THE FOUNDING VISION TODAY: A CLEAR AND UNWAVERING FOCUS ON THE SAVIOR AND HIS MISSION

We are called by the Savior to dedicate our lives – each according to their particular situation – to being His co-workers as proclaimers of the Good News of salvation to the most abandoned. The first two constitutions of our Rule of Life have underlined the centrality of our vocation to follow Jesus the Savior through oblation, the gift of every aspect our lives at His service and of those most in need of salvation. It is the “all for God” that characterized Eugene’s life.

The focus of oblation and of every action has to be on the Savior, as the next constitution explains. I have inserted the capital letters to highlight the focus

The community of the Apostles WITH JESUS is the model of our life. OUR LORD grouped the Twelve around HIM to be HIS companions and to be sent out as HIS messengers (cf. Mk 3:14). The call and the PRESENCE OF THE LORD among us today bind us together in charity and obedience to create anew in our own lives the Apostles’ unity with HIM and their common mission in HIS Spirit.

CC&RR, Constitution 3

 Apostles

“Although we tend to think about saints as holy and pious, and picture them with halos above their heads and ecstatic gazes, true saints are much more accessible. They are men and women like us, who live ordinary lives and struggle with ordinary problems. What makes them saints is their clear and unwavering focus on God and God’s people.”   Henri Nouwen

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1 Response to THE FOUNDING VISION TODAY: A CLEAR AND UNWAVERING FOCUS ON THE SAVIOR AND HIS MISSION

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    I love the image above for it does not just stop at the boundaries of the picture but somehow in life it continues out, up, down and all within. I keep looking on it – perhaps so that I don’t have to focus on some of the words above it. Just as happened the other day I find myself nervously going over Constitution 3 word by word, phrase by phrase. I distracted myself long enough to check if there was more to it in the small green book which is the full Constitutions and Rules. What am I afraid of?

    Jesus as the model of my life. It seems risky to say that for it implies that I will follow him just as did the apostles. Not something that I can pull apart and say that I will choose this part and perhaps ‘that’ part – but the stuff in between is not for me. No it says quite clearly “The community of the Apostles with Jesus is the model of our life.” These are not words that I can just gloss-over.

    How has Jesus grouped me around him to be his companion and to be sent out as his messenger? When I look at who he has surrounded me with, how he has called me to be and who he as given to me to walk with. How do I share his message? What is his message that he has asked me to bring to others? It has to be more than a few nice words, a pat message.

    It is God, it is Jesus who is the glue that holds all of it together. His presence in our midst keeps us all together. It is his spirit, the spirit of Jesus. I think this morning of our common bonds and spirits all centered on God, on Jesus, on the Cross.

    These Constitutions and Rules can so very clearly apply to me and my life as I have been called to live it. This morning having tasted, having chewed up and swallowed Constitution 3 – it has touched on a couple of my fears but has not deterred me. Rather it has been like lighting the first morning fire in the stove, starting out slow and steady. Is it enough? Of course it is. I suspect in my case, in many of our cases, it is as Henri Nouwen writes.

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