Eugene reacts, in his private diary, to those who think only with their heads and not their hearts.
He knew and loved Scripture, and in this text we see him freely using texts from the First Letter of John, chapters 3 and 4.
After the coming of Jesus Christ, the example of Saint Peter, and the teachings of Saint John, they still present to us a type of perfection, more worthy of stoics than true Christians! Let us love God because of his infinite perfections, let us love him also because he first loved us, “but that he loved us first,” but “since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another”, and notice well: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech,” like all those who love with the head, “but in truth and action”.
Oh! no! “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love”. And to show that such love is not speculation and abstraction about a person, and it is so true that we must know how to love here below, in order to promise to love God for whom, in a true sense, we love his creatures, that the Apostle tells us: “for those who do not love a brother whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”
There is no middle way: “The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers.” Let them study Saint John, let them delve into the heart of Saint Peter and his love for his divine master, let them especially examine everything that emanates from the so-loving heart of Jesus Christ, not only for all men, but especially his apostles and disciples, and then let anyone dare to come and preach to us a speculative love, deprived of sentiment and without affection!
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 4 September 1837, EO XVIII
I look at how Eugene loved – with everyone he met. His words were not empty; he had the gift of receiving God’s love, allowing that love to overtake him and then allowing it to spill freely from himself to others. It seemed to burst forth from within him. He shared who he was.
Just as Jesus had done over and over again. I think for a moment of Jesus on the cross – he gave everything out of love for his Father and for all of us. “…my God I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed.”
Eugene, standing at the foot of his crucifix and preparing to give everything so that others could experience what he received. That is love. Making a gift of himself with his oblation – that is love. Sharing everything that God gave him and allowed him to experience – that is love.
The Good News of that is that we share it exactly has it has been shared with us. It is not about us, it is about those who we share with. I am reminded briefly of Eugene’s words from the Preface: “We must lead men to act like human beings… and then like Christians… we must help them to become saints.”
This Sunday we will come together as members of our Mazenodian Family in Oraison; as I like to think of it as meeting each other in the heart of Jesus. Our Beloved holding us all together in a heart that is beyond what our minds are capable of imagining – only love will allow us to take part in this way of being.
Sitting here this morning I have found myself singing a couple of lines – over and over again. “…we are all God’s sons and daughters, in the Spirit we are one, in the Spirit we are one.”