The Archangels

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.

“Behold, we bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people” (Luke 2:10).

The Feast of the Archangels can lead us to think of these words of the angels. The message must be for all the people. “Out of a hundred souls, we're interested in a hundred” (Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, Point 9; Furrow, Point 183).

The message of Christ of the re-evangelization of society, of the culture of life, of the civilization of love—these ideas are all meant for all the people.

As followers of Christ, with a Christian vocation to holiness and apostolate, we're invited to busy ourselves with that great ideal, that great horizon, of bringing all these wonderful truths to all the people.

In a later moment in His life, Our Lord was to say, “I’ve come to spread fire on this earth, and what would I but that it be enkindled!” (Luke 12:49).

He told the apostles to “launch out into the deep” (Luke 5:4). The apostolic aspect of our Christian vocation is a continual launching out into the deep, allowing the Holy Spirit and divine grace to take us by the hand and possibly to lead us to places where we would prefer not to go, because Our Lord wants all of His ideas to permeate every last corner of society, to bring His love, His truth, and His goodness into all those places so that we place Christ on the top of all human activities.

We change the way the world does business. In education and morality, we fight the good fight to Christianize society: to bring values, morals and customs where Christ wants them to be.

We can enthuse ourselves with this great ideal to reach all the people. There is nobody that's not important. Everyone is there for a purpose. The souls that Christ brings us in contact with are the souls that He wants us to influence.

We can ask the archangels to help us to put our heart into this great apostolic work so that we're apostles after the heart of Christ, making ourselves “all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22).

We’re ready to count the sheep every day like a good shepherd, and sometimes to go after the lost sheep.

In the places where God has called us, there may be people who are easy to deal with. There also may be people who are difficult to deal with, but they're no less important because of that.

If we use our prayer, our mortification, very much in the first place, and then our action, and using all the occasions that God gives us—possibly breakfast meetings, or lunch meetings, or weekends, or Saturday afternoons—to think twice about how we could make these periods of time in our life more apostolic, while at the same time making everything compatible with our family life.

It's part of being “all things to all men” and keeping very much in mind that “our first apostolate” is with our family (J. Escrivá, Letter About the Work of St. Gabriel, No. 29, January 9, 1959; Conversations, Point 91).

If we think of that phrase of the angels, “which shall be to all the people” (Luke 2:10), we see that the apostolic work that God wants us to do is “a sea without a shore” (J. Escrivá, Conversations, Point 57). There's no end to all the wonderful things that God wants us to do.

In our prayer today we can think of the reach of these ideas and this treasure that God has placed in our hands, so that we discover new possibilities, new openings.

The difficult situations lead us to think out of the box: How can I be a better leader? How can I encourage other people to be better leaders in their environment so that we spread the blaze? We help other people to discover the vast horizons that God has opened up to us in our life.

God has placed certain means within our reach: retreats, recollections, and classes and basic doctrine classes, and other means whereby we can give formation to people.

God has given me all the formation that He has given me because He wants me to pass it on to other people. The buck doesn't stop here.

With the passage of time, we can come to value more highly those means that God has given to us. They're very specific. We have to try and make sure that they function well, that we help people to make good use of them, as well as all the other means that He's given us to do.

The goal of our Christian vocation is holiness and apostolate. Our first contribution is with our prayer and with our holiness.

That's where the Holy Spirit speaks to us. He lets us see new lights, gives us one idea that possibly He wants us to use to influence a multitude—to now mobilize other people, to help them to see that the divine truths of love, of beauty are wonderfully attractive ideas for people.

Lord, help me to get onto a new plane in my apostolate, to see the great value of the formation that you've given to me that goes deeper and more mature with the passage of time. “The best wine may come at the end” (cf. John 2:10).

It means I have to take very good care of my formation, very good care of my interior life, very good care of my apostolate, using all the human means that any good manager would use: having lists of people; knowing their contacts; organizing my time; managing things well to see that I help those ideas to reach all the places where they're supposed to reach.

And all of this at the same time of living my marriage and family duties well, so I give good example.

There was a famous speaker twenty or thirty years ago, a pro-life man called Dr. Bernard Nathanson. He wrote a wonderful book (The Hand of God: A Journey from Death to Life by the Abortion Doctor Who Changed His Mind). He was a major convert to the pro-life cause and to Catholicism.

One time he had to go to give a pro-life talk in some Central American country. He was being hosted in a family that tried to live these ideals we're talking about.

On the sideboard of the dining room where he was about to have dinner, he saw a prayer card to St. Josemaría Escrivá. He asked what this was. It was explained to him. He didn't say anything. Then he sat down to dinner. They had a very pleasant evening.

