632. Episcopal Ordination of the Father

Meditations no. 635 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The consideration of the goods that the episcopal ordination of the Father brings with it impels us to respond to the call to the Work with greater fidelity.

I will take care of my sheep, saith the Lord, and I will find them a shepherd to feed them.

On the anniversary of the Father’s episcopal ordination, the Antiphon at the entrance of the Mass reminds us of the words that God himself puts in the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel. This feast makes us present in a special way the goodness of the Lord with the Work, since it is truly He who cares for his daughters and sons in Opus Dei through a Pastor - the Father - who shepherds them in his name. As our Founder affirmed many years ago, Opus Dei is also a flock of Christ, with its Good Shepherd and its sheep. In the Work there will always be a Father who will be able to say: cognosco oves meas et cognoscunt me meae (Jn 10:14), I know my children and my children know me. Because the Good Shepherd, in Opus Dei, will be perpetually the one who presides: the Father, whoever he may be.

The presence of the Work in the hierarchical jurisdictional structure of the Church, as a personal prelature created by the Supreme Authority, entails that the Prelate enjoys the power of jurisdiction over the portion of the People of God entrusted to him. In this sense, the episcopal ordination of the Father does not modify the substance of his mission. However, as Don Álvaro noted when he received the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders, “the episcopal ordination of the Prelate brings great spiritual good for the Prelature of Opus Dei, and, at the same time, signifies a new confirmation by the Holy See of its juridical nature as the jurisdictional structure of the Church. The episcopate confers a new sacramental grace on the Pastor of the Prelature and sacramentally strengthens his union with the Pope and the Bishops.” In this way, it makes the communion of the Work and of each of its faithful with the other members of the Mystical Body of Christ more intense.

Don Álvaro explained another reason that shows the advisability of the episcopal ordination of the Prelate. The day after he was ordained a Bishop, he commented: “I can tell you (… ) that yesterday, during the episcopal ordination, when we were prostrate on the pavement, while the intercession of the saints was asked for with the singing of the litanies, I meditated on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on my soul; I considered that this outpouring was poured out on the head of the Work and at the same time, in a non-sacramental but clear, clear way - when one has faith - it also fell on all the members of the Work, through the Communion of Saints (… ). May this be an impetus for the interior life of each one!”

Recalling the day on which he received priestly ordination together with two other brothers of ours, what came to mind what “our Father repeated on that date, and always: prayer, prayer, prayer; and I, echoing him, insisted: fidelity, fidelity, fidelity, while I was prostrate on the pavement of St. Peter’s Basilica. May we be faithful: it is worth it! The only thing that is worthwhile is to lead a coherent life when we have answered yes to Our Lord. Let us decide to be faithful, let it be noticed! I am sure that the action of the Holy Spirit will be very noticeable; I certainly experience it in my soul, and I have also begun to notice it in the members of the Work.

“My sons, my daughters, I ask you for God’s sake: that we strive to respond with complete loyalty to the Lord, that we do not compromise in the small things that separate us from Him, that we know how to say yes to the Lord with our daily actions, full of sincerity, dedication and love; that you love one another: this is the mandatum novum of Our Lord at the solemn moment of the Last Supper.”

The episcopal ordination of the Father reinforces his mission of service in the Church, as successor of the Apostles and Good Shepherd of the Prelature.

O our God, eternal Shepherd of the faithful, who govern your Church with solicitude and love; grant to your servant, whom you have placed at the head of this portion of your people, to preside over it in the name of Christ, as teacher, priest and shepherd.

Every day we pray for the Father; but today our prayer ascends to Heaven with greater intensity. We implore the Holy Spirit to pour out his gifts and graces on our Prelate with even greater force, filling him - as it is said in another of the possible Collects of the Mass - with the spirit of counsel and strength, of wisdom and piety, so that, faithful to his pastoral mission, he may build up your Church, sign and instrument of salvation in the world.

The mission of the Prelate of Opus Dei is one of service: service to his daughters and sons, who constitute the flock that Christ has entrusted directly to his care as Pastor, and service to all souls, by virtue of his membership of the College of Bishops, to whom the Lord-with Peter and under Peter-entrusted his concern for the universal Church. The second successor of our Father emphasized this on the occasion of his episcopal ordination. Alluding to the Deo omnis gloria! -for God all glory-, which was the aspiration of St. Josemaría throughout his life, and which he chose as the motto of his episcopal coat of arms, Father commented: “To feed the flock of Christ, we must serve souls selflessly, following the example of Jesus Christ who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20:28).”

“He who presides over a people,” said St. Augustine in one of his sermons, “must bear in mind, first of all, that he is the servant of many. And this must not be taken as a dishonour (…), because even the Lord of lords did not disdain to serve us.” And the Second Vatican Council, in its decree on the pastoral office of bishops, admonishes: “In the exercise of their office as father and shepherd, let the Bishops be in the midst of their own as those who serve (cf. Lk 22:26-27); good shepherds, who know their sheep and whom they also know; true fathers, who are distinguished by the spirit of love and concern for all, and to whose authority, certainly conferred by God, all willingly submit. In such a way that they may gather and form the whole family of their flock, that all, conscious of their duties, may live and act in communion of charity.”

