573. August 21, St Pius X (I)

Meditations no. 504 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

We serve the Church effectively by being faithful to our spirit.

St Pius X was outstanding for his continuous service to the Church and to souls, first as priest, then as the Patriarch of Venice, and finally as the Roman Pontiff. His love for God led him to dedicate all of his efforts while in the Roman See to restoring all things in Christ.

We too want to serve our Mother the Church with our whole soul, in accord with the specific way God wants for us, by imbuing temporal realities with a Christian spirit through our personal apostolate, carried out in our ordinary work. This apostolic way of acting of ours answers a need that will always exist. As long as there are men on earth there will be people working in the intellectual or manual professions. Therefore there should also be Christians dedicated to sanctifying those professions while sanctifying themselves and sanctifying others through their work.

The spirit of the Work teaches us to serve the Church in a lay, secular way that responds to the intrinsic nature of our vocation. Our calling doesn’t take us out of our place or our surroundings; it doesn’t remove us from the world or our state in life or our professional work.

As in the case of all Christians, our Lord has entrusted us with the mission of spreading his name throughout the world. Our Father reminds us, The extension of the kingdom of God is not only the official task of the members of the Church who represent Christ in virtue of having received sacred orders from him. Vos autem estis corpus Christi (1 Cor13: 27). You too are the body of Christ. And you have received the specific command to trade, by your responsible work, until the Lord comes.

He sums up our apostolic task when he tells us that the best service that we can render the Church and mankind is to provide doctrine. Most of the evils that afflict the world are due to a lack of Christian doctrine, even among those who want to follow Christ closely or who give the appearance of wanting to do so. Thus, our founder wrote, you will experience the joy of working effectively in the service of God’s Holy Church and of all souls, when you are carrying out the very beautiful apostolate of providing doctrine by your word and example, and by your professional work in the middle of the world. You will do so in places that are inaccessible or even forbidden to priests and religious, and consequently often abandoned or neglected, to the great sorrow of the Church.

We serve the Church unselfishly, with a lay spirit.

Our Father reminds us, You have to live and act with the nobility and rectitude of those who work relying on their professional preparation and citizenship, and not on their Catholicism or on saints’ names or the adjective ‘Catholic.’ You have to act with the supernatural joy and human optimism of those who are deeply convinced that Christianity is not a negative or sheltered religion, but rather a joyful affirmation in every corner of the world. It is the only doctrine capable of providing all noble forms of earthly life with a firm foundation and a guarantee of progress.

I have always been annoyed by the attitude of those who make a profession of “calling themselves Catholic…” The spirit of Opus Dei and of its members is to serve the Church, and all men, without using the Church. I like Catholics to carry Christ, not in name, but in their conduct, giving a real witness of Christian life. Therefore we strive to make our daily actions conform to the spirit God has given us, by continually rectifying our intention. Deo omnis gloria. All the glory is for God. We strive to sanctify every noble human task, that is, our ordinary work, carried out in the world in a lay and secular manner, for the service of the holy Church, the Roman Pontiff and all souls.

Our lay manner of serving the Church also holds true for the apostolates which the Work fosters corporately for purely spiritual ends. These apostolates, whose goal is to make our Lord’s teachings better known, encompass the entire range of lawful activities that a group of citizens can engage in, and therefore constitute a professional task. This is why we never call any of our Centres or corporate apostolic works “Catholic.” Similarly, we never give our apostolates or Centres saints’ names. We want everyone to be devoted to the saints and to venerate them. But we don’t use them as a cover. As I’ve sometimes said and written, whenever I see a sweet store named after St Catherine, I immediately suspect, with little fear of being mistaken, that in that shop they have a 900 gram kilogram.

Our service to the Church is completely unselfish without looking for even a nod of thanks here on earth. Our life is little enough to offer to God. But we renew now in God’s presence our unselfish dedication, in the realization that authentic love and service to the Church do not stop short at the persons who rule it. They always aim higher: Domino Christo servite (Col 3: 24). It’s Christ whom we must serve.

We serve the Church without compromising her.

Our apostolate is very often carried out in surroundings where being a Catholic and practising our faith meets with resistance. We don’t look for applause in our apostolate. Rather we want to stand up for the Church when being a Catholic is difficult, and to pass unnoticed when being called Catholic is fashionable. In fact, in many places, truly being a Catholic, even without calling oneself one, is cause enough for receiving all sorts of slights and attacks. Therefore I have told you that “living off being Catholics” is repugnant to us. We live, if need be, “in spite of being Catholics.”

Our upright desire of serving leads us to avoid involving the Church in temporal affairs. As children of the Church and recipients of God’s special call, we bring all earthly things to God. But we do not label our apostolic works Catholic, although everyone can see that they are. We do not give saints’ names to our apostolic works; it is neither necessary nor fitting. Besides, others do so already. We prefer to serve the Holy Church at our own risk, without compromising her. To do the opposite, making use of the Church in benefit of our own professional, social and political life, seems to me to be a false love for the Spouse of Jesus Christ. Even humanly speaking it is an ugly, deceitful way of acting.

We finish today’s prayer by thanking our Lord for wanting his Work to have this spirit, which leads us to serve the holy Church joyfully and unselfishly in the midst of secular activities. The sole ambition and only desire of Opus Dei and of each of its children is to serve the Church as she wants to be served, within the specific vocation which God has given us.

Through the intercession of St Pius X, we ask our Lord to make us strong in the faith and united in love for him. We ask him to teach us to serve the Church generously all the days of our life.

We will never be satisfied with our work, no matter how much service we have rendered to the Church and the Pope, by God’s grace. Love will demand more of us each day, and our works will always seem of little stature, since the time that we have is always short. Tempus breve est (1 Cor 7: 29).