Bishop Jauffret, who had been Bishop of the city of Metz, was appointed in 1811 by Napoleon to act as Archbishop of Aix – without the consent of the Pope. Eugene never accepted this irregular situation and always referred to him as the “Bishop of Metz” and never as Archbishop of Aix en Provence.
It was this same sentiment that determined my choice when, on returning to Aix the Bishop of Metz, who was the administrator of the diocese at the time, asked me what I wanted to do. There was not a hair on my head that wished to take advantage of my social position to give in to the pretensions that everyone at the time would have found reason able….
I thus responded to the Bishop of Metz that my whole ambition was to consecrate myself to the service of the poor and the youth. I thus started out in the prisons, and my first apprenticeship consisted of gathering around me young boys whom I instructed.
Diary, 31 March 1839, EO 20
Now that Napoleon had been removed, Leflon narrates:
“This spiritual regeneration demanded, as a prerequisite, the restoration of the rights of the Holy See, violated by an imperial Caesarism which attempted to make the papacy a superfluity. At Aix, those rights had to be restored immediately and, at one and the same time, the errors and weaknesses of those who had betrayed and repudiated those same rights had to be penalized. Father de Mazenod, therefore, plunged resolutely and thoroughly into the battle waged against Bishop Jauffret, who had been irregularly imposed upon the diocese and against the latter’s local partisans.”
Leflon II p. 6
In deciding he would not ‘actively’ serve the Archbishop of Aix as would be expected of him, Eugene still found a way to serve both God and the Church. In the midst of a bad situation he found a way to love and serve those who were poor and abandoned and who were not being served by the structures of the Church. I see in this a new opportunity for Eugene to love in a very specific manner, to love and serve the smallest and the least. And I see also what might be the small shoots and roots of ‘perseverance’ that will later become one of the vows that all Oblates make in addition to the usual three; poverty, chastity and obedience. He neither gave in to the new laws etc demanded by Napoleon nor did he walk away from the Church; he remained true to what God was calling him to be and do.
I wonder if he knew what he was getting into? I notice how in 1839 he calls this his first apprenticeship when speaking of the youth. His apprenticeship to becoming the founder and father of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
I recently saw the movie “Silence” and it comes to mind again this morning, inviting me to look at Eugene and at Jesus. Eugene found a way to be a priest which he was called to be even in the midst of the chaos of Napoleon, allowing God to use him a way that I am sure he never expected.
I begin to have a glimmer that can only grow as I deepen my knowledge , learn more about Eugene. My heart somehow begins to stretch open wider, taller. My esteem of him grows as does my love.
“my first apprenticeship” these words struck me.
Do we see those first ministries as an “apprenticeship” or are we thrown into the waters of ministry to sink or swim.
As an apprentice in the large kitchens, working under various chefs, I very much appreciate the word apprentice and the attitude of always learning.
I think/know, I am a perpetual apprentice.