Flora Cantábrica

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Could you explain to us what that influence is?

. Anything that sounds self-promoting bothers me deeply. But I think that it would not be humility, but blindness and ingratitude towards the Lord – who so generously blesses our work – not to recognize that Opus Dei really influences Spanish society. In the environment of the countries where the Work has already been working for many years – in Spain, specifically, thirty-nine, because here it was the will of God that our Association was born into the life of the Church – it is logical that this influence already has considerable relevance. social, parallel to the progressive development of the work.

Of what nature is that influence? It is evident that, since Opus Dei is an Association with spiritual, apostolic purposes, the nature of its influence –in Spain, as in the other nations of the five continents where we work– can only be of this type: a spiritual, apostolic influence. . Like the entire Church –soul of the world–, the influence of Opus Dei in civil society is not of a temporary nature –social, political, economic, etc.–, although it does have repercussions on the ethical aspects of all activities human, but an influence of a diverse and superior order, which is expressed with a precise verb: sanctify.

And this brings us to the subject of the Opus Dei people that you call influential. For an Association whose purpose is to do politics, those of its members who occupy a place in parliament or in the council of ministers will be influential. If the Association is cultural, it will consider influential those of its members who are philosophers of clear fame, or national prizes for literature, etc. If the Association, on the other hand, what it proposes is –as in the case of Opus Dei– to sanctify the ordinary work of men, be it material or intellectual, it is evident that all its members should be considered influential: because they all work –the general The human duty to work has special disciplinary and ascetic resonances in the Work, and because everyone tries to carry out that work of theirs, whatever it may be in a holy, Christian way, with a desire for perfection. For this reason, for me, the testimony of a mining son of mine among his co-workers is so influential—so important, so necessary—as that of a university rector among the other professors of the academic faculty.

Where does the influence of Opus Dei come from? It is indicated by the simple consideration of this sociological reality: people of all social conditions, professions, ages and states of life belong to our Association: women and men, clergy and laity, old and young, celibate and married, university students, workers, peasants. , employees, people who exercise liberal professions or who work in official institutions, etc. Have you thought about the power of Christian irradiation that such a wide and varied range of people represents, especially if they number in the tens of thousands and are animated by the same apostolic spirit: to sanctify their profession or trade – in any social environment in that they move–, sanctify themselves in that work and sanctify with that work?
To these personal apostolic works must be added the growth of our corporate works of apostolate: Student Residences, Retirement Houses, the University of Navarra, Training Centers for workers and peasants, Technical Institutes, Colleges, Training Schools for women, etc. . These works have been and are undoubtedly sources of irradiation of the Christian spirit that, promoted by laymen, directed as a professional work by lay citizens, equal to their peers who exercise the same task or trade and open to people of all classes and conditions, have sensitized vast strata of society to the need to give a Christian response to the questions raised by the exercise of their profession or employment.

All this is what gives prominence and social significance to Opus Dei. Not the fact that some of its members hold positions of human influence –something that does not interest us in the least, and is therefore left to the free decision and responsibility of each one–, but the fact that everyone, and the kindness of God makes them many, carry out divinely influential tasks – from the most humble trades.

And this is logical: who can think that the influence of the Church in the United States began the day that the Catholic John Kennedy was elected president?