445. Thirty-first Thursday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 393 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

All honest human occupations are paths to holiness.

When we meditate on the scenes in the Gospel, we see that Jesus goes out to meet all kinds of people, without excluding anyone. He teaches us that all honest human work can be sanctifying and sanctified. And he raised up Opus Dei to remind everyone until the end of time that all upright work, whether manual or intellectual, in industry or the arts, in commerce or politics, can be a way to achieving holiness.

Our Lord has invited all men and women to follow him closely. By calling us to the Work, he has wanted us to fulfil this mandate in the heart of society, teaching all souls that their sanctification lies also in the upright use of the things of this earth. My daughters and sons, our Father wrote, the spirit of Opus Dei expresses the beautiful truth that any worthy and noble human work can be made divine. Every lawful profession, whether intellectual or manual, whether deemed important by people or not, is compatible with Christian morals.

In God’s service, no job is of lesser importance: all are very important. The importance of a job depends on how each person carries it out: the seriousness they bring to it and the love for God they put into it. Farmers who sanctify themselves by cultivating the land; university professors who bring faith to bear on culture; craftsmen who work at home; bankers who watch over the growth of financial resources for the common good; politicians who see their task as a service to the whole of society; manual labourers who offer God the work of their hands: all are doing worthy and noble jobs.

You well know that the members of Opus Dei are not barred from carrying out any honest profession. On the contrary, they should raise up and sanctify every profession, turning them into instruments for personal holiness and opportunities for apostolate.

We bear a message that we must practise fully ourselves if we are to pass it on with divine effectiveness. Whatever our job, that is where we must strive to incarnate our Founder’s spirit. By struggling to discern the divine dimension of our work, we harmonize work and prayer, contemplation and action, to the point that they can’t be distinguished. For this is our calling, the radical truth of our existence: our vocation unfolds in the daily struggle to finish everything we have on hand with perfection and love for God.

We need to remind Christians of this reality.

Our mission is to remind everyone that our Catholic faith strongly proclaims the dignity of work, the human and divine greatness of our vocation as workers.

In carrying out our work, we seek to give God alone glory and honour for ever and ever. Therefore, we must teach those who work with us the supernatural value of human endeavours, since people are often unaware of the divine treasure they have to hand. St Gregory says: One person thinks about honours, another about money, a third about possessions. When valued as ends in themselves, these ignoble goods rob one’s life of rectitude. But when by God’s grace they are directed to the salvation of souls, they take on immense value.

There is an inexplicable, centuries-long gap, our Father wrote in 1932, during which it was, and continues to be, virtually unknown that people could seek Christian perfection by sanctifying their ordinary work, each in their own profession and state in life. For many centuries, work had been seen as something despicable; it had been considered, even by theologians of great ability, as a hindrance to the holiness of men.

I tell you, my daughters and sons, that anyone who excludes some honest human work, whether important or humble, saying that it cannot be sanctifiable and sanctifying, can be definitely told that God has not called them to his Work.

Prayer will be needed, we will have to pray, we will have to suffer, in order to remove this error from the minds of good people. But the moment will come when, on the basis of every type of human work - whether manual or intellectual - there will rise on high as one voice the clamour of Christians: Cantate Domino canticum novum; cantate Domino omnis terra; sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

This is the specific message that all the faithful in the Prelature must convey to those we work alongside, wherever we find ourselves. Our mission is to transmit this divine message: our everyday, ordinary, perhaps humanly monotonous, work is a sure path to holiness when carried out for God. Our Father wrote: sanctifying one’s work is no fantastic dream, but the mission of every Christian - yours and mine.

That is what that lathe-worker had discovered, when he said: “I am overwhelmed with happiness when I think how true it is that while I am working at the lathe and singing - singing all the time on the outside and on the inside - I can become a saint. How good God is!”

Rectitude of intention to sanctify our work truly.

A recommendation for you: never lose your upright intention. Years ago I often used to visit the cathedral in Burgos accompanied by your brothers. Climbing to the top of one of the towers, we could contemplate the cresting of the noble edifice. As is common in gothic churches, the top is adorned with many bas-reliefs and statues, which formed a veritable lacework in stone. These were not just sketched out, but finished down to the last detail, despite being unseen from below. After pointing them out to those accompanying me, I would always comment: if those who carried out this work were alive today, they could be in Opus Dei, since they worked facing God, not men.

Our Lord helps us with his own example once again in today’s Gospel. Jesus approaches everyone to proclaim the Kingdom of God, even people who were despised because of the jobs they did. He urges them to rectify their lives so that all their endeavours will be directed to the glory of God. We too have to be vigilant, in order to prevent less upright motives, less noble ambitions from creeping into our work.

There is another story, a true one, which I can tell you since it took place many, many years ago; and because the expression used is so startling that it will help you reflect. I was giving a retreat at the time, to priests from several dioceses … I began to speak to one of them. He was somewhat rough in manner, but a worthy and honest man. I tried to draw him out a bit, gently but firmly, so as to heal any wound there might be inside his heart. All at once he interrupted me, more or less with these words: “I’m very envious of my donkey. It’s been working in seven parishes and you can’t say a thing against it. If only the same could be said of me!”

Examine your conscience sincerely: perhaps neither you nor I deserve the praise that country priest had for his donkey. We have worked so hard, held responsible positions, you have won success in men’s eyes in such and such a job… But in God’s presence, is there nothing you regret? Have you truly tried to serve God and your fellow men? Or have you pursued your own selfish plans, your personal glory, your own ambitions, seeking a purely earthly success that will dwindle pitifully into nothingness?

If I am speaking to you somewhat bluntly, it is because I myself want once again to make a very sincere act of contrition, and I would like each one of you to do the same. As we call to mind our infidelities, and so many mistakes, weaknesses, so much cowardice - each one of us has his own experience -let us repeat to our Lord, from the bottom of our hearts, Peter’s cry of contrition: Domine, tu omnia nosti, tu scis quia amo te! “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you, despite my wretchedness!” And I would even add, “You know that I love you, precisely because of my wretchedness, for it leads me to rely on you who are my strength: Quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea. For you, O God, are my strength.” And at that point let us start again.

That is how our life should be. We shouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes, but we have to be ready to rectify them whenever necessary. In this way we will bring joy to our Lord and his Blessed Mother. Be faithful, very faithful, in all the little things. If we try to live thus, we shall also learn to run trustingly into the arms of Mary, as children of hers.