525. March 28, Priestly Ordination of Our Father (III)

Meditations no. 457 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Thanksgiving to God for the priestly vocation of our Father.

Holy Thursday 1975, eve of the Golden Jubilee of the priestly ordination of our founder. In the oratory of Pentecost, with the Tabernacle open, our Father began to speak to our Lord out aloud, doing his personal prayer. His words on that occasion, full of thanksgiving to God for his goodness and mercy, give us the outline for our own prayer today.

Adauge nobis Fidem! (Luke 17: 5). Increase our faith! That is what I was saying to our Lord. He wants me to ask for this: that he increase our faith. Tomorrow I will not be saying anything to you; even now I am not sure what I would like to say… Help me to give thanks to our Lord for this enormous accumulation of favours, of blessings, of affection… of blows! which are also a sign of affection and blessing.

Lord, increase our faith! As always, before beginning to speak intimately with you, we have turned to our Mother in heaven, to St Joseph, to our guardian angels.

Fifty years have gone by, and I am still like a faltering child. I am just beginning, beginning again, as I do each day in my interior life. And it will be so to the end of my days: always beginning anew. Our Lord wants it that way, so that none of us may ever have any reason for pride or foolish vanity. We are to live waiting upon him, upon his words: our ear attentive, our will alert and ready to follow his divine inspirations.

A glance backwards… What an immense panorama, so many sorrows, so many joys. But now, all is joy, all joy… because experience teaches us that the sorrow is the chiselling of the divine artist, who is eager to make of each one of us, of this shapeless mass that we are, a crucifix, a Christ, that alter Christus each one of us is called to be.

My Lord, thank you for everything. Many, many thanks! I have given you thanks; I have been habitually thankful to you. Before repeating just now that liturgical exclamation - gratias tibi, Deus, gratias tibi! - I was already saying it to you in my heart. And now many lips, many hearts, are together repeating the same cry to you: Gratias tibi, Deus, gratias tibi! for we have reasons only for giving thanks.

We must never let anything upset us. We must never let anything worry us. We must never lose our peace of mind over anything whatsoever… Lord, grant my children peace of mind. Don’t let them lose it even if they commit a serious error. If they realise that they have done wrong that in itself is already a grace, a light from heaven.

Gratias tibi, Deus, gratias tibi! The life of each one of us ought to be a hymn of thanksgiving. For, how has Opus Dei come about? You, Lord, have done it all, with a handful of good-for-nothings… Stulta mundi, infirma mundi, et ea quae non sunt (cf. 1 Cor 1: 26-27). St Paul’s teaching has been fulfilled to the letter. You have laid hold of instruments that were utterly illogical and in no way suitable, and you have spread the Work all over the world. People are thanking you all over Europe, and in places in Asia and Africa, and in the whole of America, and in Australia. Everywhere they are giving you thanks.

Living the consummati in unum.

And in this Tabernacle which is so beautiful and was fashioned with such tender care by my children, and was placed here by us when we didn’t have money even for food; in this display of luxury, which I think is a pittance, and really it is to shelter You, here I specified two or three special details. The most interesting one is the phrase written over the door there: consummati in unum! Because it is as if we were all here, all of us, right close to You, never leaving you day or night, in a canticle of thanksgiving and (why not?) also of begging forgiveness. I think that you must feel a little hurt that I should say this. You have forgiven us always. You are always ready to forgive our errors or mistakes, the results of sensuality or of pride.

Consummati in Unum! In order to atone… to please you… to give you thanks, which is a capital obligation. Not just an obligation of this instant, of today, of the anniversary we will be celebrating tomorrow, no. It is a constant duty, a sign of supernatural life, a way both human and divine of correspondence to your Love, which is both divine and human.

Sancta Maria, Spes nostra, Sedes sapientiae! Grant us heavenly wisdom, so that we may behave in a way that is pleasing to your Son, and to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, one God who lives and reigns world without end.

St Joseph, I cannot separate you from Jesus and Mary; St Joseph, to whom I have always had great devotion but I have come to understand that I should love you more each day and proclaim this to the four winds, because this is the way we human beings express our affection, saying: I love you! St Joseph, our Father and Lord: in how many places will they have been invoking you already by now, repeating these very words! St Joseph, our Father and Lord, intercede for us.

