466. Solemnity of Christ the King (I)

Meditations no. 410 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Christ wants to reign over the whole of our life.

On this final Sunday of the liturgical year, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King. This feast fills the faithful of Opus Dei with particular joy, as our Founder led some of his sons to consider in 1963:

The thought immediately comes to mind that your presence here before our Lord, this active presence, this Opus Dei that each one of you accomplishes by his entire life, is a colossal, love-filled reply to the nolumus hunc regnare super nos (we do not want this man to reign over us!)that the Jews gave and then so many other people give when they reject Christ our Lord, as King and Love.

You represent many other children of mine spread throughout the world. And I should tell you that years ago, when I still did not know you, I was praying for you all. I looked forward to your coming to the Work and coming just as you are: filled with rectitude, enkindled by love for God - more through your intellect and will than through sentiment - strong and loyal. Even back then, when I was waiting and praying for you without knowing you, and I perceived that cry of rebellion in the different areas of society, I tried to repeat my own response thousands of times. I even felt the need to jot it down, while I was working. Every page or half-page I’d write down that same strong, loving and unlimited response we are now making: oportet illum regnare (he must reign). We want him to reign! You’ll find it written on many of my papers. I remember it as if it were yesterday.

But we ought to ask ourselves, “Where should Christ Jesus reign?” And we find the answer in the consecration that we renew today in all our centres. He should reign, first of all, in our hearts. He should reign in our life, because everything about it should be a witness to love. With our mistakes! Don’t let mistakes worry you; I make them too. With our weaknesses! As long as we struggle, they don’t matter. Didn’t the saints now on the altars also make mistakes? But mistakes that fall within our human condition. The kind of mistakes at which our Lord must smile: Ludens coram eo omni tempore, ludens in orbe terrarum. Playing before him at all times, playing all over the world, Scripture says. That’s how I often see myself before our Lord.

You, our Lord and King, are the one who confers supernatural meaning and divine effectiveness on our lives. You lead us to say, for love of your Son, with all the energies we have, with our soul and body at the same time: “We want him to reign!” While always there resounds the counterpoint of our weakness, for you know we are creatures, creatures made of clay: not only our feet are of clay, but heart and head as well. Only you can draw divine music from our hearts. Helped by your grace, we will serve you by giving our entire life in self-sacrificing and loyal service.

Serving Christ with self-sacrifice.

My children, it’s sad today to see that there are also many millions of people in the world who turn against Christ, or rather against the shadow of Christ, since Christ is someone they do not know. They haven’t seen the beauty of his face. They do not know how wonderful his teachings are, and they say the same thing the Jews said two thousand years ago: We do not want this man to reign over us. This is the reason for our “serviam” for our faithfulness to our vocation, for our work done straightforwardly, without show or noise, trying to do the work of three thousand while making the noise of three. By working in this way, without drawing attention to ourselves, passing unnoticed, gently taking problems off other people’s plate, as they say, each of us cries out: oportet illum regnare (he must reign).

Let us thank God for wanting us to be in his ranks. We pray as children of his and as subjects too. Our tongue and palate are filled with milk and honey as we speak of God’s kingdom, a kingdom of justice and truth, as is sung in the preface of today’s Mass.

I don’t know about you, my child, but I have a feeling inside, as if our Lord were asking me a specific question: “How do you let me reign in you?” I would reply that, in order for him to reign properly in me, so that my every heartbeat, my every breath, my least intense glance, my most earthly word, my most elementary feeling, may be transformed into a Hosanna! to Christ my King… I would say to the Lord that, for that to be, I need his grace; for that to be, I also need something human, for I’m a man and have to react in a human way, so that you, my God may bring into this human reaction of mine the supernatural meaning of my life dedicated to your service in the world.

Service. How I like that word! Serving my king, Christ Jesus. Serving, always serving. Give us, my Mother, this sense of service. When faced with the wonder of God who was to become man, you said: Ecce ancilla! Behold your handmaid! Teach me to serve like that.

My mother, if we all knew how to serve… , if each of your children in Opus Dei knew how to serve, how well others would learn to serve! How sensitive we would be, and how we would help others to be so too! Isn’t this the right moment, my child, for you to tell Mary in your heart and in your mind, what I’m telling her in my mind and heart? Tell her that we want to learn. For you and I teach by example, which is the right way to teach. May I bear the witness of this service to Christ in the world, by making him the King of all my life’s actions, the ultimate and only reason for my existence. Then, once I’ve borne witness by my example, I’ll be able to give the doctrine, the theory, as Jesus did who began to do and teach.

