Wishing to establish the Oblates in the dioceses of Sardinia, Eugene recalls the fruits of their ministry in the dioceses of France:
These effects have occurred in the dioceses of Aix, Marseilles, Nimes, Fréjus, Digne, Gap, Grenoble and even that of Nice. If the facts spoke less clearly and were not supported by the witness of the entire populations of all those areas, I could give undeniable proofs of the same.
All the bishops of those different dioceses have personally attested to the usefulness of this Congregation and to all the good it has already done in their respective dioceses where it has been at work for fifteen years with a success due to God alone, for the sanctification of souls, by giving holy missions, taking care of poor prisoners, charitable hospices, seminaries, every work of mercy, in a word, that the bishops entrust to them.
Letter to Fr. A Grassi SJ, 11 December 1830, EO XIII, n 76.
I find myself feeling full with all that last week’s retreat offered to me and I look and reflect on this morning’s offering through that particular lens and also the lens of my studies. Perhaps my viewpoint widening, becoming a little more encompassing.
I look at the list of the works of mercy that God entrusted to the church and the Oblates at that time. Would it look the same today? It might also include caring for those who have been bought and sold; for those members of it’s own family who are broken and wounded; for those who come to our Churches quietly pleading to God to somehow make them a part of that community, to touch them directly; for the young people with so many gifts to offer to the world; for women in the Church who still feel that they are abandoned and voiceless. The list could go on and on.
In an age and place where religious communities seem to be unable to bring in new people; where they seem to be dying out because the needs they fill have been eradicated I still find a place for the Oblates, for our Mazenodian Family. We need only to look with new eyes, letting go of the old views so that our line of sight is open to new and different views, new and different ways of thinking and approaching others in their own brokenness and pain.
Not just an event or experience 200 years ago, but one that somehow lives on, which has new life in the here and now, even if it be how we minister to each other.