HOPE: THE GIFT OF THE CRUCIFIED SAVIOR ONE GOOD FRIDAY
A moment of encounter one Good Friday turned an unsettled 25 year-old into a man with a purpose: a man with new meaning and hope. Eugene became totally enthralled by his relationship with Jesus Christ and the change he had made in his life as his Savior! We, too, on various occasions of our lives have experienced God-moments – encounters that have given meaning to our lives and filled us with hope for the present and the future.
Sweet hope, you have always brought me happiness, and been precious to me for bringing me to see in God a delightful perfection which made me love him with a pleasing trust
Eugene’s retreat notes, May 1824, EO XV n. 156
A PILGRIM OF HOPE
Eugene became a pilgrim on the journey of discovery on how to live the new vision of hope given by his Savior. As a pilgrim he was led to discern a vocation to the priesthood, to learn as much as possible about God in the seminary and daily nurture his constant search for a deeper relationship with God.
As a newly-ordained priest dedicated himself as a bringer of hope to those whose lives had no focus. His preaching to the poor was an invitation to join the pilgrimage of hope that Jesus the Savior offered. To the youth he offered the same invitation as he did with the prisoners and whoever he came into contact with.
GOD’S IMPULSE TO CONGREGATE A COMMUNITY OF PILGRIMS OF HOPE
On January 25 we commemorate how Eugene was impelled by God to invite others to join him in his life and ministry. We celebrate the day in which the Missionaries of Provence became a community of pilgrims dedicated to bringing the hope of the Savior to the people who needed it most. On 25 January 1816, this group of inspired men came together to officially begin their community life and ministry and drew up a brief Rule of Life.
OUR CHARISMATIC GOD-GIVEN MISSION: PILGRIMS OF HOPE IN COMMUNITY
Today, 219 years later, that same flame that was burning in Aix, is burning in the generous hearts of the Oblate Charismatic Family extended over more than 60 countries – all of us form the Oblate community of pilgrims of hope. A happy feast day to all.
Bob Wright continues the story of the foundation of the Texas mission:
Since Brownsville was a new town on the north bank of the Rio Grande, the river that had just become the international boundary between the United States and Mexico as a result of the United States war against Mexico in 1846-1848, there was as yet no Catholic church or religious residence. One or the other outlying ranch already had its own family chapel, but the people on what had just become the Texas side of the river had traditionally depended for religious services upon the priests in the Mexican city of Matamoros just across the river. Given its location on the new international border where the Rio Grande flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, Brownsville with its port of Point Isabel was from the beginning an important commercial and administrative center for the entire Lower Rio Grande region of Texas and Mexico that stretched above it along the Rio Grande. As such, especially in the initial years in which United States political, civil, and economic structures were just being established in the region, it drew many European and American adventurers with little interest in religion into what had been and remained a traditional Mexican Catholic rural countryside.
At the beginning the three Oblates struggled with very little support, even from the Mexicans who traditionally gave much respect to priests. The Oblates attributed the Mexican’s initial diffidence to their hearing the priests speaking in English, halting as it was, which the Oblates said made the Mexicans believe that the priests were not really Catholic…
Very gradually, as civil order improved and the missionaries began to learn Spanish, they gained more people’s confidence in Brownsville itself. They were able to recommence celebrating Mass in town on Holy Thursday in a small house lent to them for free, and by the end of June they managed to buy some property on credit and build a small wooden church they named St. Mary. They regularly held separate church services in English and Spanish. By September they were beginning the construction of a boy’s school and hoping to obtain women religious to build one for girls. Ironically, just as things were looking more promising, the Oblates’ earlier letters from Brownsville and Galveston describing the dire conditions in both places had finally reached France. Unaware of the recently improved prospects, the General Council decided to recall to Canada Father Soulerin in Brownsville and Father Gaudet in Galveston, leaving Father Telmon solely responsible for the work in Brownsville. After Soulerin’s departure November 14, Father Telmon continued to minister until he felt his isolated position was no longer sustainable with his weakened health. He finally departed on January 22, 1851.
