The Apostolate

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“In passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, ‘Come, follow me, and I will make you into fishers of men’” (Mark 1:16-17).

The first Monday of the first week of the year starts on a very dramatic note or a very vibrant note—this scene of Our Lord going out to look for apostles.

We're told that He was passing along by the Sea of Galilee. Our Lord wasn't admiring the view or thinking of “how beautiful I have made the whole of creation,” or a whole pile of other thoughts that might have been on His mind, or the different scenes that were there in front of Him.

We're told He saw Simon. Ultimately Our Lord was looking for souls. What filled His heart and His mind was the desire for souls. His vision was all about souls. Everything else was on a secondary plane.

In this unlikely place, passing along by the Sea of Galilee, He was still looking for souls. He wasn't in the center of the town, or He wasn't in some other place where there might have been a lot of souls. But in this relatively unlikely place, He was still looking for souls. You get the impression that this was a 24-hour work in progress.

He was living out His apostolic vocation, the mission that God had given to Him all the time. He saw Simon and his brother Andrew, and how important it was that He saw Simon and Andrew. He didn't miss them.

Imagine if Our Lord had been thinking about something else; if some other thing had been occupying His mind and He happened to pass by Simon and Andrew. History would be very different. Our Lord saw these two souls that were going to be so important in building up the Church.

We have no idea of the plans God has for the souls that He brings in contact with us. It’s very important for us to see souls, to be looking for souls, to have that deep concern in our soul all the time, wherever we are, whatever we're doing.

“Souls, Lord, souls! They're for you, they're for your glory...” (Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, Point 804).

In the readings of today's Mass, it's as though at the start of the year, the Church is communicating that concern to us, that Christ-like concern, profound concern and desire of our life.

“And he saw them casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen.” St. Josemaría liked to say that Our Lord sought them out in the middle of their work.

For us, the ordinary circumstances of our life are the ordinary environment where Our Lord wants us to find souls through personal contact, through our interactions with people in ordinary places. That's one of the reasons why in all those ordinary places, we have to have a certain antenna out for those souls that God may want us to come in contact with.

Sometimes that might not seem to be immediately obvious, or the plans of God might take a convoluted path, but we know all the time He's leading us, perhaps through the people we meet, to other people that He wants us to meet.

I mentioned yesterday how I went to Kangemi and I met this fellow who was interesting, but then he led me to somebody else that looked more interesting.

Yesterday, I went back with somebody else who could communicate a little better, and it turned out I got the story all wrong. The fellow who I thought was 18 is about 24, he's not in Form 4, he's married with one kid, and a whole pile of things.

But when I was asking him the questions, he was saying yes, yes, yes, and I was getting completely the wrong picture. And he works full-time in plastics. But anyway, he led us to this other person, a rather interesting fellow.

But then yesterday also, I got a WhatsApp message from the mother of the kids who used to sell the soap, who were taking all the plastics, saying, “My son has gone back to school, but we're still making soap. We still need the plastics.” So now we have two sources. So, God works in all sorts of funny ways, leading us to interesting people.

“They were casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen.” We look to ordinary people in the places where they are, the places where we find them. Work for us is the hinge of so many things: our sanctification, but also our reaching out to others.

We communicate, we transmit so many messages there, in that particular environment. We personify the message of Christ for many people in and through the work we try to do.

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Come, follow me.’” Very dynamic words.

Our Lord invites us at the beginning of this new year to follow Him again, to keep following Him, to discover new ways in which to follow Him. We never know how God is using everything—every little effort, every little word, every little communication, every little effort—to grow in friendship, or to make new friends, to go deeper in our friendship.

It's a topic that has to be there in our prayer frequently, these hours, these days, these years, because that's the topic that the Father is speaking to us about again and again. There are graces there.

Our Lord wants us to “launch out into the deep” (Luke 5:4) in our friendships, stir up old friendships, keep contacts warm, develop new ones, “follow me.” As Our Lord walked along by the Sea of Galilee, He was looking for friends.

He was doing things that were going to feed the desire for friendship for His disciples for the whole of eternity—teaching each one of us, who would come two thousand years later, about concrete aspects of reaching out to people, facing challenges in their lives, casting our nets.

“Come.” One of the most frequent words in Our Lord's lips was the word “come.”

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

“Master, where do you live?” “Come and see” (John 1:38-39).

“Come, follow me” (Mark 1:17a).