These are words that we see fulfilled day after day in the life of the one who is now Father and Prelate in Opus Dei, faithfully following in the footsteps of St. Josemaría. “During the twenty-five years that I have had the immense fortune-true grace of God-to live at the side of the Founder of Opus Dei, I have been an eyewitness and assiduous to his heroic spirit of service to all souls, especially those whom the Lord had entrusted to him. I have seen him shape in his life, with fullness and eloquence, the teaching of the Gospel; I have seen him lay down his life for his sheep (cf. Jn 10:11), day after day, with a smile on his lips.”

Today we give thanks to God because in the Work what we read in the Gospel of the Mass is fulfilled to the letter: I am the Good Shepherd, I know my sheep and mine know me. The words that our Founder had sculpted on the chair of the Prelatic Church constitute a synthesis of the characteristics that inspire the mission of the Good Shepherd in this portion of the People of God. “With expressions taken from the Ius particulare of the Work, it is written that the Prelate is to be ‘teacher and Father to all the faithful of the Prelature; to love all truly in the womb of Christ; to teach and protect all with tender charity; to give himself generously for all, and more and more to sacrifice himself full of joy’ (Statuta, n. 132 § 3).

“I beg you,” Father told us the day after his episcopal ordination, “to ask the Most Blessed Trinity … that I may be able to incarnate these words of our beloved Father throughout my pastoral service at the head of Opus Dei.”

Under the regime of the Prelate, the faithful of the Prelature work to place Christ at the summit of human activities.

IN CHOOSING the motto for his episcopal coat of arms, Don Álvaro immediately thought of an aspiration that our Father had repeated since the foundation of the Work: Regnare Christum volumus! “These words,” he said, “echo the exclamation of St. Paul, oportet illum regnare! -He must reign! - (cf. 1 Cor 11:25), and the petition that Jesus taught us in the Our Father: adveniat regnum tuum (Mt 6:10), thy kingdom come, the kingdom of justice, love and peace (Preface to the Solemnity of Christ the King), which the Lord desires to establish on earth. This motto - Regnare Christum volumus! - reflects the most lively longing of our Founder and also, unequivocally, the raison d’être of Opus Dei.”

If we want Christ to reign, we must be consistent: we must begin by giving our hearts to him. If we did not, to speak of Christ’s reign would be a cry without Christian substance, an outward manifestation of a faith that would not exist. “Such coherence or unity of life requires,” said Don Alvaro, “that Christ effectively reign in our souls and that we strive to eradicate all servitude to earthly idols: to the idol of well-being, vanity, sensuality or wealth. Let us sincerely examine our conscience! Let us have frequent recourse to sacramental Confession in order to distance ourselves more from these enslaveing passions, and to grow in the freedom of the children of God! No one can serve two masters (Mt 6:24), Christ warns us, so that we may reject the temptation to compromise and love with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength the one true God, the source of authentic happiness on earth and then in Heaven.”

Before concluding this time of prayer, let us ask Our Lord that all of us in the Work may be most faithful to our vocation, in close union with the Father and with our brothers and sisters. Many great things depend on whether you and I behave as God wants-do not forget. These are the words of St. Josemaría that the Father made his own the day after his episcopal ordination: “I like to remind you that,” as Don Alvaro told us, “far from being relegated to the archive of history with the passing of the years, our Father’s times are and will always be current. They must be permanently relevant, not only because his example and his teaching will always be eloquent, his spirit alive and his intercession from Heaven very effective, but also because we must correspond to the Christian vocation in the Work with the fullness and holy urgency of our Founder.

“Have a great sense of responsibility, my daughters and sons: the Work is now especially in our hands. Never think that your cooperation in the apostolic task is small or of little importance: you collaborate greatly in making a real commitment to being Opus Dei and to making Opus Dei, in trying to bring to God all the occupations and circumstances of your existence. Looking at things with human eyes, it might seem that the contribution of each one is like an insignificant thread, in that beautiful fabric that the Prelature tries to offer to the Lord every day. But, as our Founder told us, if that thread is loosened, the marvellous tapestry that the Lord expects of us every day could begin to unravel (cf. The Forge, no. 640). Always keep in mind, my daughters and sons, that God counts on our strong and generous collaboration, together with that of many other Christians, to place Christ at the summit of human activities, on the threshold of the new millennium and in the years to come.

“I also need you, my daughters and sons. That is why I ask you to pray a lot for me, so that I may know how to lead Opus Dei along the paths indicated by our beloved Father, with the same fidelity with which Don Alvaro governed the Work.”

May the Blessed Virgin, our Mother and Queen of Opus Dei, graciously hear our supplications and present them before her Son.