¦
That difficulty is the danger of becoming ābourgeoisā, in our professional or spiritual life; the danger of feeling we are old bachelors or old maids, selfish people devoid of loveā¦
If someone were to get enmeshed in this temptation, help them promptly. For if they donāt cast aside that thought, they will leave the boat, stray from the path, from our home: they will lose their vocation.
There are usually two clear symptoms of this difficulty and danger: lukewarmness and inconstancy in the apostolate. Therefore, speaking into such a personās ear with fraternal charity so as to stir their conscience, tell them: Scio opera tua, quia neque frigidus es neque calidus: utinam frigidus esses aut calidus! Sed, quia tepidus es et nec frigidus nec calidus, incipiam te evomere ex ore meo. I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.
The root of temptations against perseverance can be of many kinds. Our Father points out some of them for us: Sometimes, he wrote, what happens is that the best friend we had in the world who then became our brother or sister in the Work, or that brother or sister who was Godās instrument to draw us to his apostolate, weakens and doesnāt respond to graceā¦ and remains in the world as someone worldly.
No, donāt hesitate. From such sad cases we must draw deep-rooted humility to strengthen our own vocation. Theyā¦ perhaps were better than we are: si in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid fiet? - for if they do this to the green wood, what will be done to the dry?ā¦
At other times concupiscence disguises itself as refinement, poetry or even spirituality: not long ago I encountered and wept over a spirituality of this type, poor soul! It tries to make us believe that our dedication to God is a state of mind, a passing situation that is too lofty for usā¦ On such occasions, our Father would say: Iāll tell you, in the words of an old Spanish proverb: āFlesh is flesh though dressed in silk.ā
At other times, the temptation is cowardice: Iām weak. I know myself. Itās true that, thanks to Godās mercy, I donāt offend him as a rule. Butā¦ these daily struggles!: always on the edge of the precipice. Iām afraid to give myselfā¦ and then fall. Iām not worthy to give myself entirely to God.
Your humility, my son, has only the appearance of humility. You think you are exceptional: that you alone have to struggle or, at any rate, that the struggles of others are not like yours.
Do you really think that the saints did not, and do not, have to conquer in battles as big as your daily battles, or even bigger ones? If that were the case, the saints would be abnormal. They would be clinical cases to be studied by a modernistic doctor or a psychologist eagerly looking for deformities.
What is happening to you happens to everyone. And it will go on like that until the end of your mortal life, so that you may not become proud. As St Paul says: Datus est mihi stimulus carnis meae, angelus satanae, qui me colaphizet; a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me.
You said, and you were right, that by Godās mercy you donāt offend him. Donāt you see that if you cast your cowardice aside, and give yourself to him completely, he will have for you all the mercy you need? Donāt you hear Christ telling you, as he told the Apostle: sufficit tibi gratia mea; my grace is sufficient for you?
Means to be faithful.
My children: qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit; he who perseveres to the end will be saved. āBut Father, what if I canāt?ā We can! We have the means! Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat. Impossible things have been overcome in
Opus Dei: there are no āimpossiblesā. We can put a roof on this building, my children. I can do all things in him who strengthens me. And our Father added: many are able to begin, but few finish. We have to finish the race, right to the end!
Our Lord gives us his grace to persevere. He only asks us to employ the means. In the first place, to be truly prayerful souls. We cannot persevere in our vocation, our Father wrote, unless we are contemplatives and turn our life into Love.
We attain this contemplation by means of the Norms, which our Lord has wanted us to have as our plan of life. I can tell you that a person who fulfils the Norms, who struggles to fulfil them, in health and in sickness, in youth, in maturity and in old age, when the sun is out and when storms are raging, when itās pleasant and when itās hard, that person is predestined, if they persevere to the end. Because inside those Norms are prayer, presence of God, friendship with the Blessed Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and with the Mother of God, Daughter of God and Spouse of God, and with St Joseph, whom I call our Father and Lord and whom it makes me so happy to think about, and with our Guardian Angel.
And the Norms are to be done, our Father always added, when it rains and when itās sunny, when itās cold or hot, in good health or illness. If youāre sick, you can always ask one of your brothers or sisters to help you do the prayer or the reading, to pray the rosary. Do the Norms for me always, and do all of them.
Besides leading a life of piety, we have to flee from occasions of sin, guard our heart, and never give in to the ādumb devilā. Donāt lose heart, our Father wrote. Carry on! Carry on with that holy stubbornness which in spiritual terms is called perseverance.
Devotion to our Blessed Lady will help us to be very faithful to our vocation. Letās imitate the early Christians, who gathered around our Lady in Jerusalem and devoted themselves to the apostlesā teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Our Father commented on this passage from Sacred Scripture: In doctrina apostolorum: faith. In communicatione fractionis panis: the Bread. Et orationibus: the Word. Faith, Bread, Word! And weāll persevere, weāll be victorious, and have all the love that awaits us in heaven, after having been happy on earth.