You should strive to have a fully human grasp of life. We mustn’t be inhuman. If our life becomes less human, God will not build anything upon it. How is he to build upon such disorder? We must be understanding, we must get along with others, we must find excuses for them, we must forgive… But forgiving doesn’t mean committing injustice, causing damage to other children of God. That would be a disorder, of a much worse kind perhaps.

We have to get along with others, to find excuses, to forgive; doing everything with as much rectitude as possible, and with all the order that the human intellect can attain. Then, building on this foundation, our Lord constructs our sanctity, that of very faithful servants. He makes use of your life and mine. Our King makes us his own and employs us to do his Work on earth.

Christ reigns in us, despite our errors, if we humbly struggle to make reparation.

My children, these are lights from God which lead us to consider that we should be at the forefront, in the vanguard. We should be among the boldest, the most daring, those without fear of anything or anyone, those who strive to run the hardest.

Don’t let your mistakes worry you. Be faithful to our Lord; seek him constantly, ask for his help. Potestas eius potestas aeterna, quae non auferetur: et regnum eius, quod non corrumpetur. His dominion is an everlasting dominion and will not be taken from him, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

How do you react when you make a mistake? Do you become discouraged? If so, then you’re not a good child of God nor a good soldier of Christ the King, because such a reaction comes from pride and not humility. What do you think you are? I see myself, and I repeat it many times a day, as pauper servus et humilis (a poor and humble servant). Our Lord has sought us out just as we are.

A few days ago, I watched the television news and saw some scenes from countries at war. People of all ages were taking up arms, young and old alike, even some who appeared to be ill. It was painful to see, but it led me to consider that something similar occurs in the interior life. When our Lord calls us to enter his ranks, he recruits us just as we are; with all our wretchedness, and he makes use of it as well. For he needs us, even though he’s omnipotent.

Have you ever seen new recruits reporting for duty, with their cheap suitcases? I mean those from the backwoods who stare wide-eyed at the big city, at the huge barracks… There they receive their uniforms, and a cap that they put on as best they can. They certainly don’t look very soldierly.

My son, how do you see yourself? I usually see myself as a raw recruit, who has just put on his uniform and doesn’t even know what to do with his hands. But when a holiday arrives, the new soldiers put on a pair of white gloves and have their picture taken so that they can send their parents a photograph of their son up in the city.

That’s what we are like, who are Christ’s soldiers on earth… ! But my children, we cannot now behave like raw recruits. We can no longer go and get our pictures taken, giving importance to our wretchedness and clumsiness. Pictures will be taken of us, without our seeking them, while we’re working. They’ll be taken without our realizing it, as we bear witness and preach by the example of our faithfulness, our life of self-surrender, our dedication to God, our service to this King of ours, who wants to rule in our poor hearts.

Lord, help me to leave all my foolishness behind. But if at night you once again have proof of your human condition, don’t become discouraged. You’re a human being, a soldier of Christ, and you want him to reign: oportet illum regnare! Once again proclaim your decision to help bring about his kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.

Precisely because you and I know the weakness of our human condition, because we hear the unceasing cry formed not so much by voices as by shameful example on all sides: nolumus hunc regnare super nos! (we do not want this man to rule over us)!… Precisely because of that, my children, how necessary this Work of God is, which takes all human occupations to Christ’s kingdom!

When on that day, in the silence of a Madrid Church, I was feeling that I was… nothing! - not that I was little, which would still have been something - / thought: “Lord, do you really want me to accomplish this marvel?” And I raised the chalice, without distraction, in a divine way… Then deep in my heart I understood with new, full meaning those words of Scripture: Et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum (And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, shall draw all things to myself). I understood it perfectly. Our Lord was telling us: if you put me at the heart of all earthly activities by fulfilling each moment’s duty, bearing witness to me in what seems big and in what seems small… then: omnia traham ad meipsum! (I shall draw all things to myself!). My kingdom among you will become a reality!

My children, let us thank Holy Mary. Let us ask her that we too may learn to give our lives to the Lord our King, who has enrolled us in his service. May we learn to serve him through the intercession of his immaculate Mother. May she obtain for us the grace we need to be soldiers of God, of Christ, for oportet illum regnare! He must reign in all hearts.