480. Solemnity of Corpus Christi (III)

Meditations no. 223 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Christ has remained in the Eucharist to strengthen us in our task of making . the paths of the earth divine.

Today, on the feast of Corpus Christi, what I want to tell you is something that will serve to underline the reason behind our self-giving, our free response to God’s call, our vocation. And the reason is clear: I’ve often reminded you of how the Redemption is still being carried out, and how Jesus Christ has sought us out with special love so that we can make the paths of this earth into divine paths.

In Opus Dei we have great reverence for the lives of all those faithful and dedicated religious who follow their own way. But the vocation our Lord has given us is different. He wants those of us - the few of us - who are priests to be diocesan priests in all the dioceses in the world; and he wants the lay people to be ordinary citizens. Therefore my daughters and sons have to get into every corner of the world, into the heart of civil society, not as a privilege, but by right; with their clean lives, their professional work, and their interest in all the good things of this world.

Each of us, my daughters and sons, forming part of civil society and the society of the Church, has to do Opus Dei, which is God’s work, by being Opus Dei ourselves: by identifying ourselves with Jesus Christ And I would go so far as to say that it was partly with that work of ours in mind that our Lord chose to remain in the Eucharist: so as to strengthen us in our struggle, to nourish us (anyone who works has to eat to replace the energy they use up), to set us on fire with his Love and make us into apostles: to divinize us!

My children, our Lord has called us to Opus Dei at a time when you hear a great deal of talk about peace, yet there is no peace, whether in people’s souls, or in institutions, or in the life of society, or among nations. He’s called us at a time when people talk a lot about understanding, yet there isn’t any; at times not even among people who are working in good faith. He’s called us at a time when there’s a lot of talk about unity, yet you could hardly imagine how much disunity there is, not merely among people in general, but among Catholics themselves.

It would be hard to find a similar period anywhere in history. Now that people are talking such a lot about peace, it reminds me of the words of Holy Scripture: pax, pax, et non erat pax (“Peace, peace,” when there is no peace). Plenty of people have the word constantly on their lips, and yet there is no peace. In these times of ecumenism, when the Church is urging people to forgive and forget, and to put past conflicts behind them, you’d think that those who were evangelizing on her behalf would be allowed everywhere in the world. But no: the Church is now being persecuted across whole continents, as She was in the very worst periods of the past Sometimes the persecutions are violent; sometimes they are carried out in a way that is crueller still: by sowing confusion in people’s hearts so that they are drawn into error.

These words of our Father are as relevant now as they ever were. Time has gone by, and some of the details of the picture he painted in 1964 may have changed. But the fundamentals are still the same; and there continue to be serious difficulties in the Church’s path. The forces of evil, aided by human actions, are always ready to obstruct the cause of the Gospel. But at the same time, we have all God’s strength at our disposal.

My daughter, my son: look at our Lord in the Eucharist Jesus comes down into the priest’s hands; what does that self-giving of his say to you? Perhaps you’ve started to take this divine marvel for granted… What does our Lord remind us about? About the need to be effective. Venite post me, et faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum: come, follow me, and I will make you into fishers of men. We have to get on board the boat of dedication, and try to love God and all souls. The charity of Christ - caring - caring for everyone! Apostolic zeal, which is not spoilt by the fact that we know our own faults. What Jesus is expecting of us is a struggle that is based on his grace, on humbly acknowledging our own weaknesses, and on the fruitfulness of doctrine, which is not ours, but belongs to him, Christ, true God and true Man.

The only way to spread Christ’s Kingdom: personal holiness.

My children, our Lord had a reason for calling us to his Opus Dei. He had a reason for calling you and me to this army, which is an army of peace and goodness, sowing love and understanding throughout the world. It is an army of affection and understanding, which forgives and forgets; it forgets everything that, like embers hidden among ashes, might still spark off a blaze of hatred among mankind.

Compared to the whole mass of humanity, there are very few of us who follow Jesus Christ in his Holy Church, united in deep filial obedience to the Roman Pontiff. The Church is being persecuted today in more ways than ever. She is suffering persecution in the whole of the Far East, in a large part of Europe, in Africa, and in certain countries in the American continent.

I’m not saying these things to make us feel pessimistic, but so that you and I can try and apply the remedy. Because in order to defend the Church, to do good to souls, to co-redeem with Christ, and to be good children of the Pope, I have only one prescription: holiness. You’ll tell me that that’s difficult. Yes; but at the same time it’s easy - we have it within reach. Every soul redeemed by Christ has the prescription, the medicine. All we need to do is want it; all we need to do is to make the best of the little difficulties of every day; all we need to do is to obey in such a way that, with or without enthusiasm, we will put the same effort into our task today, tomorrow, and twenty or thirty years hence.

