Josemaría Escrivá:
A saint for our days

October 2, 2002

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

This week I will be traveling to Rome to participate in the canonization of Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.

This occasion brings me great joy because God, our Lord, gave me the grace to know Msgr. Josemaría personally. His life and teachings inspired me to take seriously my Christian vocation and then to be ordained as a priest.

Josemaría is one of the more than 1,600 men and women — most of them contemporary — that Pope John Paul II has canonized during his pontificate. Our pontiff has beatified and canonized more men and women than all his predecessors together.

Why so many saints — and especially so many contemporary saints? The answer has been given by the Holy Father more than once, and in different ways. The pope is convinced that, as the Second Vatican Council affirms, all of us share the same call to holiness. Every Christian, no matter what vocation, is called to be holy in his daily life.

That is why the pope has brought to the altars of the world men and women of every kind: doctors, priests, seminarians, a gypsy breeder of horses, martyrs of Mexico, Spain and Germany, housewives and founders of spiritual families.

The message of the pontiff is clear: Christian virtues can be lived in a heroic way — because this is what sanctity consists of, not of performing miracles — in any circumstance of life, in any place and when facing any challenge.

The pope has proclaimed men and women saints who died in jails, who were sanctified in their kitchens and in universities, in the fields and in cities.

From this new group of saints is Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei.

The new saint was born in Barbastro, Spain, in 1902. He was the second of six children. In 1904 he became gravely ill. Doctors declared his condition terminal. To save Josemaría, his mother took him on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Torreciudad, a hermitage accessible only by foot or by mule, where an 11th century carving of the Virgin Mary was venerated.

He fully recovered from his illness and later on in life decided to become a diocesan priest, alternating his studies of philosophy and theology in the seminary with studying law at the University of Zaragoza. He was ordained a priest on March 28, 1925.

On Oct. 2, 1928, he founded Opus Dei in Madrid, Spain. He led the personal prelature for more than 40 years.

In 1933 Josemaría established a university center. In 1934 he published "Consideraciones Espirituales" ("Spiritual Considerations"), the first edition of "The Way," a spirituality book that has sold more than 4 million copies in 44 languages.

Josemaría died of a heart attack on June 26, 1975, at noon in his workroom. On May 17, 1992, John Paul II beatified him. At the beginning of this year the pope announced Josemaría's canonization for Oct. 6.

One of the main teachings of the new saint can be synthesized in these words from "The Way" n. 817: "`Great holiness' consists in carrying out the `little' duties of each moment."

Josemaría Escrivá was convinced that because everyone has "little daily duties," everyone is called to be a saint. In this way, he was a frontrunner of his time, announcing in a prophetic way the universal call to holiness that Vatican II proclaimed and which became a pillar of John Paul II's pontificacy. We are to be holy in order to impel, from our holiness, the new evangelization and the transformation of the world into a more just, fraternal and reconciled place.

I still remember with emotion the days I spent with Msgr. Josemaría in Mexico City in May and June of 1970. I remember his words asking me to be faithful to my vocation and his example as a priest in love with God. During his visit to the Basilica of Guadalupe I witnessed the great faith with which he asked the blessings of most holy Mary of Guadalupe for the pope and the Church. Petitions that we still invoke with insistence and, I hope, with the same faith and love of Josemaría Escrivá.

On Oct. 6 at the canonization Mass in Rome, I well ask St. Josemaría Escrivá to obtain for all of us in the Archdiocese of Denver the grace to experience and to respond to our common call to holiness in our daily life.