Oct 1 Sun
Unity among us. Nothing is dearer to God than mutual union and concord among men.
Love for unity is one of our ruling passions, since we love the Church with all our heart and wish her the greatest good possible. We want St Paul's appeal to all Christians to be true of Opus Dei forever: "Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call."
This reality is shown in the Prelature's moral, spiritual, and juridical unity. It is God's will that all of us are under the same head, and form a single body. St. Josemaría stressed: "I want you to have a sense of being members of a single body. We, though many, are one body: all of us are but one thing."
Unity between priests and laity too, since we all have "a truly priestly soul and a fully lay outlook ... In the Work we all form a single class… We can truly consider this fact as one of the marvels that God, by his grace and providence, has wrought in our Work, crystallizing it in our Particular Law."
Unity, finally, of all the members with one another, since by God's will every one of us without exception is called to foster the unity of each with the others and of all with Christ.
"Be convinced, my son, that for us disunity is death. Unity is the secret of our effectiveness and one of the greatest blessings God has bestowed on his Work."
We each promote unity when we stay where God wants us, like "those great diamonds that remain wherever they are set, in whatever place they are put, without protesting and without pride."
We must never be a piece or link that is out of place. "To promote unity, which is the guarantee of our effectiveness, we need to ensure first of all that there is order. Each in our own place, not meddling in the affairs of others, and each responsible for our own behavior. It's all the same to us to be hand or foot, tongue or heart, since we are all in every part of the body, because we are one single thing through the charity of Christ that unites us."
We are like the branch our Lord speaks of in the Gospel. "A branch not united to the vine, instead of being a living thing, is a dry stick good only for the fire, or for herding animals, in the best of cases, and to be trodden underfoot by everyone. Be very united to the vine! close to our vine, which is Christ Jesus, through prompt obedience.”
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