506. February 14, Women's Section, Priestly Society of Holy Cross (III)

Meditations no. 436 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The unity of the two sections of the Work is a very special grace from God. We must love and preserve that unity.

I’m quite sure you have begun the day giving thanks to God for having made it clear, on the 14th of February 1930, that the path he opened in 1928 was also intended for my daughters, who have been called to carry out a great heavenly task in the midst of earthly affairs. Besides, don’t forget that on the same date, on the 14th of February in 1943, our Lord launched another enterprise, the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, with which he crowned the divine edifice of Opus Dei, as I have told you many times in these very words.

I was moved while reading the holy Gospel today, and then again while contemplating the figures that are on the reredos behind the altar. There is Christ on the Cross, the Blessed Virgin and the other holy women, and the beloved disciple, a priest. And I thought that, especially today, you would also be truly grateful for the unity of the Work.

Our Father has repeated many times, what people call chance is really a sign of God’s ordinary providence. It was not by chance that the women’s section and the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross should both have been founded on the 14th of February some years apart. This coincidence is a call from our Lord to those sons of mine who are priests, whom Jesus Christ has called in a special way to the apostolate to which they dedicate all their love; serving their brothers and sisters in both sections. It is also a call to a greater sense of responsibility on the part of each one of my sons and daughters. It is as though God were saying: Don’t destroy the unity of the Work on me! Love, defend and foster it!

Not in vain did the Lord want to make these two manifestations of his goodness coincide in date. For in this way, though my sons and daughters always live five thousand kilometres apart, they will realise that they belong to the same household. They live far apart, but they belong to the same family. Ask the Lord to teach us to love the unity of the Work as he willed it from the start.

This unity makes it possible that our sisters be the ones to take care of the administration of our Centres; hence, the Centres of Opus Dei become really family homes. From the men’s section come the priests needed by the Prelature. They are ordained, first of all to serve, through their ministry, their sisters and brothers in Opus Dei. As our founder said to our sisters: I feel that it is a detail of God’s affection so that you might love the unity of our Work in a very special way. Thanks to our unity, my daughters will never lack the theological firmness, the legal support and the strength that comes from having as your brothers, priests who have the same spirit and the sole mission of helping you to be saints.

My daughters, you are truly fortunate because of the unity of the Work. When you go to a country, your brothers have already picked up the cross from the ground. They have carried it on their shoulders for a good while, and they have planted it in the earth.

Today’s feast is a call to unity in the Work. By it the Lord invites us to expend all our energies in guarding, loving and developing the legal, spiritual and moral unity that he wants in Opus Dei. My children, unity makes us strong. The two sections in the Work are like two little donkeys which are pulling the same cart in the same direction. They pull together, combining their efforts in the same direction united in spirit, and with only one head. Be convinced, my children, disunity means death.

The priests of the Work are instruments of unity.

Our Father has told us: For years we had been looking for a solution in law for the priests that were to come. But we could not find it before the 14th of February 1943. On that day I began Mass in a small hotel on Jorge Manrique Street where your sisters had a house. When I finished Mass, I drew the seal of the Work, Christ’s cross embracing the world and immersed in the heart of the earth, and I was able to speak about the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. Thank God for all these good things, for he has opened the divine paths of the earth to all men and women. In this simple, divine fashion our Lord made clear, right from the beginning, that the priests of Opus Dei are meant to be instruments of unity.

My sons, you have been ordained to work in the service of both sections of the Work with the same dedication and eagerness, our Father wrote in one of his Letters. In order to obtain unity, the guarantee of effectiveness, we first need order. Each one in his place without meddling with the others, and each person must be responsible for his own actions. The priests will be in their place if they devote themselves to their ministry, without interfering in any way in the area that pertains to the laity. They must respect the freedom enjoyed by all the children of God in his Work It is only in this way that they will win the affection of their brothers. At the same time they will expend all their energies to see that little groups or ‘cliques’ never form around them.

The priests of the Work are ordained for the sole purpose of serving their brothers and sisters in both sections and, then, all souls. My priest sons, be ready at all times to serve, with a sporting spirit, with your priestly soul, and with your lay mentality. You have to be cheerful, learned, utterly dedicated, saintly, forgetting all about yourselves: in our work no one can afford to be wrapped up in himself or go about with personal worries. We must be concerned solely with the glory of God and the good of souls.

Then you will always be instruments of unity and cohesiveness by your supernatural outlook on life, your prayer, the constant example of your zealous priestly work, your amiable charity, your mortifications, your devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and your peace and joy.

The Father, the Prelate of the Work, is the firm basis of our unity.

Our founder, with his complete faithfulness to the will of God, made the love of God blaze up continuously in the hearts of his daughters and sons. Now from heaven, he will bless and strengthen our passionate love for the unity of Opus Dei. Here on earth, the ultimate basis of our unity is our Prelate, who has inherited the paternal mission of our founder. Hence, on today’s feast, we direct our prayers to God in a special way, asking God’s graces for the Father.

The Father is the Good Shepherd who watches over the flock of the entire Work. In the presence of God, we can recall how in Opus Dei the Gospel story of the good shepherd is repeated. The Father knows us, calls us by our names, brings us to the plentiful and healthy pasture of good doctrine. He gives his life so that his children enjoy an abundance of life. And it is a pleasure for the Father to care for this flock, which he so greatly treasures, which he inherited from our Father, and defends from any evil influence. His commitment to never abandon this flock has been sealed by his fidelity, as that song which so moved our Father when it was sung: So much joy does this flock give me / that I have sworn to protect it / and never to leave it.

There are some words of our founder which represent a daily reality in the life of the Father; they are a tremendous manifestation of the unique and fruitful paternity which God has wanted to establish in Opus Dei. I remember, as a boy, having seen some shepherds, wrapped up in their woollen cloaks, on those fiercely cold winter days when the ground was totally covered in snow, coming down from the hills of my land, accompanied by their faithful dogs and a donkey loaded down with everything they owned. Large iron pots always covered the donkey’s load. Those pots served the shepherd for the preparation of meals and to heat poultices that he would put on any wounds the sheep might suffer.

If one of the sheep had ‘come apart’ (as they say there), if the animal had broken a leg for example, I have seen the shepherd carry the sheep over his shoulders, just as you see often in holy picture-cards. Also, I have witnessed how shepherds - tough men, who do not seem capable of tenderness - carry lovingly a new born lamb.

How deeply this sense of appreciation has been fixed in our minds, right from the first, for the human and supernatural filiation to the Father! We realise the necessity of corresponding with affection, obedience and loyalty. The life of the Father, completely dedicated to his children, requires of us a genuine response of fidelity; sacrifice to match sacrifice, dedication answers for dedication.

What gives the Father his greatest joy, and really acts as his staff and support, is to know that we are faithful to our vocation and that we love the unity of the work passionately. Consummati in unum (John 17: 23). All of us, with Jesus Christ, are one single thing! May we always preserve this marvellous unity of mind, will and heart, being all moulded according to the image of God. And may our Mother, a wonderfully fruitful channel through whom all graces reach men, give us - along with unity - light, charity and fortitude.