My children, the Blessed Trinity will make our work effective. But the universal remedy for all those bad things, I’ll tell you once again, is personal sanctity. You may say to me, “Father, I’ve made so many mistakes, I’ve got so many failings!” Yes, I know. But God our Lord, who knows it too, and is counting on it, simply asks us to have the humility to recognize our mistakes and failings, and to fight to put them right and serve him better every day; with more interior life, with constant prayer, and with the piety, using the means, that Opus Dei offers us. Yes, my children, it’s difficult, and it’s easy at the same time, because we’ve got the medicine to hand. It is right here: it is living faith, the grace of God, Christ Jesus present in the Sacred Host The only thing we need is yourself, Lord, with your ordinary Providence (and if need be you would go beyond that, because your Divine Nature is so generous); the only thing we need is the loving arms of our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I’ve told you before now the story of the beggar who went up to Alexander the Great and asked him for some money. The emperor looked at him, and gave him command over ten cities. Stupefied, the beggar exclaimed, “But, lord, I never asked for so much!” And Alexander answered, “You asked according to what you are; I give according to what I am.” Do you see? We hold all the effectiveness of God himself in our hands, in spite of being so worthless on our own account.

If we live a life of constant prayer, then even at the times when we feel most useless, seeing all the ways we’ve gone wrong, we will be offering ourselves to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: to the Blessed Trinity. We will feel like our Lady’s children, and we’ll try to be faithful in fulfilling our Norms, making sure that we don’t ever leave them undone, even though there will be days when we fulfil them better and other days when we don’t manage so well. That kind of struggle, and only that kind, my children, is already co-redemption. And like that we’ll always be ready to go anywhere at all.

There will always be obstacles to the spreading of Christ’s Kingdom; if not in one country, then in others. In 1964 our Founder commented: So the Far East is closed to the Church, and half of Europe and of Africa too? So Christians are being imprisoned and martyred in half the countries in the world? For me, this isn’t a picture composed of darkness but of light. And I can say so even as I remember how my own knees shook when I was close to being martyred myself. My children, we cannot now play the coward; we can’t turn back. If we possess God our Lord, who is Almighty, we can’t let ourselves get bogged down by trifles, and lose our peace and our effectiveness as a result If you really enter into the Hearts of Christ our Lord and his immaculate Mother, you’ll find your own heart being strengthened for this war of love and peace. And if we love them we’ll necessarily love each other, and all souls, much more. We each have our personal failings and weaknesses, and we always will!

But through love, your weakness and mine will be changed into strength to spread Christ’s Kingdom.

Really giving ourselves to God, so that our Lord’s sowing may be fruitful.

I have sometimes told you that we are the seed in Christ’s wounded hands, and the divine Sower then casts the seed into the furrow. The sower puts his hand into the sack and brings it out full of shining golden grains, which he flings far and wide. That is how you and I have to give ourselves, without looking for any recompense on earth, or inventing imaginary trials. But, as the Gospel states, the grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die - so it seems - in order to bear fruit. Only if we do that will we be good seed for the sowing that our Lord wants to do, to open up divine paths on earth.

If we hold tight to our Lord and his Mother, our happiness here in this life will be authentic, though never complete. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I have often shed tears, though I’m not someone who cries easily. I’ve shed many tears, without showing it; but I’ve never been unhappy. Not even over the thought of what I am: a worthless creature. Because our Lord, in his infinite mercy, has granted me the grace of fidelity.

In praying on this feast of Corpus Christi, we want to follow the lines our Father marked out for us many years ago. The advice he gave us then is permanently valid, no matter how historical circumstances may change.

My children, love the Holy Church. Keep close to the Pope, Christ’s Vicar. Now that the speech of many who call themselves Catholics is all heresy and irreverence, you are to love the truth. Recognize your own faults, and God’s power. We can never be pessimistic, as long as we stay faithful to the Holy Church and are founded on the firm rock of Peter; as long as we fulfil the little duty of every moment, and are sincere. This is the remedy we each have in our hands. I’m talking about fulfilling our duties out of a sense of fidelity, even though we may not feel any kind of enthusiasm. It’s like a soldier on guard duty: his imagination strays to his home town, his girlfriend, his family, or wherever it may be; but he himself stays there at his post, out of a sense of loyalty.

Well, my children, what is the Father aiming for by telling you all this? What I am praying for is fortitude for you and for my daughters and sons throughout the world; fortitude, optimism, joy, faithfulness, and the absolutely firm conviction that we are necessary - even though we are nothing - because God our Lord wants to need us.

Let’s give ourselves really and truly, without being childish about it; give ourselves with light in our eyes, a clean heart, and active obedience. Consummati in unum: all together as one. How happy I was to have that inscribed on the tabernacle in the Oratory of the General Council!

Let’s ask our Lord, who is listening to us in the Sacred Host, to make us into great lovers of the Blessed Eucharist May our whole life be thanksgiving for having received him, and preparation to receive him again.

So that, when our soul is in the state of grace, and is in love with our Lord, we should never think that we are not really ready to receive Holy Communion. Because while we are working, opening up new fronts in this war of peace and goodness in the world, we are making the best possible preparation.

Let us ask Jesus for his Love. Lord, we know that we will have to undergo your Passion; we want to wear your crown of thorns. But we are sure that by being sincerely pious, by fulfilling the Norms, by loving the Church, and by being madly in love with your Blessed Mother, we will win the victory. In heaven, with you, we will be called victorious.