532. April 29, St Catherine of Siena (III)
Meditations no. 464 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
Giving doctrine is the mission of all the members of the Work.
Exiit qui seminat seminare semen suum (Luke8: 5): A sower went out to sow his seed. These are words of St Lukeâs gospel, from that marvellous parable, replete with teachings and fully up-to-date. The sower went out, just as this Mother of ours, the Work, has herself gone out to sow. Our Lord has wanted to promote the Work at this time, to sow, to cast abroad the seed of our apostolic activities at all the crossroads of the earth - that is our task - so that the word of God may fit in with all the circumstances of time and place, so that it may take root, and germinate and bear fruit.
On this feast of St Catherine of Siena, our Fatherâs words can be our cue throughout, for praying about the need to spread Christâs doctrine by using all the means within our reach.
Before talking to you about this sowing, wrote our founder, I want to address to Jesus a petition which the disciples frequently directed to him, a petition which is reasonable for me to make, just as it was for them. They followed him so closely and had so many desires to assimilate the nourishment, the doctrine. Edissere nobis parabolam (Matt 13: 36), explain the parable to us. Jesus, instil into these sons of mine and into these daughters of mine, who read me, and into me, a clarity in our lives that may never be lacking, so that we may give it to others. Please explain very well to us, this concrete fact of our working for your glory, sowing your seed everywhere through those instruments for spreading far and wide the ideas and events that take place in the universe.
Our activity in the service of the Church can be defined as a sowing of doctrine, a great catechesis. Because we certainly do have many apostolates: those we call personal, and among these is the apostolate of public opinion, with the thousand forms it has to have; and the collective apostolates. But this whole gamut of apostolates, which will always show themselves forth in a variety of forms, fitting in with the needs and circumstances of persons and times; all of this, I repeat, is nothing more than a means for giving doctrine. Tell me: Is it not you yourselves who are trying to give doctrine, not only to a small group of persons in a Conference Centre, in a Brief Circle or in a Study Circle, in a talk or in a conference, but also, as our Lord did, continually, and in the open air?âŚ
Everything that we do in Opus Dei, then, is done to give doctrine. But, just as our Lord, coepit facere et docere, (cf Acts 1: 1), began to do and to teach, we cannot lead a double life; we cannot teach what we do not practise. We have at least to teach what we are struggling to practise.
Primum, facere: first comes doing. We ought to begin our apostolate with the testimony of example: a constant, humble and persevering example. And it has to be an example that is proper to persons who are well-versed in how to sacrifice themselves in small things, so that, in the phrase of Holy Scripture, we can hunt down the foxes that eat up the vineyard (cf. Song 2: 15). We have to fulfil the little duty of each moment, in carrying out our professional and social undertakings, imbuing our relationships among men with charity, so as to mollify hatred, fighting and the waves of an angry storm raging in this poor world of ours. It is, indeed, our world, for it is Godâs handiwork, and he has given it to us as an inheritance.
Obstacles in the way of sowing doctrine.
We want to lead people to Christ, our Father preached in 1964. We want all creatures on earth to love him. You know it and you teach it, although there are some who take themselves to be eminently wise and who are, nonetheless, ignorant, uncultured men, who do not even know what is necessary for salvation by a necessity of means. These people donât understand such things. They think of them as being foolish and puerile, and they donât realise that before God, who is eternal, we creatures are truly nothing. That is why we have to call upon our Lord, as we used to call our mothers in times of need, or as we used to take refuge in the strong arms of our fathers, of the one who engendered us with a holy love which I bless again so many times a day.
We have to invoke, we have to call upon our Lord, with filial piety! Quomodo ergo invocabunt in quem non crediderunt? (Rom 10: 14), how are they going to call upon him, if they do not believe in him? Aut quomodo credent ei quem non audierunt? (Ibid), how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? Quomodo autem audient sine predicante? (Ibid), how are they to hear without anyone to preach to them? Quomodo vero praedicabunt nisi mittantur? (Rom 10: 15), how can they speak to them, if there is no one to send them? You yourselves have the mission of going to all peoples, just as I do, because Jesus Christ has given it to us, as he did to the first Twelve, and the Church has ratified it.
