Christ at the summit of all human activities

Instaurare omnia in Christo,¹ says St Paul to the faithful of Ephesus. Renew the world in the spirit of Jesus Christ and place Christ at the summit and at the heart of all things. We have come to sanctify all noble human tasks, that is, ordinary human work, and we do this right in the middle of the world in a lay and secular manner, as a service to the Holy Church, to the Roman Pontiff and to all souls.

To achieve this, we have to defend freedom. This is the freedom of those who, as members, form one mystical body with Christ who is the head, and with his Vicar on earth. It seems as if the things of heaven have been torn apart from those of the earth, and as if they no longer had a head. But God made Christ incarnate to be the head of all things. Therefore unity, harmonious union, will be achieved when all things are subject to the single head, who is Christ.

We will say with St Irenaeus: “There is only one God the Father, (…) and only one Christ Jesus our Lord, who is in the whole universe and sums up everything in himself: in this whole, man, as God’s creature, is included. He, therefore, sums up man in himself: the invisible is made visible; the one that cannot be comprehended, made comprehensible; the one that cannot suffer, able to suffer; and the Word made man, summing up all things in himself. So that, as the Word of God is the first among heavenly and spiritual and invisible beings, so he has sovereignty also over visible and material things, taking all primacy on himself; and by becoming head of the Church, he attracts to himself all things in due time.”²

Bringing the world to God

Now we can understand the emotion of that poor priest, when some time ago he felt within his soul this divine locution: et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum (John 12:32); and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. He saw clearly as well the meaning that our Lord wanted to give to those words of Scripture at that moment: that Christ must be placed at the summit of all human activities. He clearly understood that, through ordinary work in all the activities of the world, the earth had to be reconciled with God, so that everything profane, while remaining profane, would be converted into something sacred, something consecrated to God, the ultimate end of all things.