544. June 20, Death of Aunt Carmen
Meditations no. 475 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
The last moments of Aunt Carmenās life.
At dawn on Thursday, the 20th of June - feast of the Sacred Heart - our Lord chose to take Aunt Carmen to Himself. It was 3: 25 am. when we closed her eyes; she was already seeing heaven.
These words are taken from one of our internal publications, written a few days after the death of Aunt Carmen in 1957. On this anniversary, we shall consider the docility and affection with which Aunt Carmen always accepted the most lovable divine Will.
A short time earlier, in mid-April, an incurable illness had been diagnosed. Aunt Carmen received the news like a saintly person in Opus Dei, as Don Ćlvaro told our founder. From that moment on, Aunt Carmen began to prepare herself peacefully and joyfully for a good death.
Those in the Work who were nearest, looked after her with special affection and constantly accompanied her. They did whatever they could to make the last days of her life more bearable. From the outset, the petition of all the members of the Work was: Lord, if you want to, you can cure her. We were asking our Lord for a miracle. Aunt Carmen said that she was praying that the Will of God be fulfilled. We all repeated fiat, adimpleatur, united to our Father and accepting whatever the Lord should decide.
The tears were over the very moment she died, commented our founder the day after Aunt Carmenās death. I am happy now, my children, and grateful to our Lord who has taken her to heaven; I rejoice with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Yes, my children, you must congratulate me, because she is already in heaven. She was looking forward very much to seeing God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and the Most Blessed Virgin, and the Angelsā¦ Now she already there praying for us.
As soon as she died, I went down to the Oratory, to celebrate the first Mass as a suffrage for the repose of her soulā¦ Commend her to God, offer prayers for her, but I am sure she is already enjoying God; ma proprio certo, added our Father in Italian, completely sure.
At the time he gave no further explanation. However, shortly after the 26th of June 1975, Don Ćlvaro found an envelope with an indication that it should be opened after our Fatherās death. The handwriting was our Fatherās own. And so we learned that during the first Mass our Lord had offered our Father the consolation, along with clear proof, that his sister no longer needed suffrages. In a humanly inexplicable manner, he forgot to pray for Aunt Carmen in either the memento for the living or for the dead. Our Father realised it during his thanksgiving after Mass, and understood, without a shadow of a doubt, that God had thus made him understand that Aunt Carmen had no need of suffrages, since she was enjoying everlasting happiness.
Aunt Carmen spent her entire life serving the Work.
Aunt Carmen lived a life of readiness to be of service to the Work in whatever our Father might ask of her. Her availability was complete, continuous, and lived with simplicity and naturalness. This made her quiet and effective work go partly unnoticed. In the moments just prior to her death, Don Ćlvaro gave her this additional reason for hope: We are all with you. And above all God is here; He is the One giving you strength. You have been working for God your whole life, and now you are going to meet Him.
Aunt Carmen worked a lot for our Lord. Her life was spent for the Work. Without having our vocation, her work was continuous and self-sacrificing, done out of love. She did it with the simplicity of one who disregards the importance of the value of her acts of service. She worked with the perfection of a soul in love; her abnegation reached utter self-forgetfulness. Together with the Grandmother, she offered the Work invaluable assistance. She managed the household administration of the various Centres until our sisters were able to do so.
Her example invites us to make an examination of conscience about the quality of our dedication. Is it equally as full? Is there any obstacle in our life that is slowing our pace towards God? It is our Father who asks us: We have to give ourselves once and for all, without reserves, in a manly way. Tell our Lord: ecce ego quia vocasti me! (1 Sam 3: 6 and 9). We can repeat this act of dedication often: when we are tired or almost out of strength for the interior struggle; when souls do not respond; when the tasks into which we have put our desires seem to yield little; when the way is uphill and the heart feels disturbed; when our Lord asks us for greater dedication or a new sacrificeā¦
Many times our founder would tell one of his sons, my son, I am leaning on you. That confidence of our Father moved us then, and it stimulates us now to commit ourselves and lean more on God. We exclaim, Lord, give us the love to pledge our life a thousand times over, for the Work! May your love and our love for the Work guide our life along every moment of every day!
To a great extent, we owe the family environment of our Centres to her efforts.
She has taught us how one lives and how one dies in Opus Dei: without making a fuss, disappearingā¦ without anyone realising, apart from those of us who were nearest, commented our Father while they were lowering the coffin to the sottocripta of Our Lady of Peace in Villa Tevere.
Aunt Carmen spent her life and her health in household work. She did without her independence, well-deserved rest, and a comfortable position in life. She accepted the renunciation God was asking her through our Father, and turned down proposals to marriage in order to serve the Work.
With Christian dignity and human charm, she contributed to the shaping of our family environment. She turned the tiniest incident into an inviting, family event; this was of great importance for our Centres. She herself had been educated in the heart of a Christian family, where self-sacrificing love for one another prevailed. Well did she know how that Christian warmth proper of a home formed part of the spirit God had entrusted to our founder: the home which I have seen, and which I want there to be in every corner of our Centres. Here she collaborated, putting her whole heart into it, full of serene joy. Hers was the feminine hand -the hand of a mother, of a sister - that knew how to give homely warmth to each Centre.
Shortly before she died, Aunt Carmen assured us that she would continue helping us from heaven. And we have seen how she has kept her word, especially as regards that endearing family environment. In heaven, she graciously takes our gratitude and turns it into a more intense intercession for each one of her nieces and nephews.
One consequence of the dedication that we see in Aunt Carmenās life, as in our own, is deep joy. God loves the cheerful giver. What is it that we most desire, what drives us most, and has moved us to dedication? The love of God. Well, He will give us still more. He will make us fall completely in love, if we do things with joy. When dedication is woven with true confidence in our Lord, when it is humble and seeks only to please God, then we are completely happy, my children. Whoever says Opus Dei says joy. Whoever says Opus Dei has to say work, but work with joy; charity with joy; understanding with joy.
My children, we are going to give ourselves fully, we are going to live by faith, happily. We are going to stick fast to Jesus Christ, to love Him truly, truly, truly. We are going to live out our great love story, because that is what we are, people in love. It is for Love that we have left everything, giving our lives to carry out his Work on earth. We are going to stay very close together, well within this boat, the Work And we are going to tell our Lord once more that we are here because He has called us: ecce ego quia vocasti me! (1 Sam 3: 9). Following Him we want to make ours a path of joy.
We finish our prayer today asking Aunt Carmen to present our good resolutions to our Lady, our desires of continuing along the path of our vocation cum gaudio et pace.