Next Saturday marks an anniversary that should not pass unnoticed or without comment and reflection. I am referring to the 10th anniversary of the canonisation of the founder of Opus Dei, St Josemaria Escriva, by Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square on 6 October 2002.
Josemaria Escriva was a man with a mission from God. After being ordained to the priesthood, he felt a call to set up a lay institutional organisation in the Catholic Church for men and women to serve God by their service for the common good of society through their daily work ethic. It was to be a lay society for both married and unmarried members and was to incorporate assistants and even members from other Christian denominations, Muslims, Jews and Hindus, as well as sceptics, who all believed in a common good for mankind.
As a man he had his personal defects as we all have, not least of which was his well recorded Spanish quick temper, but his commitment to the raising of the laity to an institutional level in the Church on a global level, was uncompromising. His calling card was sanctity for the lay faithful; his method was freedom to do what we ought to do through our daily work experiences ranging from domestic help to cleaners and manual workers, to businessmen and bankers, to technical and professional workers. The ethic being to do the work one does properly in order to bid God’s work on earth. As the motto on Opus Dei’s coat of arms says: “Deo Omnis Gloria”.
The formal petition for the cause of canonisation to be opened included a number of volumes, some showing the depth and extent of Josemaria’s reputation for holiness, and some demonstrating the great interest of a large number of pastors and faithful of the people of God in the cause.
These volumes included one of testimonies from Spanish ecclesiastics who had known the founder for many years and bore witness to the virtues they had seen in him; two volumes contained a sample, numbering a few hundred, out of the thousands of postulatory letters that had been received from Church dignitaries (69 cardinals, 241 archbishops, 987 bishops, and 41 superior generals of religious orders and congregations), civil dignitaries (heads of state or governments and notable figures from the spheres of education and science), and people from every walk of life and from all five continents, including a number of non-Catholics, asking for the Cause to be opened. Two particularly significant letters were the one dated 23 March 1976, written by Cardinal Luciani, then Patriarch of Venice and soon to be Pope John Paul I, and the one dated 13 April 1978 from the Episcopal Conference of Lazio; two 800-page volumes of testimonies on Mgr Escrivá’s reputation for holiness during his life and after his death; a 672-page volume giving 1,500 of the nearly 10,000 letters that had been received from the day Mgr Escrivá died to December 1978 when the volume was compiled, telling about spiritual and material favours attributed to his intercession. The postulation had also received something like 120,000 accounts of favours, including complete documentation on 48 extraordinary cures. Together with these, was what is known as the “Articles of the Postulator”: this was a systematic account of the life and virtues of the Servant of God, covering about 450 pages. It set out the thesis by which the Postulation aimed to demonstrate in the course of the official investigation.
Josemaria liked to compare himself and “The Work”, as it is colloquially known, to a simple donkey carrying Christ on its back. He used to pray to God daily so that “this mangy donkey” could carry out His work faithfully. One day, during the Spanish civil war, which was decidedly anti-clerical in nature, as he returned alone from his pastoral duties, he was surrounded by a number of angry men whose intentions were not good to say the least. Suddenly, a man appeared out of nowhere and beat the rogues away. Turning towards Josemaria he smiled and said, “Mangy Donkey! Mangy Donkey”, and as quickly as he had appeared, he disappeared. Josemaria had never told anyone of his personal prayer not even his confessor. He was convinced that that person was his guardian angel with whom he had a close affinity. The feast of the Holy Guardian Angels on 2 October is to this day one of the main feast days in, and the founding day of “The Work”. The donkey is one of the symbols associated with Opus Dei to this day!
Reading through his letters in “The Forge”, one finds the following advice: “Work (in your chosen profession) with cheerfulness, with peace, with presence of God. In this way you will carry out your task with common sense. You will carry it through to the end. Though tiredness is beating you down, you will finish it off well; and your work will be pleasing to God.” In another section of the same book he says, “The way of Love has a name: it is Sacrifice!”
Ten years after his canonisation and 84 years after its foundation, Opus Dei has 90,000 members worldwide from all walks of life and countless numbers of corporate work especially in the health and educational sectors at all levels. To these and others his approach encompasses the application of Christian virtues and habitual ethics in daily work; attending to human dignity and the common good, applying the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity, fraternity, reciprocity and sustainability that will ultimately lead to the best of what society can be: showing authentic respect for the whole person by creating committed individuals at any level in the workforce including business and management levels, loyal citizens and supportive governments in the global community that is today!