IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE POOR

Henri Tempier wrote from the difficult mission of Rognac:

We got here on Saturday night… and after two or three calls, we returned to our lodging, where we found nothing. We had to run all around to find three bad straw mattresses; the same embarrassment, and even more besides, to find a few loaves of bread and ordinary fare. The next day, I learned that the Mayor intended to put the expenses of our stay into the accounts of the municipality; you understand how effectively that would have made us look like big eaters. I immediately wrote to the Mayor that we did not want any of his money, nor the bread that he intended to have us buy at such a high price; but that we desired only the salvation of souls, that we would eat at our own expense.
I truly believe that the Mayor was not short in good will; but these good people are poor … we could not accept what was offered us.
So we live like apostles. I don’t think that Blessed Liguori would have found anything superfluous either in our furnishings, or in our ordinary fare: we had to struggle three days to find a lady who was willing to prepare our modest meal; finally, we found one, and we are so happy with our style of life, that if there was only that, we would thank God a thousand times for having given us the chance to be able, though remotely, to follow in the footsteps of the saints and to be missionaries, once and for all.

Letter from Henri Tempier to Eugene de Mazenod, 16 November 1819,
Oblate Writings II.2, n. 20

 Eugene encouraged them warmly:

Oh! how right you seem to me upon your pile of straw and how much your fare, which is more than frugal, excites my appetite! This to my mind is the first time we have had what we should. Finish the work while accepting nothing from anyone without paying for it. For once you will not be disowned by our holy patron, Saint Liguori. I dare to speak to you in this way because I envy your position and, were it only I who had to decide, I would share it. I beg you nonetheless not to deprive yourselves of what is necessary. Have you brought sugar with you? Father Mye, who has such a heavy cold, will not be able to go without it.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 16 November 1819, O.W. VI n.47

 

A servant church must have as its priority solidarity with the poor.   Claudio Hummes

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2 Responses to IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE POOR

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    This brings yesterdays conversation into a whole new way of thinking, of focussing and removing filters, into a new light so to speak. It means for me that perhaps I must consider all the ramifications of doing something, anything. I tend to rush in full of fire and excitment and life (I call it passion) and not that those things are bad, but maybe I need to look at the whole picture, at a wider picture. I need to remember that we are all connected and so being connected how others might be affected. Again, as I am so often, I am struck with the goodness of the early Oblate missionaries (no more than the goodness of them today) and of the struggle it took to persevere and to follow God’s call to be Cooperators of our Savior. Is it any wonder that I pray and ask them to continue to guide me and pray for me.

    An aside from today’s postings. I have always sort of wondered about Eugene’s love for the Church and his insistence on that. It would “niggle” when I heard it or read it. Like so many others I have certainly felt hurt or ignored by the Church from time to time. Many of these hurts came from not being aware, not knowing why certain things in our liturgies or our practices were done or where the practice even came from. The hurts came from fear and misunderstandings. The one positive, or perhaps one of the postives, is that I have also always believed that being able to first leave the Church and then return to it has been an awesome gift from God – one intended to give me access to the sacraments and graces in a special way – an incredible gift from God. The past two weeks and taking part in the Pastoral Liturgy program has been a time of new life, new understanding, wonder, discovery, joy and a whole slew of other things that I am just beginning to be able to put words to. But most of all they have been a time of grace and gift. I now know a “little” of the Wisdom of the Church, of the Holy Mother Church. I now understand just a little more of why Eugene loved the Church so. More than ever I can but thank God for such a gift.

  2. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    This weekend we have in the Gospel the story of the Good Samaritan. Raphael in his reflection speaks of the rules of the times for the Jews and how if they were to stop and touch the person on the side of the road they would be touching the ‘unclean’, they would be breaking the law. This man, this Samaritan, was indeed breaking the laws of the time by helping the man who would most certainly have died if he had not stopped to care for him. He then put himself at risk of becoming one of the unclean himself.

    As I listened to Raphael speak I thought of St. Eugene who also worked around the rules of his time, in how he was with his young men (particularly in the beginning), in his work with the condemned prisoners, with the poor and uneducated and what kind of space would be made available for them in his church, indeed how he spoke with them, the language his used as preached and walked with them. I think of the practices that he put in place to take care of people, to take care of many of the poor, the practices today that we would call Social Services and that every ‘civilized country’ would have in place.

    As I listened and I thought too, of the the lines from the OMI Lacombe Canada Mission Statement; “…we stand with the voiceless, hearing and making heard their cry….In so doing, we risk find ourselves among the marginalized of our community, our society and our church, taking our place among the poor and the powerless….”

    How are we Good Samaritans today? Who are the unclean of today that I touch? I think of those in our church who are treated as unclean, less than …. the women, the gays and lesbians, the forward thinkers and the ultra conservatives. I think of the unclean of our society, the poor who are addicted and live by begging or worse, of those who have been trafficked, bought and sold. I think of our native and aboriginal peoples who are despised and set aside to live with sub-human standards and who are written off just because of who they are.

    Solidarity, being one with. Jesus came and died to work around and change the laws asking what is most important! Eugene worked around the many laws, asking what is most important! And me – what needs to be changed now, which rules had at one time a strong reason or basis but which now in light of who we are as a people, as a resurrected people living in the light, which rules and laws do we need to look at and change? How are we called to have courage and who are we called to walk with in that courage? What does that cross look like after 2,000 years? What does that cross look like after 200 years? Will I be one of those who walks past the poor dying person on the side of my road, of my journey? Or will I break the bonds that tie me down and allow myself to become like the good Samaritan – and take my place amongst the poor, the forgotten, the unclean?

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