501. January 28, St Thomas Aquinas

Meditations no. 431 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

All of us in the Work have to acquire a deep doctrinal formation.

O God, who made St Thomas Aquinas stand out for his great sanctity and for his profound knowledge of the Sacred Sciences; grant that we understand his teachings and imitate his example. The feast today, on making the life and work of the Angelic Doctor present to us, also brings to our consideration the need for a solid doctrinal formation, as a firm support for our faith, so that at all times our life and our actions might be fully Christian.

With the progressive development of our intellectual capacity, it is necessary to delve deeper into the doctrine which we once learnt. Our Father often made us feel the need for this, because ignorance is the greatest enemy of our faith, and also the greatest obstacle to carrying out the redemption of souls.

Doctrinal formation is the ordinary means foreseen by God to fortify us in faith and love. In our case it acquires a greater importance, since a sanctity without doctrine is not the sanctity of Opus Dei. In addition, the apostolates that the Work carries out are ever more numerous and diverse; and with the passage of the years, there will be an even greater variety. But all of them - those that we have now, those that will come and those of always - will be nothing more than a means of giving doctrine.

From the very first moment this was a clear characteristic of the Work that our Father never tired of underlining. When we grow in knowledge of our vocation, and when we consider our specific way of carrying the gospel message to men, it is crystal clear, my sons and my daughters, that - because it is that way, and because of the way we work - the whole of the Work is like a great catechesis, carried out in a lively, simple and direct way, from within civil society.

So that we can spread this Christian teaching around us - each one of us from the place we occupy in society - the Prelature makes sure it gives us its particular supernatural spirit - its specific asceticism - and the necessary doctrinal formation. The aim of the formation that members of the Work receive is to give them a deep knowledge of the Catholic faith. This formation includes not only the content of the faith, but also all the rest of the Church’s official teaching and the guidelines of the Holy See. The objective is to ensure that there are people in all social environments who are intellectually prepared to carry out an effective doctrinal apostolate from their place in society.

Thus, with our heart and our head immersed in the truth of Christ, each of us will be present in the field of knowledge or work in which we are involved, giving it its due Christian orientation; because the doctrine, received with openness, will stimulate in our soul the instinct and the healthy concern to make this task conform to the demands of the Christian conscience, and to the divine commands that ought to rule society and the activities of men.

We follow the indications of the Magisterium faithfully.

In response to your desire to constantly improve your formation and your eagerness to learn, the Work offers you (to the extent and in the form that best suits each one’s circumstances) exact knowledge of the Church’s dogmatic and moral teaching, Sacred Scripture and liturgy, Church law and history. Thus you can more easily raise human knowledge to the supernatural order and convert it into an apostolic instrument.

In the Work, when we study the science of God, we follow the doctrinal exposition of St Thomas Aquinas, in conformity with the indications that the Magisterium has given on many occasions. The Church has made this doctrine her own, said Pope John XXIII, because it is more compatible than any other with the revealed truths, the teachings of the Holy Fathers and with right reason. And the Second Vatican Council has recommended that we deepen our knowledge of the mysteries of the faith and discover their mutual connection… under the magisterium of St Thomas. Commenting on this directive our founder said, we cannot conclude from this that we ought to just limit ourselves to assimilating and repeating all of the teachings of St Thomas and only his.

We are talking about something very different: certainly we ought to cultivate the doctrine of the Angelic Doctor, but in the same way as he would develop it now if he were alive. Therefore, sometimes we will have to finish what he was only able to commence; and we also make our own all the discoveries of other authors, when they are compatible with the truth.

In addition, the spirit of freedom which is co-natural with our vocation leads us to respect all the possible different Christian opinions; and because we love this freedom of choice, Opus Dei does not have, and will never have, any particular corporate viewpoint or school of thought in any branch of science, nor in any theological or philosophical matters which the Church has left open to discussion.

Precisely as a safeguard for that liberty, so that it has its foundation in the authentic Christian doctrine, and in a complete knowledge of supernatural revelation, we always obey, in a spirit of filiation, the indications of the Magisterium.

Corporately we have no other doctrine than what the Magisterium of the Holy See teaches. We accept everything that this Magisterium accepts, and reject all that it rejects. We believe whatever it proposes as a truth of faith and we also make our own everything which is of Catholic doctrine. And within this ample doctrine, each one of us forms his own personal criteria.

The necessity of study in order to acquire and better our knowledge of Catholic doctrine.

The Apostles did not have to acquire doctrine before they began to dialogue, because the Holy Spirit moved them and gave them charisms; but we, in order to have knowledge and doctrine, have to learn it through study and effort. This is a direct consequence of what we have been considering in this time of prayer: the effectiveness of our doctrinal formation depends, in large part, on the effort each of us makes to assimilate, conserve and perfect it.

We need to force ourselves to work on a personal level, so that the perennial teaching of the Church informs our intellect up to the point where we know it well and we convert it into our own life. To give doctrine, our Father used to tell us, you need formation. A formation which is profound and serious. Our Lord wants his instruments to do all they can to be well disposed. You must try to ensure that your good dispositions are never lacking.

This good will is shown in our dedication to study, in the interest we put into making use of the different means of doctrinal formation that the Prelature provides for us. Knowing that to acquire this doctrine we need to spend time, in a suitable place, over an adequate number of years of dedication to this study, and with the suitable means.

We cannot leave our books aside, like Brother Gerundio, and set off to preach, our founder has taught us using a graphic example. What I want is to have all the arguments of good doctrine fixed and clear in my mind; that is why I go over the traditional treatises of Theology. And I also read literature, because words are the clothing: Fides ex auditu (Rom 10: 17). We have to give doctrine, good doctrine, and present it to people in an attractive way. The traditional arguments can be dressed in literary style, and brought to the common man without becoming common.

As well as a serious theological formation which is both profound and constant, adapted to the personal circumstances of each person, we have been advised to review, time and again, the Catechism of Christian doctrine, so that the chief truths of the faith are not forgotten or become muddled.

This solicitude of the Work ought to stimulate us to ask God to increase in us the desire of being familiar with, of understanding and or loving the doctrine that he has given to the Church. The best way of demonstrating this good personal disposition will be to put all our enthusiasm into the studies that we have to do: to do them with the same interest with which all the people who have to earn their living with their profession - people like you and me - do their university studies, with this same drive.

If we feel this responsibility, we will find time to read new books and to review what we have already learnt; in this way our knowledge won’t go stale. This was the advice our Father gave us: Try to devote a little time each day, even only a few minutes, to studying the ecclesiastical sciences, reading the classical treatises again and again, giving more solidity to the principles.

Our Most Blessed Lady, Sedes Sapientiae, who, with her intercession, has watched over this life-giving doctrine of the Church throughout the centuries, will strengthen our desire to acquire a profound doctrinal formation and improve it constantly.