I didn't want to get up. My body said no and that time I decided to listen to it and no. I did not get up when the alarm clock rang. I didn't live the heroic minute, the one that has become so famous. And nothing happened.
No one scolded me, nor did they do violence to me... I didn't even confess not to do it; because it is not a sin to be lazy one day. Because that's what it is, the fall of a day.
The truth is that I get up at 6:30 a.m. to play sports. I also try to do prayer in the mornings, but my lack of diligence that day could have been more terrible for the committed athlete than for the average Christian, whether or not he or she is of the Opus.
Once again, this institution of the Church is once again the dessert theme.
And I am not saying that there are not those who have felt abandoned, hurt (and not without reason) within the Work, or the Carmelites or the Camaldolese.
Sin is so terrible: the wounds it leaves - in oneself and in one's neighbor - are uncontrollable. As Pope Francis says: "sin always cuts, separates, divides". The people whom, throughout our lives, with or without intention, we have treated or judged badly, often do not manage to heal their wounds and for this reason, we must always ask for forgiveness. To them if we have the possibility, and above all and always, to God.
I know many people of Opus Dei, who continue and live every day happy and content. Celibate and non-celibate. Who mortify themselves (yes, because that is the common patrimony of the Church) and who mess up. Of those I know in Opus Dei, there are a few who I sincerely dislike - why should I deny it -, and there are many others whom I can count among my most loyal friends.
I also know many people who left Opus and left the institution calmly and peacefully. Others did not.
Other people, whom I also love, were hurt because they lacked explanations and understanding; because they really did not have a vocation and some did not understand that dedication is always to God and not to their works, as Cardinal Van Thuan said; because they lived differently and the sensitivity of some and - at times - the rigorism of others clashed..., for a thousand reasons. Because there are always reasons: to persevere, and to give up.
And I have seen, among many of those people who left the Work and those who live its spirit on a daily basis, a posture of dialogue, of healing, of reparation if necessary, that has put in order many ideas and healed wounds in their hearts. Not a few of these people have even returned to live their Christian life following the teachings of St. Josemaría Escrivá.
There are many others, more than those who have left, who today have also had their heroic minute living the spirit of Opus Dei. Others, like me, have turned off the alarm clock and rolled over in bed..., and nothing happens.
Director of Omnes. Degree in Communication, with more than 15 years of experience in Church communication. She has collaborated in media such as COPE or RNE.
