553. June 26, Feast of Our Founder (III)

Meditations no. 483 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Millions of people have devotion to our Father’s intercession before God.

Throughout his life our Father did everything possible to go unnoticed. He summed up his norm of conduct for us in a few words: My job is to hide and disappear, so that only Jesus may be in the limelight. He sought only to direct our thoughts and affections towards Our Lord.

However, sanctity cannot but manifest itself, because ‘no one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel basket, but on a candlestick, so that it gives light to all who are in the house’ (Matt 5: 15). And God seems determined nowadays to make very many souls find that light. So many accounts reach us of people who are moved when they get to know details from our founder’s holy life - and this is just a small part of all that in reality is happening. They confide in his patronage; they communicate the lights they have received through his intercession; they mention the favours they have received, and supernatural interventions! It is altogether a popular vote of acclaim which attests to his sanctity.

Our Father’s reputation for sanctity was evident from the moment of his death and even during his lifetime. In the years after his death, we faithfully fulfilled all the norms of the Church regarding private devotion to the Servants of God. In 1992 the Church beatified our Father, and his reputation for sanctity has greatly increased around the world, with millions of people having confident recourse to his intercession. While he was on earth, his priestly heart was extremely sensitive to the needs of souls. In heaven, with greater reason he shows his magnanimous desire to make every effort… so the oppressed and dormant energies of men in the service of God may be activated… making their own that cry of the Lord: misereor super turbam (Mark 7: 2), having compassion for the multitude.

The means we use in the apostolic work of friendship and confidence include distributing prayer cards and promulgating the Newsletter, they help people know about his holy life. These means are absolutely disproportionate, since the results achieved are supernatural. It is God alone who can produce this increase. Everything is due to the most lovable Will of God, who thus shows us how pleased He is with the supplication we offer so that He deigns to glorify our Father, his good and faithful servant… one who served Him with so much sacrifice and effort, throughout his whole life.

Spreading devotion to our founder renders a great service to the Church.

The Lord counts on our collaboration to extend devotion to our founder still more. Everything we do to this end is a manifestation of filial affection and, moreover, an effective service to the Church.

It makes sense that good children gladly speak about their father. Holy Scripture says, whoever fears the Lord honours his father and serves as lords to those who engendered him. Honour your father by word and by deed, so that his blessing be upon you. In our case, besides, it is a question of honouring someone who has begotten us with so much love and sacrifice in our vocation to the Work. For that reason, devotion to our Father is a manifestation of filial love which no one should find strange.

But there is something else. Our Father no longer belongs exclusively to us, while he is and will always continue being so dearly ours… How shall I say it? He belongs to the whole Church. On the one hand, because every saint belongs to all Christians in common. The sanctity of our founder is unquestionably real… On the other hand, our Father was the instrument chosen by God to remind everyone of the universal calling to the fullness of Christian life, through the exercise of one’s profession or job, without changing one’s state. That truth is old like the Gospel, and like the Gospel, new.

The life of Saint Josemaría establishes an example for the faithful who are still pilgrims on earth. The Work has opened up for Christians a way of sanctification in professional work and in the fulfilment of ordinary duties. Letting people know about the life and teachings of our founder means facilitating the quest for sanctity, to which all the faithful have been called.

The life and doctrine which God confided to our Father are not mere circumstances, nor are they limited to a specific space or time. On the contrary, the message of the universal calling to sanctity in professional work has to be taught to all men until the end of time. Our founder affirmed that it is not necessary to go away to the desert or live on a mountain top; love of God and supernatural outlook are needed in everything including the little things of each moment. That’s why he assured us that the divine paths of the earth have been opened up. Any task carried out for love of God can be an instrument and means of sanctity and apostolate, provided it is well done, with perfection.

Thus, if we try to spread devotion to our Father everywhere… we are doing a great service to the Church. For this reason, speaking about our founder, letting people know about his life and teachings, now forms an extremely important element of the divine mission we have received and which moves us to promote the quest for sanctity in the middle of the world.

It is also a great means of apostolate.

Spreading devotion to our Father and showing the example of his correspondence to the divine gifts is a great means of apostolate. We can explain to those around us the life and virtues of our founder, who perfectly incarnated the spirit of the Work… we can tell of the favours God grants through his intercession… then it is easy to guide these persons along the paths of spiritual life. We can encourage them to talk with God confidently, to frequent the sacraments, and to sanctify themselves in their ordinary work.

There are many who have found Christ by knowing our founder. This is logical, since our Father was a most faithful instrument in God’s hands throughout his whole life. He still is, and will always be so in Heaven, with greater effectiveness. As a good Father, now he is delighted as well to be our ‘instrument’. May we use the example of his life and the richness of his teachings in order to talk to souls about the wonders of God.

We should frequently go to the intercession of our Father for any need, and let many more people know about his life and teachings. By our efforts, we’ll try to increase the number of persons who pray the prayer for devotion to our founder with faith and piety. But firstly, it is important that we ourselves turn to him more often. We confide our needs to him; we go to his intercession to conquer in our ascetical struggle; we confide our resolutions and our desires to improve in our own interior life and to achieve the apostolic goals we set ourselves…

In today’s prayer we can ask ourselves: how is my correspondence to the motions of the Holy Spirit, which our Father puts in my heart? Do I deal confidently with our founder? Do I go to his intercession for all my spiritual and material needs? Am I truly struggling to make his teachings flesh of my flesh and life of my life, without any sort of excuses? Do I feel the need to communicate this spirit, left to us as our Father’s inheritance, to many other persons? At the end of each day, do I consider whether I have done Opus Dei by being myself Opus Dei?

We have to use this new apostolic weapon which the Lord has given us. Each one of us should do so personally, praying the prayer card frequently. How many times do we recite it every day? We can and must repeat it many times throughout the day. It will help us along our way of sanctity and it will move us to do more apostolate. We will also ensure fidelity to the spirit of Opus Dei, while we ask once and again for the glorification of our founder, for the good of the Church and for the greater glory of God.

We finish our prayer, as always, with our Lady. In the words of our founder, we ask: Sweet Mother… lead us to the madness that will make others fall madly in love with our Christ.