551. June 26, Feast of Our Founder (I)

Meditations no. 481 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

On the 26th of June 1975, our founder went home to heaven.

Today, the anniversary of our founder’s departure for heaven, is the feast of Saint Josemaría. This date is indelibly engraved upon our hearts. In a special way it makes us call to mind the most lovable image and heroic dedication of our Father. After the 2nd of October 1928, his life had no other goal than the fulfilment of the divine commission he had received. He persevered in this desire until the very moment of his death, overcoming countless difficulties with the help of grace and his perpetual cheerfulness.

For all of us, the unexpected death of our Father meant a great sorrow. But from the first moment we repeated the aspiration he taught us - fiat, adimpleatur - so as to love the Will of God in times of contradiction. Through prayer, our hearts were filled with peace, and we were amazed to witness the truth of words Don Álvaro wrote to us at the time: the Father is still with us and he will always be with us. He is even closer to all of us, because now he can overcome any physical distance. Participating in the vision of God, his knowledge of us is deeper, more intimate; his love and vigilance for each and every one of his children is still greater, and more effective…

The Father always believed in God with an heroic faith. His faith was so firm, he used to repeat that he scarcely needed it, since he saw God in everything. It was so solid, that he explained graphically more than once that his faith was so thick you could slice it. For that reason we ought to remember those words of our Lord, which give us much assurance: ‘etiam si mortuus fuerit, vivet. Et omnis qui vivit et credit in me, non morietur in aeternum’. The Father lives and, because he has believed with great love, he will live on forever. This is the very thing he himself preached on countless occasions: for us, death means nothing more than a change of address. Our Father is with God, at home in heaven.

This year, he suggested that we invoke our Lord using the same aspiration as he used during those years of divine ‘intimations’: Domine, ut videam!, ut videamus!, ut videant! He desired the light of God, for himself, for each one of us… He was asking divine light for all men, so they would know how to discover the divine paths on earth. He finished his life on earth with the same prayer as that with which he prepared himself during adolescence to fulfil heroically what God wanted of him.

Our Lord has fulfilled his desires: we are overcome by the peaceful certainty that the Father is already enjoying the vision of God. He has rewarded the Father’s dedication by satiating his longing to contemplate the Most Blessed Trinity. And from that light he sees us, looks at us, smiles at each one with affection, as he has always done; he blesses us.

Our Lord accepted the offering of his life for the Church and for the Pope.

On that 26th of June 1975, our founder had gone to Castelgandolfo to spend time with his daughters at the Roman College of Our Lady, before leaving Rome for the summer. The get-together was cut short because he did not feel well, and he returned to Rome. Nevertheless, nothing in these events forewarned their imminent outcome.

Upon entering the house on Viale Bruno Buozzi, our Father greeted our Lord in the Oratory. It was a few minutes before midday. Our Father made a slow, devout genuflection, accompanied by his customary act of love. Then we went up to the room where he normally worked, wrote Don Álvaro at the time. A few seconds after going through the doorway, he called out: Javi! Javier had stayed behind to close the door of the lift, and the Father repeated more forcefully: Javi! And then, in a weaker voice: I’m not well. Just then the Father collapsed on the floor… We used every possible means, both spiritual and medical…

We could hardly convince ourselves that he had died. For us, to be sure, it was a question of sudden death. For the Father, without a doubt, it was something which was gradually maturing… I would dare to say, more in his soul than in his body. Every day the offering of his life for the Church was more frequent.

In effect, there was a special intensity in our founder’s last years. He offered our Lord his life and a thousand lives, should he have them. He added this phrase thinking of the Holy Church and the Pope, whoever he might be. This offering was the daily intention of his Mass; it was the continuous fervour of his soul; it was the sorrow in his heart; it was the solicitude of his life.

We have watched how the longing to make up for so much lack of love moved him to offer prayers, work, sacrifices, fervent vigils, and to seek the intercession of the Saints. How he lost sleep, thinking of so many lost souls, who should not be lost. The Father has fortified our faith, like the Good Shepherd who gives up his life for his sheep. He risked everything personal: his honour and his good name. For him the only thing that counted was the glory of God and souls: serving the Holy Church…

That’s how it went right up to the last day, to the last hours he spent on earth. In fact, during the get-together that very 26th of June, between half past ten and eleven in the morning -less than three hours before he died - there in Villa delle Rose, he was urging us: I suppose that, above all, you fulfil the Norms very well for me, and that everything that happens brings you closer to God and his Blessed Mother, our Mother, and St Joseph, our father and lord, and our Guardian Angels… so you can help our Holy Mother Church, which is so much in need, and having such a bad time of it in the world nowadays. We have to love the Church and the Pope, whoever he may be. Ask our Lord that our service to His Church and to the Holy Father be effective.

Our Father was always prepared for his encounter with God, because he fought each day as if it were his last.

Our Father was always prepared for his encounter with God. Although he wanted to work many years on earth and to die squeezed out like a lemon, his desires to see our Lord face to face grew impetuously with the passing days. People who love each other try to see each other. Those in love have eyes only for the one they love. And this is quite natural. The human heart feels those imperative commands. I would be lying if I were to deny that I am deeply moved by an ardent desire to contemplate the face of Jesus Christ. Vultum tuum, Domine, requiram (Ps 26: 8): Thy face, Lord, do I seek. It love to close my eyes and think that, when God wants, the moment will come when I will be able to see him, not as in a mirror dimly… but face to face (1 Cor13: 12). Yes, my children, my heart yearns for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? (Ps 41: 3).

On the 26th of June 1975, our Father celebrated Holy Mass, did other Norms, worked, had a get-together with a group of his daughters… in a word, he fought to faithfully fulfil the daily duties, towards God and the others, that constitute the soul of our vocation. The Lord chose to call him on a normal working day, a day that was offered to God.

This has always been his teaching. He used to tell us: On this earth we can never have the tranquillity of the comfort-loving people who don’t look after themselves because they think their future is secure. The future is uncertain for all of us, in the sense that we can betray our Lord, our vocation and our faith. We must make the resolution to fight always… This is our destiny on earth: to struggle for love’s sake, right up to the last moment. Deo gratias!

I shall try to fight until the very last moment of my life; and you, the same. Another consequence that we can derive from this anniversary commemoration is the need to live each day with our mind fixed on God, generously spending our whole existence in the service of the Church and of souls. Every instant of our lives has an eternal meaning. My children, this world is passing; it is not in our hands. We cannot waste time, which is short. We must really set ourselves to the task of our personal sanctification and of our apostolic work. The Lord has entrusted it to us; we must spend it faithfully, loyally, and administer it well. We must use the talents we have received with a sense of responsibility.

The Most Blessed Virgin cared for our founder and took him to heaven at the moment our Father God so disposed. It was as though… She kissed him on the forehead and whispered to him: now you are well-prepared, already mature… come with us, to enjoy the Blessed Trinity forever, very united to Me and to St Joseph, whom you love so much. Today we ask our Mother that we too know how to correspond loyally to the grace of her Son. When God wants, we shall be reunited with our most beloved founder in our heavenly home, where we shall praise the Blessed Trinity forever.