With these words, Our Lord invites us to a deeper, more profound relationship with Him. It's only at the end of His life that He says “go” (Mark 16:15). We have to come before we go.

We come to the Master to drink deep at the sources of salvation, “to draw water and joy from the wells of salvation” (Isa. 12:3), as we're told in the Preface of the Sacred Heart, so that we can take those waters and spread them to many other people.

“And I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17b). It's a curious phrase, fishers of men. You don't fish men, you fish. But Our Lord uses these words very deliberately: “fishers of men.”

He wants us to have the same mentality as a fisherman. A fisherman is all the time thinking about the fish. How am I going to catch them? Nobody fishes in their living room. A fisherman goes to where the fish are. The fisherman is thinking about what type of fish is good at this time of year, or to what sort of places should I go to catch this type of fish.

And he's thinking of the bait. The fisherman is not just thinking of being with the fish, of being near the fish, or being close to the fish. He's thinking about catching the fish. That's what it's all about. How can I catch the fish? Countless successes—the fish that he's caught.

And St. Josemaría liked to say that fish are caught by the head. Men also: ideas, words, concepts, truth, beauty, love, doctrine.

The fisherman thinks about the particular bait that he wants to use, and he chooses that particular bait, and he possibly goes to a certain amount of trouble to get it, because he has to have that particular bait if he wants to catch that particular fish.

Our Lord invites us to bring souls to our prayer, to grow to be a better fisher of men. How can I be more effective? How can I reach more people?

And all the time the Master fisherman, the Lord of the harvest, is teaching us little by little how to fish a little better, how to be that little bit more effective, how to come closer to Him to derive from Him those deeper desires, those deeper ways of being a better fisher of men.

That's the goal of our life. No matter where we are or what we're doing, we're fishing.

I think I mentioned before about the story that the numerary priest of the Work who became a cardinal in Peru.

Thinking back over his life, he remembers in kindergarten school there was this elderly nun that used to sit on the bench at the school entrance and call these little kindergarten kids to talk to her for a moment or two. She'd tell them a little story, or she'd give them a little aspiration for the day, or some little thing.

It’s a rather interesting story of that lady in her elderly years, sitting at the bench at the school entrance, fishing the fish, casting the net, being useful, living out that vocation—the vocation of every Christian.

With our Baptism we're all called to have that mentality, that fisherman mentality so that we see souls. We look for them, we beckon to them to come, and we have something to give them.

Peter and Andrew could have been a bit surprised by this phrase, “fisher of men.” They could have said to Our Lord, “You don't fish men, you fish fish. What's all this about “fisher of men?” Our Lord uses unusual phrases that possibly make people think a little bit. What's this all about?

He was laying down the challenge before them, telling them very clearly what this was all about. In our apostolate, sometimes too we have to lay down the challenges before people, make them see things very clearly, and place high ideals before them.

The ideals of Christ are the greatest ideals that any person could have on the whole planet, and we're continually placing those ideals before people, opening their eyes, challenging them, helping them to look up and see something wonderful, something beautiful, something that's worthwhile living our life for.

We don't shortchange them with small ideals or small visions, but we place the whole reality before them. We excite them with the wonderful things we've come to do. We've come to change the world.

“Come, follow me, and I will make you into fishers of men.” Your life will be very different. Leave the things where you are. I've got a whole new panorama to open up before you.

The wonderful things that we have to place before people are fantastic things. It's worthwhile doing everything we can to get to those souls.

Possibly that day, Our Lord didn't feel like going to the Sea of Galilee. Maybe He didn't feel like taking a walk. Maybe He didn't like a whole pile of aspects of that particular environment. But somehow the Holy Spirit led Him there.

We can ask ourselves: Where is the Holy Spirit leading me? What souls is He bringing me in contact with? What are the situations in my life that are opening up, that offer new possibilities? I can transmit this great message to so many people—the message of Christ.

“And at once they left the nets and followed him” (Mark 1:18). The power of Our Lord's words. Why did they leave their nets immediately? Because there must have been something there deep in their soul and heart; some gap, some hole that they were seeking to fulfill; something they were looking for, searching for, yearning for: the purpose of their life, the mission of their life.

John Paul II liked to say that every human person has a hole in their heart, and that hole can only be filled by God. That's a very salutary idea to have in our mind when we talk to people.

Every single soul is yearning for God, yearning to answer the deeper questions that are there in their life.

