508. February 24, Decretum Laudis

Meditations no. 439 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The first trip of our Father to Rome, under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The family feast we celebrate today is a reminder of that particular stage in the history of the mercies of God, which describes the earthly path of Opus Dei. On this date in 1947, which was the feast of the Apostle St Matthias, the Holy See granted legal approval of the Work as an institution of pontifical right, allowing our supernatural family - which was universal from the very beginning - to spread to a great number of countries.

As in every event in the juridical history of the Work, obtaining the decretum laudis from the Holy See was preceded and accompanied by the constant prayer, generous sacrifice and intense work of our founder. This particular development in our legal itinerary would also lead our Father to journey to Rome for the first time.

In 1946, at the request of our Father, Don Álvaro went to the Eternal City, seeking the Holy See’s approval of the Work. The Work seemed to the world and to the Church, a great novelty, our founder wrote, referring to those years. The juridical solution that I was seeking seemed impossible to attain. But, my daughters and sons, I could not wait for things to be possible. You have arrived - a high-ranking member of the Roman Curia told us - a century too soon. And, nevertheless, we had to attempt the impossible. I was urged on by the thousands of souls who had dedicated themselves to God in the Work, with this fullness of commitment, doing apostolate in the middle of the world.

Although at the time our Father was very ill, he decided to go to Rome. He had checked with his doctor who told him he disclaimed any responsibility for the life of our Father if he travelled that far in his condition. Don Álvaro had requested that our Father go to Rome, and the General Council concurred in that opinion; so our Father was convinced that it was the will of God. In Barcelona, from where the J. J. Sister would embark for Italy, the first visit our Father made was, as usual, to Our Lady of Ransom, the Patroness of the city; to pray for the difficult task that awaited him in Rome. It was the 21st of June 1946. Earlier, in the oratory of a Centre of the Work on Muntaner Street, our Father preached a meditation to his older sons in the morning. Together with other points he made in that time of prayer, our Father said: Lord, can you have allowed me in good faith to deceive so many souls? When all I have done has been for your glory, and knowing that it is your Will! Is it possible that the Holy See can say that we have come a century too soon? Ecce nos reliquimus omnia, et secuti sumus te (Matt 19: 27).

In already difficult times, a furious storm added other painful problems to the ordeal of that sea voyage. Such climatic violence was unusual in the Mediterranean in that season, but the storm continued unabated during the twenty-hour trip our Father made in the company of one of his sons. The ship survived the strength of the waves and our founder arrived at the port of Genoa where Don Álvaro and another of our brothers awaited our Father’s arrival. From there they made their way overland to Rome.

Under the protection of our Lady, in just a few months the impossible had been accomplished. I went to Rome with my heart set on my Mother, the most Holy Virgin, and with a burning faith in God our Lord, whom I invoked full of trust, saying to him: ecce nos reliquimus omnia, et secuti sumus te: quid ergo erit nobis? (Matt19: 27). What will become of us, my Father? We had abandoned everything honour - with so much slander upon us -our whole life, each one of us in his place, doing what our Lord was asking of us. God listened, and in those years in Rome, he wrote another marvellous chapter in the history of the Work.

Clarity and fortitude of our Father in preparing the definitive juridical solution.

Concerning the purpose of his first trip to Rome, our Father wrote: What did I want? A place for the Work within the law of the Church, in accordance with the nature of our vocation and the demands imposed by the expansion of our apostolates; a full approval from the Magisterium for our supernatural way, including a clear and explicit description of our spiritual character. The growth of the Work, the multitude of vocations of people of every class and walk of life, all this which was a blessing from God urged me to try to obtain - from the Holy See - full juridical approval for the way which our Lord had opened up.

According to God’s plans, however, the appropriate solution, which would accommodate the spirit and nature of Opus Dei, would only be achieved many years later with the erection of the Work as a personal Prelature. Until that moment arrived, our founder had no other recourse but to give in without giving up, intent on recovering any concessions later. In this way, he always struggled, through the different steps in our juridical path, to protect in each instance the essential characteristics of our vocation.

In 1970, our Father clarified: My children, throughout the diverse circumstances of the life of the Church and the Work, in each historical moment (1941, 1943 and 1947) our Lord has always helped us go down the particular juridical path that combined three fundamental characteristics: that it was a feasible way, that it responded to the needs of the Work’s growth, and that among the various juridical possibilities it was the most appropriate solution, that is to say, the least inappropriate for the reality of our life.

The granting of the decretum laudis in 1947, fitted into the framework of this task that our Father, led by God, was trying to accomplish. Applying to the Work the legislation for Secular Institutes, which were created by Pope Pius XII on the 2nd of February 1947, with the Apostolic Constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, brought for our Father both great joy and a great sorrow. Joy, since that step was a canonical approval of the Work, which assured the existence of a centralised, universal government; together with the right to incardinate our own priests. But anxiety, as well, since this new legal framework was a compromise among diverse positions, which was open to a theological and juridical interpretation not in accord with the particular nature of Opus Dei.

Our Father often pointed out that that law should correspond juridically to a living phenomenon, a consequence of a living reality, not a starting-point. But the reality of our way and of our law conflicted with conventional views of the state of perfection, and such a state was really of no interest to us. On the other hand, our way and our law went beyond the law as it then existed. God our Lord did not want a new state for us, but simply a common juridical framework, in keeping with the reality of the Work and with the lay and secular condition of its members, each of whom remains in his state in the world and in the exercise of his profession. It was a time, my daughters and sons, to practise patience, to work incessantly, with our gaze set on God, moved solely by a great desire to serve the holy Church.

Our spirit leads us to dedicate ourselves to the service of God in the middle of the world, each person maintaining his proper state and condition.

Ecce nos reliquimus omnia… , look how we have left everything to follow him. On this anniversary, we make our own the prayer that our Father raised up to God in 1946, and we affirm once again our will to live faithfully our particular dedication to God in the middle of the world, according to the spirit of the Work. A vocation of ordinary faithful, who do not want to be set apart from their peers in any way.

Talking to us about the juridical solution which he sought in 1946, our founder told us: We are not to be a group closed in upon itself to seek just our own personal sanctification; and, then, from this corporate structure of an institution, to sanctify others. Our Lord wants us where we are - nel bel mezzo della strada, I like to say in Italian - each one operates from the state in life, condition and professional work that he carries out in the world.

And there we find our mission to sanctify the others, to bring them to Christ with our example, with doctrine, through our friendship and the example of a clean life. This apostolic mission urges us to seek sanctity there, where we are, in our professional work, in the task each one carries out; raised by grace to the supernatural order and practised with human perfection. This will become a specific path to sanctity. I could not accept the religious state for ourselves, my children. That state differs in its asceticism, in its means and in its specific aims, from the asceticism, means and ends that God, in his providence, wanted for the Work.

This is a good time to give thanks, because our Lord heard the intense prayer of our Father. Opus Dei, having been erected as a personal Prelature, is now - even in its juridical structure -what our Father always wanted. This is a good moment to raise our hearts to Our Lady, the Queen of Opus Dei, who has always been present with her tender gaze at all the crossroads of our journey.

Holy Mary, Comforter of the afflicted, our Hope, Handmaid of the Lord, Seat of Wisdom, help us to continue to serve your Son and his Church, the way we ought, with a universal spirit of apostolate, having no boundaries; with the means we have always used (in our case supernatural and human means at the same time), and to sow - as we have from the beginning - a harvest of peace, serenity and harmony.

Cor Mariae dulcisimum, iter serva tutum!