A lifelong YesExtract from an interview with Zenit in 2003Zenit: Would you say that people today find it hard to commit themselves, hard to say yes? Urteaga: Definitely. I find people very soft. But at the same time there are plenty of people doing plenty of positive things. The sort of “Yes” we’re talking about is made up of daily sacrifice and self-surrender, and sometimes that demands great generosity. But it’s worth while. In the evening, when you examine your conscience on what you’ve done that day, you can have a great sense of achievement. All those “Yeses” add up to a lot. As Christians, we can see how first Christ and then his followers, the Apostles, had to go against the flow. Sacrifice is written on every page of the Gospel. If we tried to take the Cross out of the Gospel, there’d be nothing left of it except the book-covers! We mustn’t try and alter Christ’s teaching to fit in with the era we’re living in. It is our times that need to open up to the light that Christ gives. But people are deforming Christian teaching and trying to make it fit with their present-day mentality… and that’s fatal. Even though we find it hard, we Christians need to carry on saying “Yes” to what we find difficult, day by day. Zenit: When did you say the “Yes” that lasted your whole life? Urteaga: I had to go from San Sebastian to take a state examination in Valladolid. What we call chance is really providence. I say that because by chance someone asked me and Ignacio Echeverria, who’s now a priest working in Argentina, if we’d like to meet the author of The Way, who was giving a retreat to some university students in the place where we were staying. We said “Yes,” and that little yes led on to great things. We’d read and re-read The Way. It was full of generous, effective, apostolic “Yeses”, full of love for God and service to the people around us. We went to meet Fr Josemaria Escriva, who was proclaimed a saint for the whole Church by Pope John Paul II. I remember how we hardly said a word; he spoke to us at length. He talked to us about seeking holiness through studying, doing apostolate with our friends, and serving our Lord generously in life’s ordinary, everyday circumstances. Afterwards the Founder of Opus Dei said that Ignacio Echeverria and I were the last two young men to whom he spoke directly about giving ourselves to God in Opus Dei. When we’d taken our State exams, we went back to San Sebastian in great delight, as we’d got very good marks and were very happy with everything about the course we’d done. Not long after that, a friend of ours in Opus Dei from San Sebastian, who heard what Saint Josemaria said about meeting us in Valladolid, talked to us again, first to Ignacio and then to me, telling us all about Opus Dei and encouraging us to give ourselves to God completely in the Work. And I said “Yes,” and it has lasted my whole life. He spoke to me in particular about how this commitment was a complete self-surrender. I remember exactly where we were walking that day, along the river from the North Bridge to the Iron Bridge in San Sebastian. I’d never thought about giving myself totally to God, because at that time girls took up a lot of my thoughts, and suddenly I found myself faced with having to choose a new life, within my daily work, a life of dedication to God and souls. Zenit: Has Mary’s “Yes” helped you in your personal life? Urteaga: That same afternoon, with this huge question in my mind, I went up to Monte Ulia, to say “yes” once and for all, with our Lady’s powerful help, to the proposal that was put before me. It was August 13, 1940, but certainly not an unlucky day for me! That’s 63 years out of 81, dedicated to God. Pray to our Lady for me to be generous, very generous, and to dedicate myself to souls as a priest should. Whose doing was it that ever since I was little, when talking to girls and women I only looked at their eyes? I don’t have to make an effort to mortify myself: I owe that to our Lady. She granted me that for free, and I thank her a million times. Zenit: How would you describe a woman or man of sound judgment? Urteaga: A person of principle. People whose ideas and guiding principles influence not just their thoughts but the way they act throughout the day. Taken to its conclusion, that means that people of sound judgment will end up living in a way that leads them to holiness. Zenit: What is that way that leads to and ends in holiness? Urteaga: For me, it’s Opus Dei. That can be the way for lots of people, most of them within marriage. I’d love you to know about it. We rely on a plan of life in which Jesus takes the leading part. It includes the Eucharist, love for our Lady, love for other people, generous self-giving to our neighbour, hard work – we try to sanctify ourselves in our daily work – and a lot of apostolate. Many “yeses” throughout the day. http://www.josemariaescriva.info/article/a-lifelong-yes |