539. May 18, Beatification of Our Father (II)

Meditations no. 627 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Our Father’s longing for holiness.

“WITH IMMENSE joy, we attended yesterday the beatification of the Founder of Opus Dei, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (…). Today, thanks to the benevolence of the Holy Father John Paul II, I have the joy of presiding over this solemn concelebration in thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity.”

This is how Don Alvaro expressed himself in the Mass he celebrated in St. Peter’s Square on May 18, 1992, the day after the beatification of our Father. Tens of thousands of people crowded the square giving thanks to God for the elevation of our Founder to the altars. The fact that the first Mass of thanksgiving was celebrated in that place was an exceptional proof of affection on the part of the Roman Pontiff.

The first reading spoke of the immense multitude of saints who exclaim in Heaven: hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God! The joy of those present–and of many other people who were united to the Father throughout the world–was manifest, because the Church had officially recognized the holiness of his son Josemaría. Echoing the clamor of the liturgy, Don Álvaro commented in his homily: “It is the cry of praise that also flows from our souls in communion with the heavenly Church; a truly intimate union, because the supernatural life, which the blessed have definitively attained, is also our life. God has called us to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29), and he has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts to transform us into another Christ, Christ himself.”

The date we commemorate invites us to consider the longing for holiness that always animated our Father and that grew until the moment of his definitive encounter with God. As Don Alvaro explained, “the sense of our divine filiation in Christ … aroused in his soul an ardent desire to contemplate God. How often did I hear him exclaim, especially in the last years of his life: vultum tuum, Domine, requiram! (cf. Ps 26 [27], 8), I desire to contemplate your face, Lord! This longing impelled him to maintain a constant relationship with God in all circumstances: in work and in rest; in the solitude of prayer and in priestly conversation with souls; in joy and sorrow, which always became joy because in suffering he knew how to see the Cross of Christ. His love for the Cross allowed him to understand in depth the inspired words of the Apostle Paul: all things work together for the good of those who love God (Rom 8:28). In the face of any setback, his reaction was always: omnia in bonum!: everything is for the good!

“A few weeks before the Lord called him to enjoy his presence definitively, he told us: we must be … 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 (…), deified, but knowing that we are of the world (Meditation, March 27, 1975). On this path of contemplation lived in the context of earthly occupations, the Holy Spirit led Blessed Josemaría to the highest heights of mystical life, to union with the divine Trinity.”

We are all called to be saints in the midst of the world.

ON the occasion of the beatification of our Founder, John Paul II insisted that we Christians must take our baptismal commitments seriously. “In fact, in baptism, by which we become children of God, grace is received, that seed of holiness which grows and matures with the help of the other sacraments and practices of piety, and which must be manifested in the fruits and witness of life that the Spirit promotes in those who love him. In this way we can attain that fullness of which the Apostle Paul speaks: ‘This is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Thess 4:3).

“This call to holiness has been proposed and repeated so many times by Blessed Josemaría. Many people present here are who, on more than one occasion, have heard this same Pauline exhortation from his own lips; others have received it through his writings or through direct witnesses. Now, each one, immersed in the concrete activities of his or her life and profession, can count on the help of the Holy Spirit to walk this path towards Christian perfection.”

The holiness achieved by our Father “does not represent an impossible ideal; it is an example that is proposed not only to a few chosen souls, but to countless Christians, called by God to sanctify themselves in the world: in the sphere of professional work, of family and social life. It is a clarifying example that shows how daily occupations are not an obstacle to the development of the spiritual life, but can and must be transformed into prayer; he himself notes in writing in his personal notes, with some surprise, that he vibrated with Love for God precisely in the street, among the noise of cars, public media, people; even reading the newspaper (26-111-1932, in Intimate Notes, no. 673). This is a particularly close example, because Blessed Josemaría lived among us: many of you present here have known him personally. He participated intensely in the anxieties of our time, and precisely in his daily activities, through the faithful fulfillment of his daily duties in the Spirit of Christ, he has attained holiness.”

This teaching constitutes the core of the message that God has entrusted to us, so that we may transmit it by example and by word. We can do so because we count above all on the graces that accompany the call to Opus Dei.

Great are the works of the Lord, Don Álvaro made us consider in the penultimate of the Masses of thanksgiving, before returning the sacred body of our Father to the prelatic church. “Yes, great are the works of the Lord. In the whole universe there is no event comparable in its greatness to the transformation that the work of grace brings about in man: a handful of dust from the earth is exalted to the point of being a sharer in the divine nature and receiving the adoption of the child of God in Christ (cf. Rom 8:29). This admirable vocation of man was fully fulfilled in Blessed Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer: the Church venerates him on the altars and proposes him to Christians as an intercessor before God and as a shining example for our commitment to fidelity to the baptismal vocation.”