REFLECTION
“What is to give light must endure burning.” Viktor Frankl
From the ashes of this apparent failure new life was to spring: the Oblates were to return to Texas a year later and to write a magnificent page of missionary history which endures to this day.
As we have no writings of Eugene on this period in Texas, I think it important to tell the story of this mission. Fr. Bob Wright takes up the narrative:
The Oblates selected by Father Telmon parted paths in New Orleans, with Father Telmon and two of his companions sailing directly to Brownsville while Father Augustin Gaudet and scholastic Brother Paul Gelot sailed to Galveston with Bishop Odin, arriving at the beginning of December. Their plan was to remain in Galveston only temporarily, until their confreres had made a proper foundation in Brownsville. While in Galveston Brother Gelot continued his formation, Father Gaudet assisted in the local ministry, and both studied English and Spanish. But the dire circumstances experienced by the Oblates in Brownsville the first several months postponed the plans for Father Gaudet and Brother Gelot to join them there. After the bishop left Galveston for an extended visitation of the vast diocese in April, Father Gaudet soon found himself the only priest in town, taking care of both the parish and the Ursuline convent. When his complaints finally reached France in September, the General Council decided to recall him immediately to the Canadian province – ironically, just as it was determined in Texas that the improved Brownsville situation would allow Gaudet and Gelot to transfer to Brownsville at the end of October. Dutifully obeying the obedience from France, Father Gaudet departed Galveston in early November 1850. The scholastic Gelot, however, with whom the Founder had reservations, opted to remain in the United States and become a diocesan priest.
Six years later, Father Gaudet was to return to Texas for another 20 years and to die in Brownsville.
REFLECTION
“To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal.” (A. Kalam)
On November 20 the five Oblates, destined for Texas, reached New Orleans, where they remained for a few days. All the correspondence between the Oblates in Texas and Eugene have been lost, so we are lacking in details.
A priest, whose name we do not know, had been kind to the Missionaries. Eugene wrote to thank him:
Permit me, Monsieur, to address my thanks to you at the same time as to the saintly nuns whom you direct, at New Orleans. I will conjoin in one and the same letter the sentiments of gratitude I owe you as well as to these Ladies for the charity which you have so kindly exercised in regard to the dear children who are going to work for the salvation of souls in these remote regions wherein you dwell. Father Telmon, superior of this little contingent, has not left me unaware of all your kind actions and I am truly touched. I owe to you and these Ladies the same gratitude as if you had done all this good to me personally.
These good Fathers are my children, all the more cherished because of their dedication to the service of God and neighbor. At the great distance they are from me, it is a very sweet consolation for my heart to feel them protected by a priest like yourself and cared for in their infirmities by Sisters so worthy of their holy vocation and so wholly given to charity.
Letter to the Reverend…, 10 May 1850, EO I n 134
REFLECTION
No matter how troublesome, the Oblates remained the children of a loving Father because they gave their lives “to work for the salvation of souls.” That was what mattered for Eugene during his lifetime, and assuredly he intercedes for us today as members of his missionary Family.
Eugene’s diary was a personal document in which he noted some of the happenings of the day and often expressed his sentiments in a way that he could not in public. On this day he had received two letters, each one informing him that Father Telmon had decided, without consulting any of his superiors, to establish an Oblate mission in Texas. Texas had been annexed by the USA four years earlier, and the Bishop of Galveston had met Fr Telmon and asked him to come with a group of missionaries. The Oblates had been given permission by Eugene to work in the USA in Pittsburgh – but Telmon presumed the “USA part” to include Texas. So, he took it upon himself to bring a group of five Oblates to start the mission: Frs Alexandre Soulerin, Augustin Gaudet, the scholastic Paul Gelot and Brother Joseph Manthe.
