| After Eugene’s death a General Chapter of the Oblates was convoked in 1861. At the opening session two of the senior members of the Congregation spoke: Father Tempier and Bishop Guibert.
Father Tempier opened the General Chapter by declaring his conviction regarding Eugene: “This Venerable Man is no longer with us, but his spirit continues to live always in the heart of his children ….” Bishop Guibert’s address echoed the same sentiments, speaking of the Oblate Congregation as our “mother”: “Yes, our Father has died, but know that our Mother remains; and I regard her as being immortal; she will live by the spirit of her Founder.” Joseph Fabre, who was elected to be Eugene’s successor, concluded the Chapter of 1861 by saying: “I feel the assistance of our much loved Founder; he has not left us! I was at his deathbed and said to him, “You will always be among us.” “Yes,” he replied, and he has kept his promise. He remains among us through the Holy Rule which he had left us, and which is the expression of his love for God and the salvation of souls: it is the glorious testament of his enormous heart, and in observing it we will find all our strength.”
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The “spirit of St. Eugene continues to be alive.” Not fanciful thinking, not wishful thinking, but a truth, a living reality. There is of course a mystery to all of it. I remember when I was young, perhaps 9 or 10 years old my grandfather died. It was all shrouded in mystery and solemnity, in sadness. I was at odds with what I was being told because young though I was, I believed that when I died my body would somehow magically disappear but I would live on – all my thoughts and dreams, my heart, my soul, my being would somehow live on. My spirit (either with God if I was really really good inside or in hell if I wasn’t). I didn’t know how it would work – just that it would.
Eugene’s being does live on, his spirit lives on. We come to know him in his writings, in the Constitution and Rules, in his sons and daughters, in those who try to live and walk as did he, as does he in others. If find in him and his life, in his community my inspiration, I find who I want to walk with and be like.
“He remains among us through the Holy Rule which he had left us, and which is the expression of his love for God and the salvation of souls: it is the glorious testament of his enormous heart, and in observing it we will find all our strength.” That heart that he had – the love that he had and lived and shared. There is such an enormous truth in this. This magnificent gift that we have been given, a grace really – there is tremendous strength in all of it. A time to thank God for it -we have been given this little joy, it has been put into the palm of our hand. And as we walk and live and be, it slowly becomes a grows to be a part of us. Magnificent.
Indeed he lives on – for me in the people who share his charism (not that I ever truly understood that word) and “associate” themselves with his way life and with whom I have had the honour of meeting, or knowing. Attending summer schools at the University of St Paul in Ottawa, at the beginning I had no clue as to who this DeMazenod was, for whom the Chapel in Deschatelets was named. A true blessing in this introduction was Fr Jack, then Fr Roy – and in time Fr Frank and Eleanor who posts here. Blessings to you all – and Eugene’s sainthood lives on for us in people like you!