446. Thirty-first Friday of Ordinary Time
Meditations no. 394 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
The Lord asks us for our love.
There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. Jesus tells his disciples a simple parable about a wealthy landowner and his steward. For many years, the landowner had entrusted this servant with his fertile fields, the fruit of the harvest and money for the labourersâ wages. But one day the master heard a rumour: the person you trust is deceiving you; he is neglecting your estate and squandering your goods. So the landlord summoned his steward and asked: what is this I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship.
We too have received everything we have from God. He gave us our life; and he saved us from sin, making us his children and heirs to his glory. We should look and see how we are responding to such great gifts. God does not look for us to give him back part of our life: he wants everything and, most importantly, he wants us to give him our heart: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Our Lord, with his arms open wide, asks for the alms of our love, our Father said. God has the right to ask us: âDo you think about me? Do you keep me present? Do you seek me as your support? Do you seek me as the light of your life, your strength, your shield, your all?â At moments people call good, let us cry out: âLord!â And at moments people call bad, we also cry: âLord!â
At times we may feel cold and apathetic, and find that we are following our Lord half-heartedly. Perhaps we are not putting real effort into doing the Norms, and routine begins to creep into our soul.
Christâs words then should stir us from our lethargy: what is this I hear about you? For we cannot be faithful to God without a solid prayer life. Our Father wrote: The foundation of all we do as citizens - as Catholic citizens - lies in an intense interior life. It lies in being really and truly men and women who turn their day into an uninterrupted conversation with God. Our entire life has to be based on contemplative dialogue, a constant overflow of love raising our mind and heart to God. This is indispensable, for if we failed to seek out God in this way, we wouldnât become contemplatives; and unless you are a contemplative it is impossible to persevere in Opus Dei.
Human reminders help our life of piety.
St Augustine wrote: Fire tends upwards; a stone downwards. They are impelled by their own weights; they seek their own places. Oil poured out beneath water rises above the water. Water poured on top of oil sinks down beneath the oil. They are impelled by their own weights; they seek their own places. Not put in proper order, they are without rest; when they are set in due order, they are at rest. My love is my weight! I am borne about by it, wheresoever I am borne. By your gift we are enkindled, and we are borne upwards.
At times we realize God is drawing us irresistibly to himself, moving our mind and heart. Without our looking for him, he comes to us in the most ordinary situations. For he always seeks us out. But other times he seems more distant, and we need to make more effort ourselves.
This is a lesson we can draw from the Gospel of todayâs Mass. When the steward in the parable heard that his master was going to dismiss him, he shrewdly thought up a way to be received into the homes of others.
We too need to put real effort into growing in interior life. Despite our good desires, we often forget about our Lord in the hustle and bustle of the day. Therefore we should make use of human reminders: combined with acts of love, they help us to rectify our intention and raise our heart to God while working, offering him the task in hand time and again. Our Father wrote: One cannot attain interior life without spending several years striving to make many acts of love for God, offering many mortifications, praying many aspirations. And an effective help to achieve this, as I used to tell your first brothers, can be to dedicate each day of the week to a solid devotion.
Sometimes, especially at the beginning of our vocation, we need to use human reminders to spark our dialogue with God. But crutches arenât always needed. If you arenât lame, rather than helping, they would only slow you down.
What resolutions did my mother make to love me? She loved me and that was that. In the Work, we are very fond of freedom, in the interior life too: we donât tie ourselves to techniques or methods.
Our contemplative dialogue with our Father God is expressed in many acts of faith, hope and love throughout the day, but it is never merely a technique or formula. Love is expressed in countless ways, and burns with an ever new fire.
Human reminders, so much a part of spiritual childhood, show perceptive love in striving for union with God. Our Father used to call them alarm-clocks, since love needs to be stirred up, fed and nurtured; otherwise, it cools off and dies. We have to seek out our Lord actively: Let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely.
We can imitate our Father and have a specific devotion for each day of the week.
Our Father advised us to dedicate each day of the week to a solid devotion as a help for our presence of God. Sunday, for example, is good for praising the Trinity: glory to the Father, glory to the Son, glory to the Holy Spirit. I tend to add, and glory to holy Mary. And⌠a childish thing, of which Iâm not ashamed: to St Joseph tooâŚ
On Mondays, we can pray for the holy souls in purgatory. There we find souls who are dear to us ⌠Besides, we see all of them as our friends, our brothers and sisters, since they are almost already crowned with the laurels of heaven, almost enjoying the Love of God: they need a final purification. Theyâre good intermediaries to help us conquer in the little things that make up our normal day of workâŚ
And Tuesday? I dedicate it to the Guardian Angels. You can say whatever you want to them, since youâre not bound by formulas. You may want to repeat the verse from the Preces: Sancti Angeli Custodes nostri, defendite nos⌠(our Holy Guardian Angels, defend us⌠) or whatever you like. Without words even! A well-directed beat of your heart⌠thereâs no need to say more.
And Wednesday? Itâs St Josephâs day again.
On Thursdays, many acts to honour the holy Eucharist: spiritual communions, acts of reparation⌠Now more than ever, our Lord is offended in this sacrament of Love âŚ
On Fridays, Ave crux, spes unica! (Hail, O Cross, our only hope!) And we feel a pang of conscience for complaining about some suffering or other. What is our suffering next to our Lordâs? Ave crux! (Hail, O Cross!) Greet him on the Cross, offer him words of love: I wonât flee from you, Iâll embrace you. As soon as we embrace the Cross and love it, there is no longer difficulty, nor dishonour, nor calumny, nor slander, nor sickness, nor anything. Everything becomes agreeable, nothing is burdensome. For the Cross is not yours or mine but Christâs. As I wrote to you many years ago about my poor experience as a priest, which is abundant: then it is he, Christ, who bears the Cross; it no longer weighs on us. How good it is on Fridays to remember the Cross of Christ!
And Saturday? We go to our heavenly Mother, our Lady!
Our Father made it clear that there is no obligation to follow this particular path, but he added: What no one should do is to neglect presence of God. If a person does not have presence of God, he wonât go well: he wonât be mortified, wonât be spiritual, nor zealous, nor eager to work. On the other hand, by making this effort, we find ourselves conversing with God at every moment of the day: we live as contemplative souls.
We finish our prayer with another piece of advice from our Father: Place on your desk, in your room, in your wallet⌠, a picture of our Lady, and look at it when you begin your work, while youâre doing it, and when you finish. She will obtain, I assure you, the strength to turn your task into a loving dialogue with God.