Christian life on this paganized earth, on this earth gone mad, in this Church which does not appear as your Church, because there are what seem to be madmen in every place - they do not listen, they give the impression of not being concerned about You; no longer of not loving you, but of not knowing you, of having forgotten you; this life which, if it wishes to be human, for us must also be divine, will be so if we make much of you. We should do this even if it meant long hours spent in waiting, even if we had to make many requests for an audience. But we do not have to ask even once! You are so thoroughly almighty, in your mercy too, that though you are Lord of lords and King of those who wield dominion, you humble yourself to the point of waiting like a poor beggar who timidly approaches our half-open door. It is not we who do the waiting. You are awaiting us all the time.

You await us in heaven, in Paradise. You await us in the Sacred Host. You await us in our prayers. You are so good that when you are there hidden for Love, hidden in the sacramental species - I believe this firmly - when you are there really, truly and substantially, with your Body and your Blood, with your Soul and your Divinity, the Blessed Trinity is there as well: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Besides, through the indwelling of the Paraclete, God is in the centre of our souls, seeking us. The scene at Bethlehem is in some way repeated, every day. And it may be that - not with our lips, but with our deeds - we have said: non est locus in diversorio, (cf. Luke 2: 7) there is no room for you, Lord, in my heart. Forgive me, Lord, I am sorry!

Our vocation helps us to be, at one and the same time, in heaven and on earth.

I adore the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one God. I do not understand this marvel of the Blessed Trinity; but you have placed in my soul a yearning, a hunger to believe. I believe! I want to believe to the utmost. I hope! I want to hope to the utmost. I love! I want to love to the utmost.

You are what you are: perfect goodness. I am what I am: the filthiest rag in this rotten world. And yet, you look at me… and you seek me… and you love me. Lord, may my children look at you, and seek you, and love you. Lord, may I seek you, look at you, love you.

To look is to turn the eyes of our soul towards you, yearning to understand you, insofar as - with your grace - human reason can come to know you. I accept my littleness. When I see how little I understand of your wonder, of your goodness, of your wisdom, of your power, of your beauty… when I see I understand so little, I am not disheartened. I am glad that you are so great that you do not fit inside my poor heart, inside my wretched head. My God! My God!… If I can think of no other thing to say to you, this will suffice: My God! All that grandeur, all that power, all that beauty… mine! And I… his!

I strive to reach the Trinity in heaven through that other trinity on earth: Jesus, Mary and Joseph. They are, as it were, more accessible. Jesus, who is perfectus Deus and perfectus Homo. Mary, who is a woman, the purest of creatures, the greatest: greater than her, only God. And Joseph, who is there right beside Mary: clean, manly, prudent, trustworthy. O, my God! What models for us! Just to look at them makes me want to die of sorrow, for, my Lord, I have behaved so badly … I haven’t lived up to my surroundings and become divinised. You gave me the means; and you are giving me them, and will go on giving them to me… for, to live humanly on this earth, we must strive to live in a divine way.

We must be - and I am aware I have reminded you of this many times - in heaven and on earth, always. Not between heaven and earth, because we are of the world. In the world and in Paradise at the same time! This could be the formula to express how we should go about our life while we remain in hoc saeculo; in heaven and on earth, divinised; but knowing that we are of the world and made of clay, with the frailty that is typical of clay: an earthenware pot which our Lord has deigned to use in his service. And whenever it has got broken, we have gone and riveted the bits together again, like the prodigal son: I have sinned against heaven and against You… (Luke 15: 21). We have felt that way both when it was something important, and when it was a little matter. At times we have felt very, very sorry over a little failing, a lack of love, a failure to look at the Love of loves, a failure to smile. Because when you are in love, nothing is little, everything is important, everything is big, even in a poor and wretched person like myself, like you, my son.

God has wished to deposit a very rich treasure in us. Am I exaggerating? No, I have said little. I have said little now, because previously I had said more. I had recalled that God our Lord, with all his greatness, dwells within us. Heaven dwells habitually in our hearts. I need say no more.

Gratias tibi, Deus, gratias tibi: vera et una Trinitas, una et summa Deitas, sancta et una Unitas!

May the Mother of God be for us Turris civitatis, the tower guarding the city. The city which is each one of us, with so many things coming and going inside us, with so much movement and at the same time so much quiet; with so much disorder and so much order; with so much noise and so much silence; so much war and so much peace.

Sancta Maria, Turris civitatis: ora pro nobis!

Sancte Joseph, Pater et Domine: ora pro nobis!

Sancti Angeli Custodes: orate pro nobis!