Homily of the Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz

Feast of St. Josemaría, 26 June 2026 

“Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch” (Lk 5:4). We have just heard the words that the Lord addressed to some fishermen on the Sea of Galilee; words that marked the beginning of their life as apostles. Jesus called them in the midst of their work, and not on just any day. It was the end of a shift marked by failure: they had laboured through the night and caught nothing.

We can imagine how those fishermen felt. And it was at precisely that moment that Jesus asked them to put out into the deep. He did not wait until they were rested, self-assured, or filled with enthusiasm. He stepped into their boat, into their weariness and their work, and from there called them to a divine adventure.

Saint Josemaría, whose feast we celebrate today, taught that the tiredness and fatigue that come with work can also be a place of encounter with God. Not because the weariness disappears, but because we have the certainty that the Lord sees us, accompanies us, and is by our side. “If we ever experience lack of peace or anxiety or restlessness,” he used to say, “we go to our Lord and tell him that we place ourselves in his hands, like a small child in the arms of his or her father” (Letter 2, no. 59). Awareness of divine filiation profoundly marked his relationship with God.

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (Rom 8:14), we read in the second reading. The certainty that we have a God who is Father — who cares for us and sustains us — fills our daily struggles with hope, even when the tiredness of work weighs us down, as it did the apostles.

It is there, in the middle of the world, in our daily tasks and struggles, with their successes and their failures, that we are called to bring the message of Christ: in the honest fulfilment of our work, in service to those around us, in care for our family and for those who share our lives, in the way we face ordinary difficulties… When we do all of this out of love for God, we are sowing the Good News of the Gospel in every environment. We are fulfilling, as we heard in the first reading, the divine commission to cultivate the earth and care for it (cf. Gen 2:15).

One especially important way of contributing to this transformation of the world — a way that particularly characterises those who know themselves to be children of God — is to be sowers of peace and joy. Differences of opinion and sensibility can sometimes become an almost insurmountable barrier between people. During his visit to the cathedral of Barcelona, the Pope invited us to be “witnesses and prophets of unity, of welcome, of harmony and of peace, even at the cost of sacrifice and renunciation” (Homily at the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours). Let us never see ourselves as enemies of anyone. Those who know themselves to be children of God cannot look upon others as adversaries, because they see them as brothers and sisters and recognise the love that the Lord has for them.

In the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV recalls the figure of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The city is reborn “when all persons assume their own role and recognize that their strength comes from the Lord” (no. 8). That image can help us today too. In an often fragmented world, all Christians are called to rebuild bonds with their brothers and sisters, beginning with those closest at hand. And this can be done by recognising, first of all, that what unites us is far more decisive than anything that might divide us.

The life of the first Christians, for whom Saint Josemaría felt such great affection, can serve as our example. They were mistreated, persecuted, and put to death. Yet there are countless testimonies of love not only among themselves, but toward their persecutors as well. And it was thus, through charity, through a love capable of reaching even an enemy, that they helped to transform the structures of society.

Let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us allow Jesus into our boat. May she teach us to live with the confidence of children of God, to put out into the deep whenever the Lord asks it of us, and to sow the peace, joy, and charity of Jesus Christ in the middle of the world.