They do not understand our freedom

With their blindness or comfortable attitude, they cannot understand that freedom, personal freedom, is the main point of the spirit of the Work of God. They cannot understand that most of the time we use the pronoun “I”, taking responsibility for our own actions, and that we rarely say “we”, because our other brothers and sisters – or rather the other members of the Work – are not obliged to follow the particular criterion that one member of Opus Dei may have in temporal matters, nor in theological matters which the Church leaves open to discussion. It is comforting to read in the Holy Gospel that neque enim fratres eius credebant in eum,²⁴ no one believed in Jesus Christ.

False advice

There are other people who look at us with prejudice, wanting to weigh in on us with their long years of experience. I think – and you with me – that both what is old and what is new can be full of vitality: children, young people, and those who have entered maturity or old age, can be healthy, equally healthy, in body and soul. But these people’s old age leads them to give us advice (which we did not ask for) with the “prejudice” and the “prudence” of what is old, when what we need is prayers, understanding and affection.