460. Thirty-third Monday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 404 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

A life of prayer leads us to do God’s will

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, and the Apostles and many others were following him. Today’s Gospel relates: as he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by”. Bartimaeus’ cry comes from the depths of his soul: “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Some passers-by rebuked him, trying to silence him, but he cried out all the more. Our Lord had heard him from the start; nevertheless he wants him to persist in his prayer. Then he tells them to bring the blind man to him. And now begins a dialogue with God, a marvellous dialogue that moves us and sets our hearts on fire, for you and I are now Bartimaeus.

We have often meditated on this Gospel scene that our Father loved so much; we have been moved by Christ passing by who wrests a petition full of faith from that poor blind man. Following the beggar’s example, we too strive to detain Christ who is passing by in our ordinary life, detaining him not only with our words, but especially with our deeds. St Augustine asks: What does it mean “to cry out to Christ” but to dispose ourselves for God’s grace by good deeds? I say this, brothers and sisters, so that it may never happen that we raise our voices while our good deeds fall silent. Who cries out to Christ? Whoever scorns the world cries out to Christ. Whoever disdains the pleasures of the present age cries out to Christ. Whoever says, not with his words but with his whole life, “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”, he it is who cries out to Christ.

To pause at our side, Jesus expects deeds from us, not just words, even though our good deeds themselves depend on his grace.

Our Father wrote: Pray with me now to our Lord: doce me facere voluntatem tuam, quia Deus meus es tu, teach me to do your will, for you are my God. In short, our lips should express a true desire on our part to correspond effectively to our Creator’s promptings, striving to follow out his plans with unshakeable faith, being fully convinced that he cannot fail us.

If we love God’s will in this way, we shall come to understand that the value of our faith lies not only in how clearly we express it, but also in our determination to defend it by our deeds, and we shall act accordingly.

But let us go back to the scene outside Jericho. It is now to you that Christ is speaking. He asks you, “What is it you want of me?” “That I may see, Lord, that I may see!” Then Jesus answers, “Away home with you. Your faith has brought you recovery.” And all at once he recovered his sight and followed Jesus on his way.

Following Jesus on his way. You have understood what our Lord was asking from you and you have decided to accompany him on his way. You are trying to walk in his footsteps, to clothe yourself in Christ’s clothing, to be Christ himself: well, your faith, your faith in the light our Lord is giving you, must be both operative and full of sacrifice. Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think you are going to find new ways. The faith he demands of us is as I have said. We must keep in step with him, working generously and at the same time uprooting and getting rid of everything that gets in the way.

Dialogue with the Lord has to be constant.

Bartimaeus detained Christ by his prayer. St Gregory the Great teaches that when we insist fervently in our prayer, we detain Christ who is passing near us. Scripture says: “Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him”. … Note what our Lord asks the blind man when he approaches: “What do you want me to do for you?” Is it possible that the one able to grant the blind man sight did not already know what he wanted? No, but Jesus wants to be asked … He asks the blind man, so that the blind man will ask him. He asks him in order to incite him to heartfelt prayer.

We too strive to foster a dialogue, an encounter with Christ, in everything we do. This is our whole life, our Father told us: to talk with God, to touch God. We seek to maintain a constant conversation with our God: whatever we do, whether work or apostolate, prayer or rest, we should carry it out with him and for him. Our whole day has to become prayer expressed in good deeds.

Our eagerness for union with Christ, our need to sense his nearness, is not satisfied with the times we set aside daily for prayer. Our unity of life, so much a part of our spirit, impels us to seek God in everything we do.

If the matter for our sanctification is found in ordinary, everyday things; if our struggle is in little things, our Father wrote, we have to make use of them for our dialogue with God. It’s possible that some people, like strong men satisfied with one big meal, can keep up their interior tension thanks to one long time of prayer. But we are children who need many small meals to keep up our strength and are always in need of fresh nourishment.

Every day we should set aside time especially for speaking with God, but without forgetting that our prayer has to be constant, like the beating of our heart: aspirations, acts of love, acts of thanksgiving, acts of reparation, spiritual communions. When we walk along the street, when we close or open a door, when we see a church bell-tower in the distance, when we begin and end our tasks and while we are carrying them out: we direct everything to God. We are obliged to make a continual prayer of our ordinary life, for we are contemplative souls along all the pathways of the world.

At times we can go through more trying circumstances. Then especially is the moment to follow our Father’s advice: Raise your heart to God when the hard moment of the day comes, when sadness tries to worm its way into our soul, when we feel the burden of this toil that is life: Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam ad te clamavi tota die. Laetifica animam servi tui, quoniam ad te, Domine, animam meam levavi. Lord, have mercy on me, for I have called upon you all the day: gladden your servant, O Lord, for to you I have lifted up my soul.

The Norms are our path to union with God.

We make progress, St Augustine says, when our hope is nurtured on God, who helps us to restrain all concupiscence. So let us struggle, since our combat is waged in the presence of one who watches over us and helps us. We need to keep Jesus close to us in our daily struggle. Our life is a battle, a war, a war of peace, which needs to be waged always in gaudio et pace (in joy and peace). We’ll have this peace and joy if we are men - or women - of Opus Dei, that is, if we’re sincerely pious, learned - each of us in our specific task - hard-working, and with a sporting spirit in our spiritual life: Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Therefore we are contemplative souls, with a constant dialogue, in contact with God at all hours: from the first thought of the day to the last thought at night. When we call out to him like Bartimaeus, our Lord lets us see and hear him: he smiles on us and gives us strength.

The faithful fulfilment of our plan of life is our path to find Jesus amid all our daily activities. My struggling to fulfil our Norms and Customs well, we have everything we need to become contemplatives, to reach sanctity. By our Norms, we are at Jesus’ side all day: we get to know his life very well and arc able to follow in his footsteps. And by our Norms of always we stay close to him while we are carrying out all our daily obligations.

Our desires for union with God, for sanctity, for contemplation, have to be expressed in greater determination and more loving care in fulfil ling our Norms. This is our path, and there is no other. If we want to become holy, we have to strive to be very faithful to our plan of life. The more we grow in desire to be saints, the greater must be our determination and loving care in doing the Norms well. Our Father wrote: we have to find our nourishment in the Mass, which is the centre of our interior life; in our encounter with Christ in the Gospel and the Holy Eucharist; in our loving trust in Mary most holy; in our docility to the Holy Spirit’s inspirations and our filial relationship with our Father God. In a word: in the fulfilment of our Norms, according to the specific spirit of the Work.

Let us renew our resolution to do the Norms very well today, and to fulfil them with fresh zeal each day. Thus our life will always be one of Love: we have our hearts continually placed in Jesus Christ our Lord, reaching him through his Mother, Holy Mary.