Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Big number of those who seek transcendence

The prelate was in Poland and was interviewed by the Sunday Catholic Weekly, Niedziela.


Wlodzimierz Redzioch:
- Your Excellency, you are the head of the organisation of the Catholic Church, which being focused on by the international media. Unfortunately, they as a rule show its distorted picture. Could you tell us what Opus Dei is?

Bishop Javier Echevarría: - Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer repeated that Opus Dei is 'God's way of Christians who want to live as true Christians'.

The aim of Opus Dei members is not to do spectacular things. They are ordinary Christians who try to seek sanctity in their daily lives.

Since the prelature, Church's institution, consists of priests and laymen, i.e. ordinary people, we feel comfortably in the world: among people, at work, in families... I will say even more: not only do we feel good in the world but we love the world, we love daily life with its thousands of obligations and tasks. One cannot be Christian only at church but one must be Christian in ordinary situations. One should lead a life of faith in God, of hope and love for all people like the first Christians did, and then every day becomes a holiday.

This idea of 'greatness' of daily life constitutes the peak of the message of St Josemaría, the ideal that, thanks to God, is shared by many, including those who do not belong to Opus Dei.

As far as the interest of media in the prelature is concerned I think that it comes from the fact that the number of those who passionately seek the transcendental dimension of our reality through Opus Dei is very big.

In a word, we are dealing with something that still 'draws' people to Christianity, which Benedict XVI has stressed on various occasions.

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