A Saint for All Seasons

Clifford F. Thies

Clifford F. Thies is a professor of economics and finance at Shenandoah University, and a resident of Winchester, Virginia.

Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer of Spain, founder of Opus Dei, has recently been canonized by the Catholic Church. Opus Dei, meaning "The Work of God," is a call to universal holiness, that all Christians, indeed all people of faith, are called to be holy, including members of the laity as well as members of the clergy, women as well as men, married persons as well as celibate persons, and that all honest work is acceptable to God.

As with many other heroes of the church of the 20th Century, Josemaria Escriva was formed in the crucible of war and religious persecution, in his case, the Spanish Civil War. But, more than this, as a young man, he experienced some of the personal and financial challenges of life: the death of three of his five siblings, and his father's bankruptcy and the relocation of his family in his father's search for work. Then, at the age of 22, his father died, and he became the head of his birth family.

Reading the short biography provided by Opus Dei, one realizes it must have been unusual for Father Escriva's bishop to permit him to find work so as to support his family, while also attending to his priestly duties, serving the poor and the sick, with special ministries to laborers, to university students, and to artists and intellectuals. (God knows that artists and intellectuals need a special ministry!)

It was at the age of 28, while on a retreat, that Father Escriva had a second epiphany. His first was when he was a boy, seeing a monk's barefoot steps in the snow, and realizing that he was being called by God. The second was that he should find a way for persons of all occupations, not just clergy, to dedicate their lives to God.

Once organized, the fraternity known as Opus Dei, originally for celibate men, began to expand. Soon, celibate women were allowed to join. Then, married men and women. Then, members of other faiths, Christian and non-Christian (as associate members).

Father Escriva taught that one's ordinary life can be transformed by grace. In this way, one does not separate the things of the earth from the things of God. Rather, the things of the earth should be seen as what they are, things of God.

Opus Dei seeks to correct the sometimes mislearned lesson of Jesus' teaching

Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

For some, this teaching implies that secular government is not of God, but is base. But a better interpretation of this teaching is that there is a rightful place for secular government, and it is good to respect those things that belong to secular government bearing in mind, of course, that all things belong to God.

Father Escriva also advocated maximum personal freedom and self-discipline. Once you recognize that all honest work can be acceptable to God, and that all of us are called to be holy, then the role of the government, including church government as well as secular government, is seen to be serving the people and not to be ruling over them.

The call of Father Escriva for universal holiness is a return to the roots of our Judeo-Christian faith. For we were called from times long past to be a priestly people. With the budding unity of people of faith of our times, we can all join in Father Escriva's personal motto, Deo omnis Gloria, "to God be all the Glory."