We will spare no effort to awaken or to reawaken the faith in the people to whom we are sent, and we will help them to discover “who Christ is”
CC&RR, Constitution 7
Here we find our Oblate ministry spelt out in a nutshell. Too often Eugene is presented solely as a do-gooder with a special love for helping the poor. He certainly was this, but his focus of “doing good” and “serving the poor” was very specific and clear: it was to reawaken their faith and to accompany them in their journey of discovery as to “who Christ is” for them.
Eugene was not primarily a philanthropist, or social worker, or NGO – to use contemporary expressions. His love for the poor was focused on their faith and on their relationship with Jesus the Savior. This is why he founded the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and gave us this focus as the fundamental reason for our vocation.
All charitable works of helping the poor were to be seen in this light. In his many years as Bishop of Marseille, he constantly initiated and maintained new charitable causes in order to help the poor and alleviate their suffering in their material or social misery. His focus was always on the Savior – he ensured that all the works were confessional in identity and that there would be no doubt that it was the Catholic Church of Marseille who was doing this in the name of Jesus. It was a fruit of their faith and was meant to be a tangible sign of evangelization.
(cf “Close to the People”. Eugene de Mazenod, Man, Missionary and Bishop” in Oblatio III – 2014/2,see especially pages 185-189: http://www.omiworld.org/upload/oblatio/oblatio-2-14-txt-stampa.pdf
“The Lord did not tell us to build beautiful churches, but to evangelize the world” Oswald J. Smith
“We will spare no effort to awaken or to reawaken the faith in the people to whom we are sent, and we will help them to discover “who Christ is” This speaks to me of the heart of the person who has come to know Jesus Christ, to know how utterly and totally we are loved by God, to know the Cross – the death and new life of it.
This piece of the Constitutions speaks to me of ongoing parish work at least in my country when it says; “…to awaken or to reawaken the faith of the people to whom we are sent…”
I think of the phrase “Be in order to Do”. I look at this beautiful motto of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate: ‘he sent me to evangelize the poor – the poor are evangelized’ and I think of our beautiful AA program, where eventually in our sobriety it is in sharing our sobriety with others that we attain deeper and stronger sobriety ourselves. It is in evangelizing that I am evangelized.
I have to give thanks, for these mornings spent with the Constitutions and Rules speak so loudly to me, inviting me to look at who I am in God and how I try to live that and share it with others. I think of the beautiful words of the commitment made by the Friends of St. Eugene:
“I seek to deepen my relationship with Christ…
… to live the day-to-day realities as St. Eugene did so that every event will be […] a personal encounter with the Lord who through us gives himself to others and through others gives himself to us.
…bear witness to my belief in the dignity of each person and the compassion of God for all people.
This is truly helping people to discover who Christ is. What an enormous gift we have been given!