When he went home and back eventually to New York, he wrote a little thank you note to that family. He said, “I want to thank you very much for the evening I spent with you. I was very impressed by your family, because on the one hand, I saw that here was a family where great faith was lived. And on the other hand, I saw that everything was so balanced, so normal.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that any faith that can produce such balance is a faith that's worth believing in. It must be the one true faith. And so, I've decided to seek instruction as a Catholic.”

That man who had performed 70,000 abortions converted to the Catholic faith and died a Catholic. He wrote a marvelous book and gave a wonderful example to all his colleagues of great leadership.

We don't know how God is going to use our witness in the ordinary things of every day in order to change minds and change hearts. We have to try and build that example in our home, be very much a player in the game.

God has not called us to sit on the sidelines watching other people play the game of the re-evangelization of society.

God wants each one of us changed and out on the pitch, playing the game, getting involved, scoring goals, being a leader, being a striker, putting that ball in the back of the net, and using all the means He's given us to be able to do this.

It's very good that we dream. We dream an awful lot. The Founder of Opus Dei liked to say, “Dream and your dreams will fall short.”

There was a supernumerary couple of Opus Dei who, many years ago, went to live in Hong Kong before there was a center of Opus Dei there. Then eventually, a center was placed there. The Work began there. They began to have formation, et cetera, all these means.

Then Blessed Álvaro del Portillo came to visit. A lady stood up and said, “Father, you know, when there was no center here in Hong Kong, I used to dream about all the wonderful things we could do here in Hong Kong if we had a center of Opus Dei. I used to dream so much that I used to get dizzy dreaming. Now we have a center of Opus Dei here in Hong Kong and all my dreams have been fully realized.”

Blessed Álvaro said, “My daughter, what we have to dream about is China.” In other words, that you were dreaming and getting dizzy not from too much dreaming, but your problem is that you haven't even begun to dream.

On the Feast of the Archangels, it's a very good time to dream—to dream of all of those things that have to reach all men in all places.

Much is dependent on our personal apostolate, on our personal initiative, to think, What can I do? What can I contribute? And what does God want me to do in my situation? How can I do more?

How can I help and encourage other people around me to be more effective in their apostolate so that they take this responsibility and this weight of the re-evangelization of society very seriously in their lives, and allow it to make demands on them?

We must try and be thinking of what our country has to be fifty years from now. We're not just building for today or tomorrow. We're building the society of our grandchildren.

We have to try and yearn to make all these things possible so that we can look back and see the fruits of all of our efforts.

Sowing seeds. Being a mover and a shaker. Possibly dealing with people who occupy neuralgic positions in society.

We might not be that person ourselves, but hopefully we might have the ear of that person to be able to transmit seminal ideas that can influence legislation, or the atmosphere of society, or a whole pile of other things.

For this we may have to reach out to non-Catholics and non-Christians. Maximize the potential of every person to give witness to the sacredness of every human life and all the values that go with it.

All these things we have to try and drive in our prayer. It's there that everything has to start. In the first place, prayer. In the second place, mortification. In the third place, very much in the third place, action.

Along the way, we discover various aspects of the apostolate: the importance of the apostolate of detachment, of generosity, of economic responsibility, because to bring forward instruments of apostolate costs money.

But all the time, we hope that through all these things, new vocations will come—vocations of people who, with the grace of God, can see the value of these ideals that Christ has given to us and who may be inspired to want to bring all these ideals, these good tidings of great joy, so that they reach all the people.

Part of this is transmitting the warmth of our family. We're good family men. We help people to see what that means in practical terms, where it comes from. We can feel very privileged to be involved in something great, because truly, Christ has given us the greatest ideals that we could possibly have.

If we have been encouraged and pulled along by other people, exposed to formation through their efforts and their correspondence, maybe it's time that instead of being a carriage in the train, we become an engine.

We bring other people because we see the importance of Christianizing the environment. And in this, we can try and practice a certain daring, to launch out into the deep.

Those words of Christ are of great value every day of our life. “I’ve come to spread fire on this earth, and what would I but that it be enkindled!”

Our Lord wants us out in the deep water with the wind blowing in our face, maybe, in some cases, taking risks. Sticking our neck out for Jesus Christ.

See, you look at the martyrs. They had their heads chopped off for Jesus Christ. We could ask ourselves: Have I ever been insulted for Jesus Christ? Stuck my neck out in some way or underwent some humiliation, some embarrassment for Christ?

Now is the time to move in that direction, to make a serious contribution, to truly be an apostle after the heart of Christ.

A good question to ask ourselves in our examination of conscience: Do I lead in holiness? Do I lead in apostolate in the environment and society where God has placed me?

Am I having an impact with my words, with my action, with my example? Do I transmit vibration to other people?

It may be that we need to grow in faith and in hope in all of these areas. Possibly we know people whose families or marriages or work situation has not turned out the way that is imagined. This is the world we live in.

But God wants us there for those people, to transmit to them the message that all these situations are a means to sanctity.

