HOLY WEEK: THE ZEAL TO GET CAUGHT UP BY THE MYSTERY OF THE SAVING CROSS AND TO PROCLAIM IT TO THOSE MOST IN NEED

Firstly, by spending time meditating on this reality myself and making it more alive in me as a life-giving focus in these times of fear and uncertainty.

Then it will overflow to those I reach out to wherever I can.

Detail of an icon written by Lauretta Agolli

St Eugene’s Good Friday experience of the Savior brought light and focus into his life:

What more glorious occupation than to act in everything and for everything only for God, to love him above all else, to love him all the more as one who has loved him too late

Eugene de Mazenod, Retreat Journal, December 1814, EO XV n.130

“The word ‘Oblates’ means people ready to give themselves for the love of God. God’s Spirit has granted St. Eugene and his sons and daughters the zeal to get caught up by the mystery of the saving cross and to proclaim it to those most in need. Our spirituality is therefore centered on the salvation given us by Christ; it can be called ‘salvatorian’. With such a spiritual orientation our Congregation was approved in 1826.

Our recognition by the Church, which we celebrate each February 17th calls us to delve deeper into the mystery of salvation, to make it even more the center of our lives, as it was the center around which Eugene’s life revolved.”

Steckling OMI, OMI Information n 462, Rome, February 2007.

Goodness always tends to spread. Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of others. As it expands, goodness takes root and develops. If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good. In this regard, several sayings of Saint Paul will not surprise us: “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14); “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).   Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, 9.

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1 Response to HOLY WEEK: THE ZEAL TO GET CAUGHT UP BY THE MYSTERY OF THE SAVING CROSS AND TO PROCLAIM IT TO THOSE MOST IN NEED

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    “God’s Spirit has granted St. Eugene and his sons and daughters the zeal to get caught up by the mystery of the saving cross and to proclaim it to those most in need.”

    The word ‘gratuitous’ comes to mind, for it is given freely and spontaneously, unwarranted and unearned.

    God not only gives us the spirit, but also instills within us the passion and fire to get caught up by this mystery and then to enter into it. A way of being, of breathing in and breathing out.

    As if to just catch sight of it could ever be enough. It is as if we are created for this one specific purpose and our very beings yearn and try to seek out this way of being. And anything less is not enough.

    Realising it we become transformed and nothing less than all will ever be enough. Realising it we try to share it with all who we meet, especially those most in need of it. In them we recognize Jesus on the cross and yes resurrected.

    We retain our humanity, but are gifted with a sense of the divine. Will it ever be enough – no and still we give thanks for that; for the yearning and the striving.

    Salvation is not like receiving a plaque that is received for a certain number of good deeds done and specific sacrifices made. It is something that is always ongoing, never ending and never measured. Like the cross itself – it is born out of love that surpasses all measurement and expectations. There is no end point. And so we are filled with awe and wonder at the mystery of that which cannot be ignored or pushed aside.

    Love, the cross, salvation – not so much a piece of clothing that we try-on, to put on and then take off; it becomes the very skin of our beings. We enter into the mystery and allow it to become an integral and intimate part of our beings and want that for the rest of the world.

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