God knows what we are made of, remember that we are dust. These are the words of the Responsorial Psalm of one of the last Masses of thanksgiving. And Don Álvaro added: “Blessed Josemaría also knew himself to be made of clay: of pitcher clay, he used to point out, to emphasize its fragility. And this humility has allowed God to work wonders through the loyal correspondence, in every occupation, of the Founder of Opus Dei.”

The desire for holiness is inseparable from apostolic zeal.

IN THOSE days of 1992, Don Alvaro reminded us of a comment made by Pope Paul VI after the death of our Father. “When he expressed his veneration for our Founder, the Pope told me that our Father already belonged to the treasury of the whole Church. The extraordinary spread of private devotion to him showed us that, although he remained deeply ours, he did not belong exclusively to us. Today I repeat to you-full of gratitude and joy-that the elevation of Blessed Josemaría to the altars represents the beginning of a new expansion of the ecclesial mission for which the Lord chose him.

“This example and these teachings,” continued Don Álvaro, “affect us more than ever, children of his spirit in Opus Dei. For, just as the Church entrusts to us the relics of his body, he also entrusts to us the joyful task of safeguarding and transmitting the treasure of his teachings and the example of his life. There is no doubt: the beatification of our Founder also marks the beginning of a new stage in the life of Opus Dei, and it must mark it in the life of each of its members. A stage of a deeper love for God, of a more constant apostolic commitment, of a more generous service to the Church and to all humanity. A new stage, in short, of fuller fidelity to the spirit of sanctification in the midst of the world that our Founder has left us as an inheritance.”

The desire for holiness and the apostolic vibration are not juxtaposed aspects of the Christian life: they are united in the baptismal vocation, by the fact that they are children of God in the Only-begotten Son. “In the scene presented to us today by the Gospel, we see Jesus Christ preaching to the crowd from the boat of Peter. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch’ (Lk 5:4). How many times has it been the theme of our Founder’s prayer and preaching! Today … we marvel, full of gratitude to God, at the supernatural fruitfulness of his life; and we ask ourselves, once again, the reason for this effectiveness.”

The answer is found in the Gospel: if the grain of wheat does not die when it falls to the ground, it remains fruitless; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Thousands of souls have come to Christ through St. Josemaría “because he knew how to give himself freely to the fulfillment of God’s Will, as a most faithful instrument in his hands; because he did not hesitate to die to himself in order to live in Christ; because, like the Apostles, he left all things to follow the Lord closely, to the point of identifying himself with Him.”His fidelity,” the Holy Father said, “allowed the Holy Spirit to lead him to the heights of personal union with God, with the consequence of an extraordinary apostolic fruitfulness” (John Paul II, Address, May 18, 1992). It is very important that you, that I, consider whether we really have our souls in tension, exercising our faith, to follow the indications of the Master, the motions of grace, which come to us in a unique way in spiritual direction, and impel us to the loyal observance of the commandments of God and of the Church.

“Venite post me, come after me. Jesus invites us to follow him, with Peter, in the Church: in effective and affective communion with the Roman Pontiff and the entire College of Bishops. It is in the boat of Peter that we can hear the Lord’s imperative and divinely efficacious word: cast your nets for a catch! (… ).

“We have heard the same invitation of Christ in the words of his Vicar on earth, the Holy Father John Paul II: we Christians are called ‘to collaborate in a new evangelization that imbues homes, professional environments, cultural and work centers, the media, public and private life, with those evangelical values that are a source of peace, brotherhood, understanding and concord among men’ (Address, May 18, 1992). To us too, as to Peter twenty centuries ago, these words will sometimes seem humanly unreasonable; but like the Apostles, trusting not in our personal experience or in our human reasoning, but in divine grace, we will obey Christ and the miracle will be accomplished anew: they caught a great number of fish (Lk 5:6).

“While we are convinced of our littleness, we must strive to make our life authentically Christian, Christ’s: it will be the net that, despite its weakness, will draw many souls to the Master. We must bear witness to Christ at all times, without giving ourselves excuses or pauses. Every moment of our lives must be dedicated to God, and every moment - if we correspond to grace - can be the occasion for those who come to know us to encounter God.”

We ask this of the Queen of the Apostles, also having recourse to the intercession of our Father.