It is our mission to sow the doctrine of Christ throughout the world, to spread this light of God, to wage this marvellous war of peace and love, to take it to all men without exception of race, language or social circumstances: Sicut scriptum est: quam speciosi pedes evangelizantium pacem, evangelizantium bona! (Rom 10: 15), how beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of peace, of those who announce the true goods!âŚ
Sed non omnes oboediunt Evangelio (Rom10: 16), not everyone obeys the gospel. We know that this does happen, that lamentably not even many Catholics are faithful. At times, the little waves of ash that alight upon the Work are whipped up by Catholics and even by priests or religious.
Over on the Nile, they are constructing a huge dam with a view to regulating the waters of the river. I donât really know about these things, but it used to be so good when the river would overflow its banks from time to time, and enrich the fields with the silt carried in its waters. And so it is, my children, that the waves of filth which others want to pour all over us fill us with spiritual and apostolic fruitfulness, although the dirty work of those who churn them up pains us. What sorrow their souls give us! Because, indeed, non omnes oboediunt Evangelio (Ibid. ). Those who call themselves Catholics, but donât show it with their deeds, are not good Catholics. Operibus credite (John 10: 38), our Lord said in the gospel: believe the works. And St John: non verbo neque lingua, sed opere et veritate (1 John 3: 18): Do not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth.
Isaias enim dicit: Domine, quis credidit auditui nostro? (Rom 10: 16): Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? Donât you see that at times they do not believe? There is no theological malice in what I am going to say. If there were a lack of charity, I would not pass a comment. But there are persons in whom the old adage finds fulfilment: quidquid recipitur, ad modum recipientis recipitur: Ideas are received according to the condition of the recipient. They do not believe, because they are to a large extent corrupted. The wine of the wedding feast of Cana, which bears testimony to that first miracle of Jesus, the first manifestation of his divinity, might be poured out for them, and yet, mingled with their rarefied consciences, it would be turned to vinegar.
My children, let us for our part carry on pouring out the good wine, always telling the truth, because fides ex auditu, auditus autem per verbum Christi (Rom 10: 17). And in the end, the faith will also come to birth in these souls, and, with Godâs grace, they will believe our words.
Personal sanctity is required for carrying out the apostolate of public opinion fruitfully.
My children, I have put these considerations before you with a view to encouraging you more and more to sow, and to do so with a supernatural sense, because you are Christ and you have gone out to sow Christâs seed, to give doctrine. But, children of my heart, you need holiness, if the sowing is to be efficacious.
And we do need to be efficacious in carrying out this apostolate of public opinion. I have no other prescription for efficacy than the one the first Christians had. There is no other, my children.
The world has progressed so much, in all the activities of men. It is marvellous how God helps the human intelligence down avenues of research which must needs lead it to God; because, if it is the truth, it leads to God. Everything changes. We have means⌠that our parents did not have at the beginning of this century, or our grandparents in the last century. There is an abysmal difference between those times of poverty of means, and the present day.
Nevertheless, in the spiritual life the means are always the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow⌠The prescription is the same: personal sanctity! There is only one way: ascetical struggle, putting faith into action. Some people think this is a theory to be written about instead of a vibrant reality to be lived. Our faith in Christ must be put into practice, and also our hope, our hope of being effective, in spite of our personal defects, and our hope of attaining the love awaiting us in heaven. The three theological virtues are not a theory in us either, since they are actively exercised in the contemplative lives of the children of God in his Opus Dei.
Listen to what Jesus tells us in St Johnâs gospel: Ego in hoc natus sum et ad hoc veni in mundum, ut testimonium perhibeam veritati (John18: 37). For this I was born, for this I came into the world, to give testimony to the truth, to free mankind from the slavery of sin.
These words of our Lord are a promise of the great fruitfulness which ought to be yielded by the efforts of those daughters and sons of mine who work professionally in the fields of information, of doctrine and of entertainment. Each day I pray with particular interest for our Apostolate of Public Opinion, so that you may bear abundant testimony to the truth.
On writing these lines, there comes to my soul, as a proof of affection, of goodwill and of spiritual help, that cry of the Psalmist: ad annuntiandum mane misericordiam tuam, et veritatem tuam per noctem (Ps 91: 3): Lord, may these children of yours, who have to forge public opinion in the world with so much sacrifice, always announce, by day and by night, deeds and doctrines of mercy and truth. There is no better way to further this cause than to have recourse to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, Sedes Sapientiae.