Those People from Opus

Author: Padre Alejandro Cortés González-Báez  

 

 

Often when people refer to Opus Dei, they simply say “Opus.” Let me make clear from the beginning that I am one of those people from Opus. A full member, a prelate of Opus Dei. The word “Opus” means “work”, and “Dei” means “of God” in Latin.
This past 26 of June we celebrated the feast day of our founder, who died in 1975 and was canonized by his Holiness John Paul II on 6 October 2002 in St. Peter’s Square.
Much has been written and said – good and bad- about our order, founded 82 years ago. After 47 years in the order, 33 years as an ordained priest, I do feel I can speak on our community with some authority.
Sometimes I listen to criticisms about members of our order and this doesn’t surprise me, since it is my duty to hear the personal confessions of our members and I know quite well that they are everyday people like everyone else.
In these last few years I have had the good fortune of hearing the confessions of many good people who belong to Opus Dei. Some do indeed belong to the high economic and social circles, but many others are workers, employees, farmers, domestic servants, those who we tend to classify as working class. I use the term “good fortune” because confessions allow me to approach and witness the struggle of those good people who have devoted themselves to the Spirit, to loving God with good works and the pursuit of truth.
In addition, living together with people from Opus Dei allows me to experience the limitations, character defects and errors of our human condition. And those who choose to live with me experience the same thing. We are not angels. Jesus said: “Be perfect, like my father in Heaven is perfect. “ We strive, yet we all have our differences.
God asks us for our daily and concerted effort to be a little better in our struggle against comfort, against self-centeredness and against pride, which are the legacies, part and parcel, of the human condition.
There is a spirit about our community. It preaches a refreshing yet orderly Christianity. We believe in the personal liberty of individuals to act with full responsibility for their decisions, based on what we teach and believe. We believe in the God of Small Things, making life more pleasant for others. But as humans, we can also fail.
Saint Josemaría was a forerunner of the Second Vatican Council, signaling the possibility of finding sanctity in ordinary life, as well as promoting the role of the laity in the achieving of justice for a more humane as well as a more supernatural world. All of his life was devoted to be consistently faithful to the teachings of the Church, although at times he was greatly misunderstood. But as he constantly liked to say: ”It is worthwhile, it is worth the pain.”