COMPASSION ALWAYS PREDOMINATED IN MY RESOLUTIONS, AND I CONTINUED TO SHOWER HIM WITH ACTS OF GENEROSITY
This extract from Eugene’s Diary gives an insight into his care for the members of his Oblate family, and for his concern for those who misbehaved. Father Reinaud had become an Oblate in 1830 and for the following 13 years had been a successful seminary professor in Corsica and Marseilles. He was also very ambitious, hoping to be made a bishop, and had engaged in serious deceitful behaviour at times to achieve his own ends. Eugene noted in his diary:
I did not reply to him at all, because in doing so, I ought to have previously provoked his expulsion from the congregation, which he dishonored by the principles which he professed, by his remarks and by his conduct. If there are some setbacks in the calculations of his ambition, it is a just punishment by God. He was mistaken, if he believed that we were duped by his duplicity. Alas, we knew all his intrigues, and, if I agreed to his departure, this was only in order to avoid an inevitable scandal which would not have delayed in happening if by any chance I should have hesitated in taking this course of action. Did not the madman say that he had been called to destinies other than the tight circle wherein he was enclosed?
He had previously asked for some time away from the Congregation, which Eugene had agreed to in the hope of his changing. His mother had incurred debts and the Oblates had provided her with a livelihood.
It would have pleased God if justice had been done to this malicious subject during this period! We would have spared ourselves some grief. But compassion always predominated in my resolutions, and I continued to shower him with acts of generosity to the point of annually giving him a very considerable sum so as to support his mother too given over to vice and to furnish her with everything she needs. I am not speaking about the expenses of journeying to Lyon and elsewhere, in a word, of everything that could be done for the subject, the most precious and the most worthy of a congregation which his malicious heart made him detest, as he proved on a hundred occasions… It is with sorrow that I write all this.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 23 October 1843, EO XXI
He was finally to be expelled from the Congregation the following year and he became a diocesan priest and worked in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where, again, he set in motion events involving the Oblates to enable him to become a bishop. He failed again!
I reflected on this extract because of the words ” compassion always predominated in my resolutions, and I continued to shower him with acts of generosity.” No matter what mistakes Oblates made, Eugene always tried the way of compassion in order to help them to amend their ways. If this did not work, then he had no choice but to turn to the most severe course of action: expulsion.
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Betrayal is the word that comes to me this morning. Fr. Reinaud’s actions and ways were a betrayal of the love and ‘compassion’ accorded him by Eugene and the congregation. The words Eugene used to describe his behaviour were strong and were the result of loving one who kept turning on his masters and those who loved him.
The word ‘con-artist’ also comes to mind, one who will defraud his closest allies and friends, and who uses a particular type of behaviour so as to get to his final aim. Eugene was not a stupid man; he was highly intelligent, and his heart was as big as the world. Yet he continued to do as much as he could for the young priest. Until he had to cut him loose. But he did not condemn Fr. Reinaud, nor did he immediately expel the young man from the Oblate congregation.
Years later when Reinaud surfaced in Sri Lanka to try and once again use (abuse) the congregation and her men who loved the most abandoned to attain his own end in becoming a bishop. Eugene once again loved and prayed rather than hitting out in pain and anger.
Compassion is not an excuse, neither does it blind us from the acts and wrongs of another. It is something born out of love and forgiveness, of our selves and then others. It born deep within us where God is and lives. And so, compassion is in the light of our own self recognition of a hidden pain within ourselves. Sadly, at the end of the day Fr. Reinaud was left unhappy and alone, unable to attain the stature of a bishop which he worked so hard to become. Not realising that stature was one that was bestowed by God and the Church.
Love and forgiveness give birth to compassion, which when nourished grows up into a way of being that we are all called to. “We must lead all to act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians, and , finally we must help them to become saints.