565. August 4, St John Mary Vianney, Cure of Ars (I)

Meditations no. 496 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Most of our apostolic fruit remains in the dioceses.

Today we celebrate the feast of the saintly Cure of Ars, St John Mary Vianney, to whom we entrust the relations of the Work and its members with diocesan bishops.

Since we love the Church, our Father wrote in 1943, we have a great love for the bishops, who the Holy Spirit has made… guardians to feed the Church (Act 20: 28). We work in each diocese with the same aim in view as the bishop, and the fruit of our apostolate remains in the diocese. We strive to further the bishops’ goals by our own special way of working, as citizens, since acting otherwise we couldn’t count on God’s grace.

Our vocation leads us to remind all the faithful of their calling to holiness and to provide them with the means and formation needed to respond to it. We strive to awaken the desire for personal holiness in everyone who draws close to the Work, and thus contribute to the Christianization of civil society. Whatever specific goals the pastoral authority in each diocese may decide on at a given moment, the apostolate of the Work always provides a very effective collaboration for attaining these objectives. We help to provide the apostolate in the dioceses with a continuity independent of temporary circumstances, precisely as ordinary faithful who strive to sanctify our own professional, family and social settings. The more effort and dedication we put into working in the specific way God has wanted for his Work, the better will we serve the Church.

By our personal, daily effort, which does not draw attention to itself but is very effective, we help make the words from today’s liturgy a reality: Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! Thus we can truly say, with our founder, that most of the fruit of our apostolate remains in the diocese.

The bishops recognize and are thankful for the apostolic help offered by the members of the Work.

Wherever we work, the bishops are grateful for our apostolic efforts, which are a service of a professional character, carried out by citizens within the ambit of civil society, with personal responsibility and without forming groups, through their Christian witness of example and doctrine’.

Thus lay people have their own way of contributing to the holiness and apostolate of the Church. They do so by their free and responsible action within the temporal sphere, to which they bring the leaven of Christianity. The Second Vatican Council has emphasized the need to acknowledge and foster the laity’s specific apostolic role, while calling for great respect for the legitimate freedom to which everyone has a right in temporal matters.

In Opus Dei we have learned and lived this teaching right from the start. In 1932, our Father wrote: We must reject the mistaken view that the ordinary faithful are restricted to helping the clergy in ecclesiastical apostolates. The apostolate of the laity should not be limited to participating in the hierarchical apostolate. Lay people have the duty to do apostolate, and not because of any canonical mission but because they are part of the Church. They carry out this mission through their profession, job, family, colleagues and friends.

Those who are responsible for governing the Church are pleased to see how effectively the spirit of the Work contributes to the Christian renewal of society. They thank God for having brought forth this new apostolic energy within the Church. It is perfectly clear to them that our most noble ambition is to serve the Church unselfishly without ever “using” her. Consequently, they are happy and thankful for the good you accomplish in their dioceses. … For by our lay work we contribute to the service of the diocese and to the improvement of the spiritual life of the faithful, without costing the diocese a penny or requiring anyone’s help. In short, out of charity, out of love for the Church and souls, we do what the bishop is obliged to do out of justice, by virtue of his episcopal consecration and the mission entrusted to him in his diocese.

When obstacles arise, we should be understanding, and continue to pray and work.

The spirit of the Work is simple, clear and genuine, like everything that comes from God. Yet we ought not to be surprised if ever we come across right-intentioned people who fail to understand fully the Prelature’s special characteristics. We will have to be patient and understanding then, and at the opportune moment explain matters with a gift of tongues. And we will continue being faithful to our vocation, doing things as God wants them to be done. Today we entrust the relations of the Work and its members with diocesan bishops to the saintly Cure of Ars. We ask that this relationship may always be very cordial, with a deep unity of goals and a generous and mutual spirit of service.

Our Father wrote: Don’t fail to pray constantly for the diocesan prelate, as I have taught you to do from the beginning. Deal with him courteously as befits the supernatural and human tone of the Work. This is another area which differentiates us from religious; they naturally have to deal with bishops in a different, though likewise refined, way. The way in which they work, their mentality, formation and spirit are all different, since their whole apostolate is ecclesiastical.

In all of our corporate apostolates, for which the Work takes full responsibility, we always act in accord with the bishop. For we want to strengthen his authority and avoid working apostolically at cross purposes.

Unity, however, cannot be uniformity. All Christians, especially those who have undertaken a complete personal dedication of their life to God’s service, are united in the co-redemptive mission of the Church, as I have already mentioned. But they cooperate in different ways according to their own specific vocation.

Consequently, unity requires that we love the divine vocation we have received and that we be faithful to our calling. For that is our way to work usefully for the whole Church, which wants us to do God’s will. And that is also the way to show, in practice, that all vocations are loved and accepted, all the varied gifts that the Spirit of God confers on Christians.

With filial trust, we go to Mary, Mother of God and our Mother. We ask her to help us to always work generously in accord with our specific spirit in Opus Dei, thereby making the talents God has given us by our vocation bear fruit for the good of the universal Church and all souls.