Living in harmony

The life of the children of God in Opus Dei is apostolate. From this comes the desire to live peacefully with all mankind, to overcome all barriers in the charity of Christ. From this too comes our desire to struggle to eliminate all forms of intolerance, compulsion and violence in man’s behaviour toward his fellow man.

Freedom of consciences

God wants to be served in freedom, and so an apostolate that didn’t respect the freedom of consciences would not be right. And so each of you, my children, has to aim for a boundless charity at all times: understanding everybody, making allowances whenever necessary; with a great zeal for souls, certainly, but the attractive kind of zeal, without any rough manners or off-putting behaviour. We cannot place error on the same level as truth, but, while always respecting the right order of charity, we ought to welcome those who are in error with a great sense of understanding.

Friends with people, not their errors

I always like to remind you, so you appreciate it very clearly, that the Church’s teaching is not compatible with errors against the faith. But can we not be firm friends with people who profess these errors? If we ourselves are solidly grounded in our behaviour and our doctrine, can we not pull the same cart as them in many areas of life?

War of love

Our Lord wants us to be present on all the paths of the earth, sowing the seed of understanding, charity and forgiveness in hoc pulcherrimo caritatis bello, in this most beautiful war of love, forgiveness and peace.

Don’t think that this is just a good idea, or something to be recommended. It is much more than that: it is an imperative command from Christ, the mandatum novum⁷ I speak about so much, which obliges us to love all souls, to understand other people’s circumstances, to forgive them if they do anything that needs forgiving. Our charity has to be such that it makes up for all the deficiencies of human weakness, veritatem facientes in caritate (Eph 4:15), treating those in error with love, but not making any concessions in matters of faith.