John Paul II says that there are three key questions that every human person has to keep asking themselves. Where have I come from? Where am I going? What is my life all about? (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical, Fides et Ratio, September 14, 1988).

He says that the answers to those questions, to a large extent, may depend on the happiness that people reach in this life.

We, by the grace of God, have been given those answers. We can help people to find the answers to those questions, to seek that happiness that they're looking for, which can only be found in God.

As we cast our nets, we can have a great “superiority complex.” We have something great to give people, to sell them; something that they're looking for. Deep down, they're yearning for it.

When Simon and Andrew heard this invitation, “at once they left their nets and followed him.” And we also, as apostles in formation, work in progress, learning how to be a more apostolic soul—when we hear those words that Our Lord says to us, we also have to follow Him at once, maybe leave the other ideas or things we were working on, and follow this other horizon that's been given to us.

Maybe we've been asked to get involved in, or give, this talk, or make this journey to this new town, or whatever it may be. Or work in this new club, or this new initiative. Or bring it forward with these particular classes.

Or we see, this is where Our Lord wants me to function, and to see and discover new horizons beyond what may be immediately obvious.

Parents, or cousins, or sisters, or neighbors, or friends, or whole environments that build up from there, because maybe it's there that the jewel that Our Lord is after is waiting for me to contact them.

When they left their nets, they couldn't have imagined what the future held in store for them. They couldn't have imagined where they were going to end up their life, and what things they were going to be doing.

Peter, a simple fisherman, was going to end up doing all sorts of things. The prince of the apostles. Founder of the See of Rome. Incredible realities.

We don't know where God is going to lead us, or how He's depending on us to fulfill His plans. Docile, obedient, generous, sacrificing.

“And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John” (Mark 1:19). Our Lord wasn't satisfied with that day's fishing.

It didn't end there. He didn't say, ‘Oh great, I've got two great apostles, and I see now the future that's there for them. Well, I'm really very happy, I can sit down and fold my arms.’ No.

“Going on a little farther...” Our Lord goes the extra mile. He looks again. Maybe there's further fruit here for me. My work is not yet finished. There are more things I can do. I can reach more people. There's another opportunity.

Our Lord wants us to be people who see opportunities and seize the moment. To say things, to do things. Find an opening. Have an entrepreneurial spirit. How can I go forward in this, or meet new people, seek this opportunity to find the people that God wants me to find?

“Going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John” (Mark 1:19). Again, great instruments. Enormous possibilities. Great horizons opening up for these two people.

All the things that are going to be written about John. He's going to write a gospel. He's going to influence the world.

Great things are going to happen over time. God is also relying on time to bring all the fruits that He wants.

As we start a new year, we could think of all the people that have come in contact in previous years, maybe twenty years ago, who have heard certain ideas, or formation, or seen certain things. Where are they now?

Lord, help us to keep a little bit of an eye there on the past, on those other souls that may have been growing all the time. Seeds that have been sown may have been germinating and producing a lot of fruits.

They also were in their boat mending the nets, and immediately He called them. Our Lord didn't hesitate. He seized the moment, seized the opportunities.

“And they also left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him” (Mark 1:20). Great things were going to come from that.

“No one in Opus Dei,” said St. Josemaría in a 1959 letter, “can rest content without feeling troubled by the depersonalized crowds: a drove, a flock, a herd, as I once called them. How many noble passions there are, under their apparent indifference, how many possibilities!

“We must serve everyone, laying our hands on each one of them, as Jesus did, to bring them back to life, to heal them, to enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills, so that they can be useful!” (J. Escrivá, Letter 29, January 9, 1959).

It's interesting how St. Josemaría opens our eyes to the noble passions that there are in each person. Each individual is capable of so much good. So many possibilities.

Those are the precise words that St. Josemaría uses: “how many possibilities!” We have to try and be people who discover possibilities.

We mine gold, we find gold, in each human person. What can they do? How can they be useful? What’s their greatest talent?

For that reason, we have to bring souls to our prayer. Lord, may my prayer this coming year be full of apostolate.

Individual people. What do you want me to say to this one and that one? How can I put this particular idea across, or communicate that other thing? How can I bring back to life that other soul?

We raise the dead. We instill vibration into them, to heal them, to enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills so that they can be useful. We change them. We convert those fishers of fish into fishers of men. Bring them onto a different plane. Open their eyes to new horizons.

