589. September 29, St Michael, St Gabriel, & St Raphael, Archangels (I)
Meditations no. 518 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
St Michaelâs work is the foundation that sustains our whole family.
Suddenly Michael, a prince of the angels, came to my aid. This is the Churchâs prayer in the Divine Office today, on the feast of the archangels St Michael, St Gabriel and St Raphael. In Opus Dei we have special devotion to these three archangels that dates back to the thirties, when our founder first invoked them as our patrons.
It was early in October 1932, our Father wrote. I was on a retreat in the monastery of the discalced Carmelites in Segovia, in complete isolation as was my custom, without anyone to accompany me or direct a meditation. I spent long periods of prayer in the chapel where the remains of St John of the Cross lie buried. There in that chapel, I had the interior motion to invoke for the first time the three archangels and the three apostles whose intercession all the members of the Work beseech each day in our Preces. From that moment on they have been the patrons of the three works that make up Opus Dei.
The works of St Michael, St Gabriel and St Raphael form, as it were, three branches of Opus Dei, three apostolic undertakings that encompass and unify all our supernatural work in the service of God our Lord, the holy Church and all souls.
The purpose of St Michaelâs work is to look after the formation of Numeraries and Associates, to sustain and improve it. It seeks to give them all the spiritual and doctrinal means they need, so that their personal dedication, undertaken out of love for God, may be as effective as possible, seeking Christian perfection and carrying out apostolate in their own profession or job in the middle of the world.
The work of St Michael is the foundation, the strength, that sustains our entire family, and all our apostolic endeavours. So that many may employ the âIâ, âyouâ and âheâ of personal apostolate in all their fullness, wrote our Father, a group of dedicated, competent and apostolic men and women have to employ the anonymous âwe.â
We all have to be concerned about the happiness and perseverance of the others in the Work.
Concern for the fidelity and perseverance of the members of the Work, and in particular of the Numeraries and Associates, is not a task exclusively for the directors. Rather it falls to all of us. Children of my soul! Never forget that each one of you has entered through the gate, through the love of Christ. You are sheep in the same sheepfold. But at the same time, each of you also has to somehow be a good shepherd of these sheep. For just as you have the duty to let yourself be led and to respond when you are called by name, so you have the equally serious duty to contribute to the sanctity and perseverance of your brothers.
None of you is alone, none of you is an isolated verse. We are all verses in the same divine epic poem. And each of you, as I am, is concerned that this unity, this harmony, not be broken, that we be united like a great flock, like a great army, oves et milites Christi, on the path of holiness.
We often heard our founder insist that our first proselytism is to help our brothers or sisters be faithful and holy. I am happy and filled with joy, he said, when I see my children making a great effort to be concerned about cooperators, about St Raphael fellows and about everyone that comes our way. But I usually tell them in a whisper, though sometimes in a shout, that our first duty is to be concerned about the Numeraries and Associates. I have written and taught you this a hundred times over. For it is not enough to say things once, not even to bright persons with good will, like all my sons and daughters. We have to repeat the same thing a hundred times; that is the psychology of advertising. And even then we forget.
That is why I have said that I do not believe in the apostolic zeal of those who show great interest in the St Raphael fellows and in their own friends, unless I also see at least as much zeal, if not more, in their concern for their brothers. I have written that when a Numerary fails in his vocation I am convinced that, in many cases, those who lived alongside him have committed a fault that could even be a serious sin: because they havenât helped him, because they havenât been concerned about him.
We have to watch and be attentive, my children. When someone is sick, it shows on his face, in his look, in his distaste for doing things, in his listlessness and inability to make an effort. It would be a crime to lack charity and fraternal justice by not being concerned about the physical life of our brothers. But it would be an even greater crime were we to allow a brother of ours with whom we live to remain in a state of spiritual weakness, and even to die. Iâve often said, and now I repeat it, that I donât excuse from sin-which can at times be serious-those who live alongside someone in these sad circumstances, and who donât help that brother of theirs to persevere. And Iâm not exaggerating. Iâm being objective.
Fraternal affection shown by specific deeds helps solidify the Work.
St Michael, prince of the heavenly host, strengthen us in our weakness and preserve us in Godâs grace. We make use of these words from the Churchâs liturgy today to ask our patron to teach us to watch over our brothers and sisters with the same generous vigilance he maintains over the Work.
Our Father asked: Shouldnât the Father be tranquil? For wherever you are, scattered throughout the world, you are very close to the wounds of Jesus; and bathed in his precious Blood, you will hasten to cure the wounds of your brothers.
You will tell them, in a marvellous confidential talk, or in a Brief Circle, or in one of those talks given by a layman in the day of recollection, what the work has taught you in a motherly way, while overlooking your own defects. You will use the same intonation, the same truthfulness, the same zeal and fervour, the same Blood of Christ that has hastened to our wounds to bind and heal them. How quickly our blood flows when we have a wound! This is what you will do, what God and this beautiful Mother of ours will do, when you hasten with your charity and affection to purify the wounds of your brothers.
You will tell them that they have to love one another, that they have to help one another; that it doesnât matter if they are weak, since they can rely on Godâs strength: quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea! (Ps 42: 2). In addition, they will have the strength of humility, the marvellously strong weakness of their clean and upright brothers, of their hard-working and dedicated brothers. We will all be strong, all of us, if we practise the alter alterius onera portate (Gal 6: 2), if we bear one anotherâs burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
My children, how much patience we need at times with souls! A lot of patience. You will also need to exercise patience with some of your brothers who have a difficult temperament, but who are very good. You have to insist, without fear. I know from experience that one has to repeat things. Do you know how people usually come to understand something very well? You know it quite well, since itâs the universal pedagogy our parents and teachers followed with us: when they wanted us to really grasp an idea, they gave us a practical example.
So to help your brothers truly grasp the different aspects of the spirit of the Work-since weâre speaking now especially about them-the best method is to give them good example. Someone is sick, or is tired, or doesnât want to kill his pride⌠? Let us take care of him with affection, let us help him overcome his fatigue to the extent possible, let us teach him how to be humble. Willingly give up your opinion in matters that arenât essential, that donât involve the Churchâs doctrine or the spirit of the Work. Be humble, give them the lesson of your good example, but not as if at a great cost, as if you were challenging them to their face: no, no! Rather do so with naturalness, with a supernatural outlook, out of love for God and for that brother of yours.
Then you will see how good it is to be in our Centres, how pleasant life is there. For you will help one another to be quasi civitas firma (Prov 18: 19), like a walled city. How much good this charity does. But it has to be shared equally with everyone. It has to be universal! For when we go to a different region, with a different language and even a different race, we are as much at home as in our native region. How beautiful!
This is the way to build up our great family, the way to act before God, the sure way to heaven after having been happy on earth. Certainly here below there will always be small annoyances, but we have to rise above them, raising our sights above the difficulty. We have to look to God, and then look at ourselves, acknowledging that we are capable of every wretchedness. Then we find it very easy to understand and forgive the weaknesses of others, and we help them to overcome them, so that they in turn will help us. Then forward! Forward on this divine path that God, in his goodness, has wanted to mark out for us on earth!