Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College on March 13, 2024.

John 5:17-30: Jesus said to the Jews, ‘My Father goes on working, and so do I.’ But that only made them even more intent on killing him, because, not content with breaking the sabbath, he spoke of God as his own Father, and so made himself God’s equal.

He gives signs of his divinity, indicating that his actions are the work of the Father.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger commented this passage in 2002 on the occasion of a congress on Ordinary life, during the canonization of Saint Josemaría Escrivá in Rome. There were a number of articles published in Osservatore Romano, and his was the best: Letting God Work.

He was struck by the name, Opus Dei. Our Father said he didn’t want to be founder of anything, that he had not invented anything, that the Lord had simply made use of him. Thus it was not his work, but Opus Dei. He was only an instrument with which God had acted.

He let God work.

Thumbnail: James Tissot, Christ Reproving the Pharisees, 1836-1902, in Brooklyn Museum.

Music: Adrift among the infinite stars by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com