615. December 2, Novena of the Immaculate Conception (III)

Meditations no. 542 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Blessed Virgin led an ordinary life.

Many centuries have passed since God, at the gate of Paradise, promised our first parents to send the future Messiah. The hope of Israel, the depository of God’s promise, is centred on the Virgin from the line of David, who will conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

With Mary’s Immaculate Conception, the dawn of salvation begins to break over mankind. O Sun of Justice, the Church prays, whom the Immaculate Virgin preceded as the dawn full of light: make us always walk in the light of your coming. We rejoice with all Christians, because the Blessed Virgin is Ianua coeli, the Gate of heaven. Heaven came down to earth through her most pure flesh, and it is through her that we reach God. The Creator wanted to need a human creature, a woman, to become man and live our very life. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth.

We don’t know the date of Mary’s birth. She was born in a city of Galilee, in the home of Joachim and Ann, on a day whose significance remained hidden to men. God acted with such naturalness, scorning the judgment of men, who so often seek after what is extraordinary. No one on earth knew that the one destined to become the Mother of God had been born; only in heaven was this day a great feast, because our redemption was dawning.

Afterwards, for many years, the Blessed Virgin Mary passed unnoticed. Her naturalness is an example of Christian life for us. For over thirty years God has been putting into my heart the desire to help people of every condition and background to understand that ordinary life can be holy and full of God. Our Lord is calling us to sanctify the ordinary tasks of every day, for the perfection of the Christian is to be found precisely there. Let’s consider it once more as we contemplate Mary’s life.

Only God knows the true importance of all events, persons, and deeds.

Whence then comes wisdom? And where is the place of understanding? It is hid from the eyes of all living. Only God sees our life in all its fullness; only he knows completely how events are connected one with one another. God’s plans are inscrutable: we know them only in a fragmented way, as though we were seeing the reverse side of a splendid tapestry. But God sees, with complete clarity, the design and colour and meaning of the entire work of art.

All men have a mission to fulfill on earth. It doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor, wise or unlearned, powerful or weak. Events that men deem unimportant are decisive in the history that the All-powerful is writing in the world. And ordinary, unknown people are very effective instruments in God’s hands, drawing down divine mercy upon the world.

Our founder wrote: Let me tell you a true story. Between the years 1927 and 1931 there was a poor woman who used to go to a priest for spiritual guidance. She was mentally retarded and uncultured, but she had a very refined soul. She was called Crazy Henrietta. At the time there was a famous newspaper in Spain which was fanatically anti-Catholic. It was in the hands of a group of intellectuals who were doing great harm to souls and to the Church. One day the priest, who was strong in the faith but who had no other weapons, asked the poor woman a favour: ‘From now on, until I tell you otherwise, you are going to pray for an intention of mine.’ The intention was that the newspaper would cease being published. Before long Scripture was fulfilled. Quae stulta sunt mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat sapientes (1 Cor 1: 27), God has chosen the foolish in the eyes of the world to put to shame the wise. That newspaper collapsed through the prayer of a poor simple woman who kept on praying for the same intention. Then a second and a third newspaper that succeeded the first one, and that also did great harm to souls, likewise collapsed.

In any work or situation, men and women can influence the course of history by corresponding to God through the sanctity in their life. This is a central teaching of the spirit of the Work, which leads us to carry out any task with an eagerness for holiness, since all tasks are important in the eyes of God. Our Father wrote: All my children have a constant call from God to carry out their ordinary work with perfection; they lead a life like that of their peers, but count on their vocation, with all the grace of God, to be salt and leaven in their place. The child of mine who fulfils his ordinary duty, who does not seek after extraordinary things, sanctifies himself. We don’t desire what is extraordinary, we don’t need it The great miracle, the great and marvellous proof that our undertaking is from God is that each day we tread the same steps, while giving to them daily a new sense, a different light, a renewed vibration: this is our great discovery!

Therefore, my children, the supernatural dimension of our vocation must be shown in the perfect fulfilment of our ordinary duty, making of our work, a sanctified and sanctifying professional task. If we respond to our call, our life is ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. Because the great miracle, the extraordinary thing, is our ordinary life.

God’s plans cannot be measured by our human intellect. On that illustrious day of holy Mary’s birth, who could have known that the tiny child born among the daughters of Israel would inaugurate the fullness of time and the kingdom of God on earth?

We are happy to serve the Church in the place the directors indicate.

When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men. God plays with us like a father plays with his small children. His tender concern for each one of us seeks only our happiness. Thus we have the marvellous assurance that, if we are faithful in the place, state and work that his Wisdom has disposed for us, we will be happy and we will correspond to his loving Providence. How anxious people are to get out of place! Think what would happen if each bone and each muscle of the human body wanted to occupy some position other than its own.

There is no other reason for the world’s discontent. Continue where you are, my son; right where you are… how much you’ll be able to work for the true kingdom of our Lord!

We have found our place, our exact position before God, on coming to the Work and putting all our determination into carrying it out on earth. The place where we are most effective is the one where the directors have put us: that is God’s will And that place, rather than another that might seem more suited to our dispositions and aptitudes, or perhaps our whims, is where the grace of God will help us most effectively.

God has shown us the role we are to carry out in the work of salvation, and he has given our life a very definite meaning. Our mission is to fulfill that role faithfully, with a joyful heart, sanctifying ourselves in our place. It is not our human talents or achievements, no matter how outstanding, that make us useful instruments for carrying out the Work of God on earth. We are useful in God’s eyes only if we are united to our Lord in his Work. Therefore our Father tells us: May you be like those splendid diamonds, which remain wherever they are placed without protest and without pride.

We don’t give importance to human respects, nor to the fickle judgements of men. Our only concern is that God is pleased with every corner of our life, that we act facing him, as protagonists in a history played out before both heaven and earth. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

During these days of preparation for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we ask holy Mary to grant us the humility to persevere in our place, in order to carry out the Work where God has entrusted it to us. We want to do so without seeking after human applause, passing unnoticed, acting only out of love.