We're all called to the eternal wedding feast. The real marriage comes later. Marriage in this world is just a preparation for marriage in the next.

With these words and ideas, we can give great purpose and meaning to the lives of so many people.

“Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, but anyone who loses his life for my sake will save it. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?” (Matt. 16:25-26).

“But if anyone is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of the Father and the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).

Possibly we may know people who have gained the whole world, but maybe they've lost their soul.

God has placed us beside that person to remind them that they have a soul and to remind them of the fleeting nature of this world. It can be ‘here today and gone tomorrow.’

Or to remind them that all the crosses that may happen in marriage and family life are all a means to the greater ideals that God has given to us.

There was a story in an Irish newspaper a week or two ago of a family that went out for a drive at nine in the morning. They're driving along a certain road and suddenly the car skids off the road and into a river. It overturns.

The husband gets trapped inside and dies there. Two kids, 14 and 6, also die there. The wife manages to escape and to come to the surface, but then realizes that in just a few short minutes, ‘My whole life has changed. I had a family one minute, and I don't have a family anymore.’

In the funeral service she addressed the congregation and said, ‘Go home and hug your kids, because you don't know what's going to happen from one minute to the next.’ But she also said, ‘I realize if I have been left, it's for a purpose.’

In that key moment in our life, when the cross comes and our heart is breaking or there's some major contradiction, it's great to think of the apostolic purpose of my existence. If I have been left, it's for a purpose. Nothing happens by accident.

I have to focus on my mission, on that purpose, why I’m here. I have to try and be the good shepherd for the people around me.

I have to use the supernatural means, perhaps a little more, a little better: my weekly sacramental confession, my savoring of the means of formation that God has given to me, because the Holy Spirit speaks to me through all of these things.

If we take care of our prayer, of our spiritual reading, of the norms of our plan of life, then we'll always have something to say to other people. We'll always have a message for them so that they will discover the plan of God in their life. We'll always have something to say to them about their work, about their family, about their personal apostolate.

God wants us to have a group of people around us, souls hanging from each finger, five, ten, that we're trying to form, that we're helping to be more spiritually effective, helping them to see that the civilization of love, the culture of life, the evangelization of society is all in our hands.

We are the ones that have to work the plough, to furrow the fields, to sow the seeds with our availability, with our proactivity, to schedule things well.

In the apostolate of public opinion, we have to really try and make our voices heard, to have an influence. We can't allow other people to be making a splash all the time.

It’s very important to get involved with media people, or with this means of forming public opinion, thinking of conferences or talks or all sorts of ways that we can have that influence.

“I tell you,” we're told in St. Luke, “if anyone openly declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, the Son of Man will declare himself for him in the presence of God's angels.

“But anyone who disowns me in the presence of human beings will be disowned in the presence of God's angels. Everyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but no one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will be forgiven.

“When they take you before synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say, because when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say” (Luke 12:8-12).

We can use these days as a time for brainstorming. How can I get more involved in pro-life activities or pro-family organizations or in the mobilization of souls?

St. Paul says, “We are the ambassadors of Christ. It is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ, we appeal to you to be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20).

We need to promote the family and marriage through public opinion, through all sorts of ways that are made available to us. Our Lord will show us the way.

Pope St. John Paul II came out with a wonderful document about the role of lay people in society called Christifideles laici–“Christ’s Faithful Laity.”

He said, “Each member of the lay faithful should always be fully aware of being a ‘member of the Church’ yet entrusted with a unique task which cannot be done by another and which is to be fulfilled for the good of all.

“The absolute necessity of an apostolate exercised by the individual [takes on its full meaning]:

‘The apostolate exercised by the individual—which flows abundantly from a truly Christian life (cf. John 4:14)—is the origin and condition of the whole lay apostolate.

‘Regardless of all circumstances, all lay persons (including those who have no opportunity or possibility for collaboration in associations) are called to this type of apostolate and obliged to engage in it.

‘Such an apostolate is useful at all times and places, but in certain circumstances it is the only one available and feasible’” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles laici, Point 28, December 30, 1988 quoting Vatican II, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam actuositatem, Point 16, November 18, 1965).

These are great horizons that the Church is placing before us. Blessed Álvaro del Portillo said, “We find in any upright activity the raw material for our sanctity and the field for our apostolate, an apparent wasteland which is rendered fertile by heaven's grace when we cultivate it with the means God has marked out for us.

“Therefore,” he says, “we need drive, initiative. God counts on our personal freedom and responsibility and our lay mentality. He wants us to be salt dispersed through the food it seasons, and not to remain a solid lump. He wants us everywhere, each one in his or her own place, so as to impart a Christian flavor to the environment in which we move.”

We have to think of those “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people” (Luke 2:10).

We can ask Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, that she might help us to play our role in this great apostolic task that God has set before 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.

KI