A man that knew how to love

Marlies Kucking

October 6, 2002

Tags: Love of God, Gospel, Jesus Christ, Interior life, Women In the 27 years that have gone by since Josemaria Escriva’s “dies natalis”, or birthday into Heaven, on June 26, 1975, many people have asked about the “secret” of his life: why did he attract so many people? Why is it that when others listened to him and read his writings they felt encouraged to return to God, and to see Him as their Father, their Friend, their Love … and to bring others closer to Him? There is only one answer. While his strong personality certainly attracted people, it was above all the love of God that filled his entire life that had this effect.” This is the account given by Marlies Kucking - a member of the central government of the Prelature since 1964 - which was published in the “L’Osservatore Romano” on the occasion of the canonization.

I was lucky enough to have worked for many years along side the man who will today become Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. I have witnessed this love, his faithful and complete identification with the Church and the Holy Father, his affection for his children and for all souls, his tireless work and his constant effort to practice the Christian virtues.
Saint Josemaria’s entire existence was centered on Jesus Christ, the great love of his life. In the last years of his life, he used to repeat with the psalmist: “I seek your face, O Lord”, vultum tuum, Domine, requiram! (cf. Ps 27:8). He ardently desired to see Our Lord’s face. With this desire, or rather I would say as a result of this desire, he loved each human being passionately, especially his children. He was a priest who knew how to love, with a love that was both supernatural and human at the same time. His presence and his words brought you closer to God, and at the same time, you always felt very comfortable with him. It was wonderful to be with him and you could see how sincerely interested he was in everything: your physical and spiritual health, your professional work, your friends and family, your joys and sorrows …
In his homily, “With the Strength of Love” (Friends of God), Josemaria Escriva quotes words from St. John’s Gospel: “Zeal for your House consumes me” (cf. Jn 2:17), which show his desires to save the entire world. Our Lord wanted Opus Dei to announce the universal call to holiness among ordinary Christians, among the men and women throughout the earth who form with their fellow citizens the very fabric of society. Any honest occupation - ordinary work, carried out in a lay and secular way - can be a service to the Holy Church, to the Roman Pontiff and to all souls.
The universal apostolic horizons of Josemaria Escriva, which are the result of his foundational charism and his own correspondence to grace, find their point of reference in the pages of the Gospel: the example and teachings of Our Lord. Descriptions of the Gospel scenes which show the immense love of Our Savior for all men were frequently on his lips and in his prayer.
“You cannot separate the fact that Christ is God from his role as redeemer. The Word became flesh and came into the world ut omnes homines salvi fiant (1 Tim 2: 4) ‘to save all men’ (…) Our Lord has come to bring peace, good news and life to all men. Not only to the rich, nor only to the poor. Not only to the wise or only to the simple. To everyone, to the brothers, for brothers we are, children of the same Father, God. So there is only one race, the race of the children of God. There is only one color, the color of the children of God. And there is only one language, the language which speaks to the heart and to the mind, without the noise of words, making us know God and love one another.”
His message was given and is given to everyone, without any sort of discrimination of race, nationality, religion or social class. He urgently desired that the message of the universal call to holiness spread by Opus Dei would reach as many souls as possible. Many countries know of his walks through their great cities - London, Paris, Lisbon, Rome, Munich, Dublin…- and through their numerous smaller towns and villages. He would often say that he had filled the roads of Europe with Hail Marys. However, he carried out his most important “itinerary” through his daily prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament, offering Our Lord his thirst for souls and the apostolic tasks of his daughters and sons all over the world. At night before falling asleep he would go over the map of the world in his mind. Beginning in the East, he would adore Our Lord in all of the tabernacles of the world: both in those that he had visited because they were in centers of Opus Dei, and in those that he had never seen.
Today, His Holiness John Paul II canonizes Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. When the Church elevates one of her sons or daughters to the altar, she presents a living example to the faithful. It is as if she were saying: “Yes, you can also do it!” For this reason, together with enormous gratitude to the Holy Father and to the Church, I would like to finish with an ardent petition to the new Saint, that he help us to have his same zeal for souls, and to know how to give ourselves to all those whom we meet and thus be able to bring Christ’s message of peace and joy to the world.