621. December 6, St Nicholas of Bari (III)

Meditations no. 548 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Work is a large and poor family with abundant financial needs.

Today is the feast of St Nicholas of Bari, an intercessor of the Work to whom our Father entrusted our financial needs. He told us, One day I was at St Elizabeth’s benefice, where I was rector. I was about to celebrate Mass and, as I was going through terrible financial straits, I said: Since St Nicholas gets people out of financial troubles and finds husbands for prospective old maids… “if you get me out of this fix, I’ll name you intercessor!” But before going to the altar, I relented, and added: “even if you don’t, I’ll name you intercessor just the same.” The financial need was pressing. Materially perhaps, it didn’t amount to much, but today it would be equivalent to many million [pesetas].

So it has always been, since Opus Dei is a very large family. And despite the hard work of all of its children, it can never meet all the financial problems occasioned by our apostolates. From its very beginning, the Work has been poor. And it will always be poor, our founder says, because God will never stop asking us to undertake more apostolates, more initiatives, and more expenditures of money and personnel in his service. We will never have sufficient money to spread the apostolate as rapidly as God wants. We are being called from many places where we cannot go at present because of a lack of financial resources.

We will always be short of money, since our apostolate is like a shoreless sea. I take advantage of the opportunity provided by what I have just told you to thank God our Lord that the Work will always be poor. It will always need more than it has if it is to fulfill its apostolic goals, no matter how abundant our resources may appear to outsiders.

When many of you have asked for my blessing as you went to extend our battle of love throughout the world, the material resources you received for beginning the apostolate were the Sign of the Cross, a picture of our Lady and a smile. Usually it hasn’t been possible to give you much else.

Naturally the more the Work spreads, the more it will need material instruments, which we will always strive to sanctify. No one on this earth does anything without using human means, no matter how noble his purpose is. Yet I must point out a very special “detail” in our case. The material resources that we use for serving our Lord do not belong to Opus Dei, and they never will, with very rare exceptions.

Only by the cooperation of many persons who love us, and by the work of all its members, can Opus Dei support its apostolates throughout the world. Our Father insists, We will always be poor. We will never have sufficient financial resources to take care of all our apostolates. Even though we work very hard, the apostolates always grow, thank God, in ever greater proportion. And this will always be the case. Therefore our poverty is authentic, since we live it. … We live it joyfully; for God wants us to practise this virtue. At the same time He comes to our aid and obliges us to be poor. It is impossible for us to live in any other way … because we always have the joy of finding ourselves short of the money we need for our apostolic works, and we always will.

All the members of the Work support themselves and cooperate in the apostolic works.

The Work began by God’s will, and by God’s will it is growing, based on great faith in God who gives the increase if we are faithful. But our very real poverty and our love for poverty do not prevent us from trying to use reasonable human resources, in accord with St Paul’s teaching. We will work as though everything depended upon us, and we will go to God as though everything depended upon him. Our first human resource is a holy and sanctifying moral obligation, namely, work. Si quis non vult operari, nec manducet, if anyone will not work, neither let him eat (2 Thess3: 10).

A fundamental consequence of poverty lived according to the spirit of Opus Dei is our responsibility to be financially self-sufficient. We always strive to support ourselves by our work and to help support the apostolic works. Each of my children, our Father said, has very clear priorities. The first and most important thing is to fulfill the norms, which are a sure path to holiness. And at the same time, simultaneously and inseparably, each has to support himself, to be financially self-sufficient, and help support the Centre to which he belongs.

We need to spend ourselves generously and unreservedly in God’s service. The burdens of the whole Work weigh upon each of us, and we have to respond to God’s trust in us. Just like any mother or father of a large family, we will carry out an intense, self-sacrificing professional work. And we will never allow ourselves, or anyone else, to be so irresponsible as to live off others.

Our Father’s insistence on this point echoes that of St Paul. The spirit of the Work requires us to be very responsible in the area of poverty. Therefore we must all work professionally and earn at least enough to make a living and help support our apostolates.

It would be a mistake, and a serious one since its consequences are serious, for any of my sons to let himself become a burden to the Work, taking on the role of a “gentleman of leisure”… I’m aware of your good spirit, my children. You know very well that the human and divine dimensions of our life are closely united: we imitate Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man. And just as overlooking a small material detail would be a sign for you of a lack of love for God, the same could often be true of a negative balance sheet.

We should foster generosity in many persons, asking them to help support the apostolates.

Those of you who have been in the Work for a short while, as well as those who have been here for years, have experienced that the poverty in Opus Dei is authentic, that “we live it” So true is this that, in spite of my children’s efforts in their professional work, we would be unable to support the apostolic works without the help of the people whom we can call cooperators of the Work.

We cannot meet all of our apostolic demands, yet our Lord always expects more from the Work. Therefore we must mobilize many people so that, with their help, we can obtain the material resources required for our apostolates. The formation that Opus Dei provides so many people of every age and condition leads them to want to be more generous, both by their personal self-giving and by their financial contributions.

We should foster this good spirit in all our friends who, in one way or another, take part in our apostolates. It is only just that those who benefit from the means of formation provided by the Work respond generously, according to their possibilities, in helping to support, foster and create many apostolic works.

Right from the beginning, our Father also taught us to ask the young people to help out. It is very good that at least part of the support for Centres of St Raphael depends on the boys or girls themselves and on their families; on their parents. We have to always make an effort to deal with the parents and get them to help out.

Therefore, apart from the large or small donations that young people or their families wish to give to the director or to the secretary of the house, there should be a donation box in some inconspicuous place so that each person can give, according to his possibilities and his generosity, without attracting attention, passing unnoticed.

Through our personal work, the contributions of the Supernumeraries and the assistance of the cooperators, we will obtain the indispensable material and financial resources needed for effectively carrying out the deep apostolate God is asking from us. Nevertheless, we should also try to get the government to support our corporate works financially, which is in no way opposed to justice or the due order. All countries usually support citizens who conduct charitable or educational works. Consequently, any help we might receive can never be called a privilege, for we abhor privileges. Rather, it is a just right, since by our apostolic works we educate young people, we help the needy, we prepare good citizens; and we carry out many similar tasks that redound to the service and welfare of the entire society.

Our Lady’s life was one of constant work. Her example will spur us on to work intensely, thus obtaining the financial resources needed for the apostolates of the Work. And through the intercession of St Nicholas, many people will help to extend the kingdom of God on earth by their generous contributions.