Letters from the Bishop of Bytown, from Fr. Honorat and from Fr. Telmon. What is happening in Canada is astounding. Here is Fr. Telmon assuming responsibility for the Texas mission, justifying himself on the basis of the faculties I gave him when he was in Pittsburgh. He has set out and he has brought some men of his choice with him…
Fr. Telmon had certainly received the letter in which it was explicitly pointed out to him that he was by law under the jurisdiction of the Provincial of Canada and he has taken no account of it, apparently because he had committed himself to the Bishop of Texas who was waiting for him in Cincinnati or elsewhere. Worst of all, however, is that in writing to me he makes no effort to legitimize his movements by asking for permission after the event.
Having recovered from his upset, Eugene continues:
I shall go no further! Pages could be written on what is happening in those far away lands. Hearing about them, nevertheless, it is wrong for me to be upset. They are all doing their duty perfectly.
Diary, 10 November 1849, EO XXII
REFLECTION
“God writes straight with crooked lines” is an expression we often hear. Father Telmon, with his fiery enthusiasm and talent for preaching, certainly provided God with crooked lines to write on through his missionary adventures in France, Corsica, Canada and in Pittsburgh and Texas! As frustrated and upset as Eugene had been with him at times, he recognised and acknowledged the goodness in this missionary.
I couldn’t resist sharing this snippet from Eugene’s letter to the novice master in England.
Keep firm control lest the abuse of tobacco be introduced into your novitiate. Be quite sure that it is only a mania. The human species managed without this filthy narcotic before its discovery was made. How can anyone wish to be persuaded that he cannot live without it? I speak seriously. One could feed a missionary with what this absurdity costs…
To Fr. Charles Bellon, in England, 13 June 1849, EO III n 28
REFLECTION
“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” (Mark Twain)
An insight into the daily life of Bishop de Mazenod, Bishop of the second-largest diocese in France, Superior General of a missionary Congregation in four continents. He writes to Fr Casimir Aubert, who had been his secretary for Oblate affairs but who had had to be sent to England to bring some order to the nascent Oblate province.
What a sight my desk is! At this moment, there are at least 150 letters, amongst which a great number are waiting for a reply… Has a Superior General ever been left alone who must correspond with the four quarters of the world and who for the ledger, monstrous as it is, is obliged to copy those of his letters of which he must keep a record. It is thus that I have compiled, since my return, twelve enormous pages of this immense register, the great in-folio that you know about, entirely written by my hand in small characters.
I want you to know, before stones are thrown at me, that last Friday I sat down at my desk at seven o’clock after coming down from the chapel and that I did not stir from it until six o’clock in the evening when they came to fetch me for dinner. I had not even left the place to take the cup of chocolate that they bring me at midday for my collation and it is a bishop who is almost a septuagenarian that is made to do this grind!
Letter to Fr. Casimir Aubert, Visitator in England, 24 November 1849, EO III n 33
REFLECTION
I am always amazed by the energy and amount of work that Eugene was able to do. The key to his ability is found in the focus given to him each day in his time of morning prayer of the breviary, meditation and Scripture reflection and his evening oraison (sometimes late at night). These he never missed.
“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.” (Lucille Ball)
We are busy preparing for the departure of Fr. d’Herbomez, Bro. Surel and Bro. Gaspard for Oregon. What a mission that is! You would not believe what our dear Fathers suffer there, as cheerfully as anybody in the world. The last time Fr. Chirouse wrote to me he said that he had sent a Father to Fr. Pandosy who had nothing to live on, but that he had in his larder a dog and two wolves which would be enough for him until Lent. He had made himself a soutane from a blanket.
I sent them a little parcel of shoes, trousers and so on. This time Fr. d’Herbomez is taking them everything from a needle to an anvil, 22 packages altogether. It is amusing. But what will not be amusing is remaining 7 or 8 months at sea, for they will have to go round Cape Horn.