Lord, help me to be a great form-er of souls in that way, to be close to you, the Lord of the harvest, so that you communicate to me those things that I need to hear.

“And then we will make of the flock, an army; of the drove, a band of followers; and bring out of the herd those who do not want to be unclean.”

We change this little piece of society around us, so that, in time, what greater things can happen.

“Today the Work has the aroma of a ripe field (Gen. 27:27), and, seeing the fruitfulness of the apostolate, we don't need faith to realize that God has blessed our work abundantly” (ibid.).

Sometimes as we go from day to day, we might see only the problems, the difficulties, how bad society is, how bad the laws are that are being enacted, or to look at all the terrible things that are taking place.

But then if we look back a little bit, the development of the apostolate in the last fifty years, how the seed of Opus Dei has taken root in so many environments, so many people have passed through our hands. Wonderful things.

God is at work in funny ways, but He is there doing things. In a certain sense, we don't need faith, because it's there, looking at us, staring us in the face. God is at work all the time, on deeper levels. Possibly we don't see.

“God has blessed our work abundantly” and He wants to heal us in the future in the same way, changing society and souls and hearts at a very deep level.

“Years ago, in my prayer,” said St. Josemaría, “giving thanks to God, I serenaded the Work with a song from my homeland:Capulllico, capullico, / ya te estás volviendo rosa—‘Little bud, little bud, / you are already becoming a rose. / Now the time is drawing near / to whisper something in your ear.’ My children, today you have in your hands some really beautiful, splendid roses, though they may have thorns” (ibid.).

We have beautiful roses, wonderful instruments. The stage has been set. The Lord invites us to cast our nets.

“Now is the moment,” he says, “not to fall asleep, but to be vibrant, so as to gather up—and hand over to Jesus and to his Holy Church—the harvest that has been won with so much effort” (ibid.).

We sow the seeds, but then the harvest comes. And every year in the field there's a harvest. Our Lord doesn't deny us the harvest. It comes. It's there. We have to have our minds on the harvest.

Every farmer spends the whole year thinking about the harvest. It's the most important time of the year. The time is right to gather in things when they need to be gathered in, to watch out for the weather and all these things, because it's all about the harvest.

It's a very good sign when we come to our get-togethers and we have apostolic anecdotes. Or frequently, we're talking about apostolate, because that's what the Center is all about.

We bring to our prayer the things we heard in the recent seminar yesterday, and maybe over time, they will bring their thoughts. Certain ideas. Certain things that struck us.

“All our apostolic work,” he says, “aims directly to give a Christian meaning to society.”

Everything is directed towards that. Lord, help me to see (Mark 10:51). “Your effectiveness, my children,” said St. Josemaría, “will be the result of your personal holiness, which will take shape in responsible deeds that are not hidden in anonymity.”

Always, our apostolate is the overflow of our interior life. We come to the Master, the Lord of the harvest, to draw closer to Him, to His Sacred Heart, to fall more in love with Him, to fill ourselves more in love. We function for love. We spread love. We reflect love in everything we do. We sow seeds of love with the whole of our life.

“Christ Jesus, the good Sower,” he says, “squeezes us like wheat in his wounded hand, soaks us in his blood, purifies us, cleanses us, makes us drunk! And then, generously, he scatters us around the world, one by one, as is proper for his children in Opus Dei, for wheat is not sown by the sackful, but grain by grain” (J. Escrivá, Letter 29, January 9, 1959).

Every girl coming to the club, soul by soul, is picking up the formation that perhaps will help her to found a family, and perhaps bring many future vocations for the universal Church.

Every one of those souls is important. They're seeing things. They're watching things. They're breathing in the whole spirit of our family.

Every single occasion that they come is important. It's formative. It's apostolic. It has a message. The Holy Spirit is at work all the time.

From them, we reach their families, their neighbors, their friends. It's “a sea without shores” (J. Escrivá, Conversations, Point 57).

We sow the seeds, grain by grain, and every grain is important because each grain is going to yield that abundant fruit.

We can be full of joy and hope as we look to the apostolic year with fruits that God has placed before us, that He knows He wants us to gather at the right time.

We can ask Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, in this year of St. Joseph [December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021], that she might help us to have that same mentality of St. Joseph that she had in living the virtues and growing in holiness, so that we too can bring that great apostolic fruit that God is expecting from us.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PKN