497. January 22, Octave of Christian Unity - 5

Meditations no. 427 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Church is Catholic and universal by nature.

‘Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam!…’ - I can understand why you pause to relish your prayer: ‘I believe in the Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic…’ How many times we’ve been moved on pronouncing these words! Let’s fix our attention on them, so as to speak with our Lord about the catholic and universal character of his Church.

For many centuries now the Church has been spread throughout the world and it numbers persons of all races and walks of life. But the universality of the Church does not depend on its geographical distribution, even though this is a visible sign and a motive of credibility. The Church was already catholic at Pentecost. It was born catholic from the wounded heart of Jesus, as a fire which the Holy Spirit enkindled.

In the second century the Christians called the Church catholic so as to distinguish it from the sects which, using the name of Christ, were betraying his doctrine in one way or another. We call it catholic, writes St Cyril, not only because it is spread throughout the globe from one end to the other, but because universally and without defect it teaches all the dogmas that ought to be known by men, about the visible and the invisible, about celestial things and earthly things. Also, because it leads all class of men to the true cult, governors and citizens, learned and ignorant. And finally, because it cures and heals all types of sins, whether of the soul or the body, at the same time possessing - with whatever name they be designated - all the forms of virtue, in deeds and words and every type of spiritual gift (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 18, 23).

The catholicity of the Church does not depend either on whether or not non-Catholics acclaim or acknowledge it. Nor does it have anything to do with the fact that, in non-spiritual matters, the opinions of some people in positions of authority in the Church are taken up - and at times exploited - by those who fashion public opinion, when these churchmen have views similar to theirs. It will often happen that an aspect of the truth, which will be defended in any human ideology, will find an echo in the perennial teaching of the Church. This is, in a certain sense, a sign of the divinity of the revelation which the Magisterium safeguards. But the spouse of Christ is catholic, even when it is deliberately ignored by many, and even abused and persecuted, as happens unfortunately in so many places…

Ask God our Lord, now, along with me, that we Catholics never forget these truths, and that we may resolve to put them into practice.

Our Father helps us to draw out the consequences of this: We show ourselves to be Catholics by the fruits of sanctity which we produce, for sanctity does not admit of any frontiers, nor is it the patrimony of any particular group. We show ourselves to be Catholics if we pray, if we strive to direct ourselves to God at all times, if we make an effort always and in all things to be just - in the broadest sense of the term justice, which is used frequently in these times with a materialistic and erroneous connotation - if we love and defend the personal freedom of other people.

Fidelity in what is essential and legitimate diversity in what is opinable.

Along with the unbreakable unity in what is essential, which was desired by its divine Founder, the Church defends and promotes legitimate variety in everything which God has left to the free initiative of men and women. Therefore, to foster unity means at the same time to respect differences which are also a demonstration of the richness of the Church of Christ. Caring for the necessary unity, everyone in the Church, according to the mission which has been given to them, ought to act with due liberty, as much in the distinct forms of the spiritual life and discipline as in the variety of liturgical rites, and even in the theological elaboration of the revealed truth; without neglecting to live charity in everything. With this way of acting they will increasingly highlight the authentic catholicity, and at the same time, the apostolicity of the Church.

Back in the first years of Christianity, the Apostles left us a criterion of liberty which would be a guarantee of the unity of the Church; in the Council of Jerusalem, when they had to deal with the precepts which the Christians converted from paganism ought to observe, they decided not to impose more burdens than necessary.

In the Work we have learned from the beginning, not only to respect legitimate variety, but to actively foster it. As a consequence of the exclusively divine aim of the Work, its spirit is a spirit of liberty, of love for the personal freedom of all men. And since this love for freedom is sincere and not a merely theoretical proclamation, we also love the necessary consequence of freedom; pluralism. In Opus Dei pluralism is something we want and love not something we simply tolerate and never something which is made difficult.

Our Father always defended this liberty in all the areas which the Church leaves open to the free discussion of men. Opus Dei will never defend or promote its own school of philosophy or theology, he wrote to us. And he added that we have to form ourselves always with a very broad sense of freedom: qua libertate Christus nos liberavit (Gal 4: 31), with the freedom which Christ won for us. A spirit of freedom, which is one of the characteristics of our Work.

In the professional sciences, the members of Opus Dei cannot form an Opus Dei school either, for our spirit - so open and so full of understanding for others - leads us necessarily to respect all licit opinions.

You ought, therefore, to feel free in everything which is opinable. From this freedom there will be born a healthy sense of personal responsibility, that while making you serene, upright and friends of the truth, will, at the same time avoid you falling into error: because you will sincerely respect the opinions of other people, and you will not only know how to change your opinion when you see that it does not coincide with the truth, but you will also be able to take on another view, without feeling humiliated because you have changed your ideas.

Nevertheless we will always reject whatever goes against the teaching of the Church. Since it is precisely because of this love for the truth and this rectitude of intention that we want to be fortes in fide (1 Pet5: 9), strong in the faith, with joyful and very strong fidelity.

Our desire for souls has to bring us to make ourselves all things to all men so as to gain all.

To contribute to the expansion of the Church, and to spread the message of Christ everywhere demands a generous self-giving. Being free of everybody, says St Paul summarizing his apostolic experience, I made myself a servant of all in order to win as many as I could. With the Jews I became a Jew, to gain the Jews; with those who were under the Law, as if I were under the Law, even though I am not, to gain those who were under the Law; with those who are without the law, as if I too were without the law (though I am not outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ), to save those who are without the law. I made myself weak with the weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all men in order to somehow save all of them. And all this I do for the Gospel so as to have some part in it myself.

To extend the Church to new places and to new peoples requires fidelity to the faith. The desire to get close to our brothers ought not be translated into an attenuation or a diminution of the truth. If we do not have this clear, with the excuse of adapting the doctrine of Christ, we might lose the integrity of the message of salvation. This would happen, for example, if we were to forget that Our Lord came to save everybody without distinction, and if we were to pretend to make one Church for the poor and another for the rich, one Church for this race and another for a different one, a spiritualistic Church and another polarised towards social issues…

This deformation would reduce the Church to a determined and particular facet of its existence, destroying its catholicity. One doesn’t give nicknames to gold and pure silver, said our Father, when silver is silver and gold is gold we should call them what they are, without additions. If we were to tack on some sort of qualification - a sort of surname - it is not good metal: it is a cheap imitation.

In order to avoid this temptation, it is necessary to be convinced that the universal is above the particular. And as regards what affects us more directly, when unity in what is essential is at stake, we have to be prepared to give way in the personal things. Of what use is it, wrote St Ignatius of Antioch, if someone praises me and later blasphemes against my Lord? What really unites Catholics is not the chance coincidence of temporal opinions, but communion in the same faith, with the one head, the same discipline, and the same sacraments: a common denominator for whose integrity we ought to be prepared to give way in what is opinable. When a Christian understands and lives this catholicity, when he realizes the urgency of announcing the good news of salvation to all creatures, he knows that - as the Apostle teaches - he has to become ‘all things to all men’.

Let us finish our prayer with a trusting petition to Our Lady: Sweet Mother… , lead us to the madness that makes others mad for our Christ.