Letter to Fr. Etienne Semeria, 10 November 1849, EO IV n 13.
Writing to Fr. Casimir Aubert, Eugene gave more details.
Tempier is immersed too and I pity him. One has no idea of the trouble he had to go to for the departure to Oregon of Fr. d’Herbomez and the two brothers, Surel and Janin. It is unbelievable! And amusing too for that matter to see a Vicar General hunting through the shops for a miscellany of all sorts of things, from a needle to a plow and an anvil. Toys, trumpets, whistles, glass beads of every colour, seed of every kind, striped shirts, caps and bonnets. Nothing could be funnier than to see people coming to ask seriously where the general store of Monsieur Tempier was to be found. At last our dear evangelists took their departure and with the help of God they will arrive in seven or eight months. How edifying they were!
Letter to Fr. Casimir Aubert, in England, 24 November 1849, EO III n 33
REFLECTION
A sea trip of 8 months around the southernmost point of South America, knowing that they would face a mission of hardship and many challenges once they arrived in Oregon! In our world of instant communication it is almost impossible for us to comprehend the hardships that these courageous missionaries had to undergo. Yet, they went joyfully because they had given their lives to God in oblation to be able to bring the Gospel to people who had never heard of it. They were indeed cooperators of the Savior, and it was this conviction that made sense of their way of life and made them generous.
How many personal hardships and sacrifices are we prepared to endure in order to be Christ-bearers today?
Fr. Jolivet was ordained priest on the Sunday preceding Ascension and said his first mass on Ascension Day, the delay no doubt being on account of not knowing how to say it well. He will set out shortly for England with Fr. Arnoux. Fr. Jolivet entered the Congregation in order to go to the foreign missions; that is what attracts him still. But he wrote me, on learning of his promotion to the priesthood, that he has no other desire at present than to obey. We must not lose sight, however, of the initial inspiration which brought him amongst us.
Letter to Fr Casimir Aubert, in England, 22 May 1849, OW III n. 27
Charles Jolivet was indeed to spend the rest of his life as a foreign missionary, firstly in the Anglo-Irish Province, and then becoming the second Vicar Apostolic in Southern Africa (1874-1903)
REFLECTION
Once the initial fervor dies down in any way of life because of life’s challenges, the words of Eugene can be applied:
To persevere in so meritorious an apostolate, one must hold fast to the spirit of one’s vocation with fidelity and fervour, living always as a good religious, united to God by the practice of all the virtues prescribed and recommended by the Rule.
Letter to Fr. Ricard in Oregon, 22 May 1849, EO I n 119
Not everyone who came to join the Oblates had a missionary zeal to go to the foreign missions. Eugene quotes one:
Here is a masterpiece from Palle, quite a model of holy indifference! “Oh, my Father, let me tell you I feel an extreme repugnance for foreign countries and especially for England. I do not know a word of English and I believe I will never learn for I have no aptitude for languages, etc. I beg you, Reverend Father, take this burden from me… Really, my Father, there are others you would place on the pinnacle of happiness, while I would be miserable away from France, without knowing a single word of their language, useless for such a long time and so far from you….”
The rest of it is in this vein. He ends: “Oh, the good your reply will do to me. I await it as a sweet dew to reinvigorate my soul wilting with dread”. Have you ever heard anything so wretched? What can be done with such a spirit?
Happily, the majority of Oblates had more generous hearts:
How quickly my spirits are refreshed by this excellent Arnoux. Not a word of demur, not the slightest remark. Mother, country, no such considerations have been put forward. He sets forth because he is called upon. May God bless such members and may he grant us a great number of them!
Letter to Fr Casimir Aubert, in England, 12 May 1849, OW III n. 25
REFLECTION
“We’ve strayed from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium” (Paul Harvey)
May this never be said about the members of the Oblate Charismatic Family, whose characteristic is oblation.
