Reminding ourselves that the persecution of the Church by the French Revolution had only ended some 11 years before, we can understand the importance of the parish mission ministry of the Oblates in a world that was far from being religious. A group of Oblates was evangelizing in the town of Roquevaire and winning over the harshest critics
I have been obliged to send Fr. Guibert to Roquevaire and I have just commissioned a curate of the city to help them with confessions. The parish priest is continually in tears at what he sees happening under his eyes; the extremists, the radicals, the libertines, all are coming forward like lambs after having sworn to make a mockery of all the efforts of our Fathers…
Letter to Marius Suzanne, 20 March 1827, EO VII n 268
The secret of the success of the Oblates was not the brilliance of their preaching or intellectual persuasion (the majority were rather mediocre in this regard), but the example given by the quality of their lives as persons totally committed to God and their closeness to the people they were ministering to. It was their “being” in order to “do” that transformed their critics into lambs.
“We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness.” Frederick William Robertson
For many of us this speaks to our lives as Oblate Associates, some amongst us being very well educated, while others having only the basics. But we are each of us, trying to live out our love for God and each other. We bring ourselves, our humanity and our divinity (God within and a part of) into the ordinary of every day, into our many communities that make up our lives and try with our lives to be living witnesses of the Good News as we teach and serve, share and work. The peoples of Roquevaire responded to Eugene and the Oblates, many peoples responded to Mother Theresa and to St. Francis, and even how my being responded Sunday night to the joy and love witnessed in Jean Vanier – this is how we all respond to the joy and light, the very life and soul of those who love. We strive to model ourselves and lives on what we see and are attracted to other Oblate Associates and Oblates – to Eugene – to Jesus.
I can ‘do’ many things that in the end don’t amount to a hill of beans as my grandmother used to say. But my being, the joy and love, the tenderness and mercy that God has given and continues to give – if I can share that – and – if I can recognize it in others (cause it seems always to be a back and forth type of thing – shared – mutual) then my being will be do well. I believe that most people are drawn towards joy and love, tenderness and mercy.
For me – I want my life to be modeled on what I have experienced, witnessed and come to love in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and in their charism, their spirituality, just as they have modeled themselves on Eugene, and the apostles, and Jesus. Jesus himself being was to love and forgive, whose being was/is light – that is how I want to live and be. That same tender love and mercy that Jesus lived and modeled, that Eugene and the Oblates shared and modeled and that Robertson spoke of – that touched us and in turn will touch those who witness it in us.
the example given by the quality of their lives as persons totally committed to God and their closeness to the people they were ministering to. It was their “being” in order to “do” that transformed their critics into lambs.
This sounds like a recipe for today. We live in a world not far distant from the life of post-revolution France with most folks un-churched. Living comitted lives, vowed or lay, close to the people will be most productive .
In the p/t job that I have, and in dealing with young families, I am very cognisant of your last line:”it was their “being” in order to “do” that transformed their critics into lambs.” And it scares me. There are many times I feel (using a different quote) like I “fake it till I make it” because the unchurched have come to bring their children for sacramental preparation, but don’t really see how this all should affect them as well. My faith in terms of institutional Catholicism has taken wide swings and yet I must “be” if there is any hope that the parents can see in me and what we do a tiny bit of validation for what we put them through. However, at the end , “seem to be”, doesn’t cut it.