I attended a presentation today on the DaVinci Code and certain issues that it raises. The presentation was excellent, particularly in its presentation of the reality of what Opus Dei is, cutting through all the mythology of Dan Brown and others.
What I found most fascinating was the main idea behind Opus Dei, namely the universal call to the perfection of Christian holiness. The presenter, a member of Opus Dei himself, observed that this main thrust of Opus Dei is really just a microcosm of the larger Church's teaching, particularly as found in the Second Vatican Council.
Before the Second Vatican Council, it was understood correctly that the Church was structured hierarchically in terms of teaching authority. Think of a pyramid, at the top of which is the pope, and then just below him are the cardinals and bishops, and then the priests, and then the religious, and then the lay people. The teaching authority would flow from God to the pope on down accordingly. The problem before the Second Vatican Council was that some folks understood incorrectly that in the Church grace for holy living was disseminated similarly. So the pope gets all the grace from God, distributes it to the cardinals and bishops, then the priests religious and the lay people get whatever is left. This was never an official teaching, just a broad misconception.
The Second Vatican Council's teaching on the unviersal call to the perfection of Christian holiness was a response to this misconception. Rather than the notion that the pope should be really holy and lay people can be "just lay people" and not hold themselves to a similar standard of holiness, now the Church pronounced clearly that all Christians are called to be saints, to be holy as Christ is holy, "perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Lumen Gentium 39 puts it beautifully:
Therefore in the Church, everyone whether belonging to the hierarchy, or being cared for by it, is called to holiness, according to the saying of the Apostle: "For this is the will of God, your sanctification".(215) However, this holiness of the Church is unceasingly manifested, and must be manifested, in the fruits of grace which the Spirit produces in the faithful; it is expressed in many ways in individuals, who in their walk of life, tend toward the perfection of charity, thus causing the edification of others; in a very special way this (holiness) appears in the practice of the counsels, customarily called "evangelical."
What follows, which was a teaching of St Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, is that we are called to make our ordinary day-to-day work an offering to God. As the presenter observed, if something is not intrinsically evil, it can be lifted up as prayer for the glory of God. If we are garbagemen, we are called to be excellent garbagemen; if lawyers, then excellent lawyers; if firemen, then excellent firemen; if cops, then excellent cops; if news reporters, then excellent news reporters; if bloggers, then excellent bloggers. That is the way to become a saint: not necessarily just as a priest or a bishop or a religious person or a minister, but in ordinary everyday activities. Hence the "universal call to holiness."
It causes me at any rate to examine myself and my own work, and to ask myself: Are my standards high enough? Do I glorify God in my ordinary day-to-day activities? Not when I'm ministering, not when I'm praying or attending some Church function. Do I glorify him when I'm doing the things that ordinary people do? Is every action I take supernaturally motivated? According to the Church, according to Christ, it should be. Something for us all to pray for.
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