EUGENE, OBLATE OF MARY IMMACULATE
© Laurent Girard / Studio Mazenod (2011) – Tableau du Jean-Jacques Martin
1826, February 17 – Ecclesiastical approbation by the Pope of the Congregation and its Rules, under the title of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The charism of Eugene was recognized as having its inspiration in the Holy Spirit
Rejoice with me and congratulate yourselves, my beloved, for it has pleased the Lord to grant us great favours; Our Holy Father the Pope, Leo XII, gloriously reigning from the chair of St. Peter, has sanctioned with his apostolic approbation, on March 21 of this current year, our Institute, our Constitutions and our Rules. See then our little flock, to whom the Father of the family has kindly wished to open wide the field of the holy Church, given a place in the hierarchic order, associated with the venerable Congregations which have spread throughout the Church so many great benefits and enlightened the entire world with so bright a light; see her, right from her birth, enriched with the same privileges of those illustrious Societies, in the footsteps of which, with all her strength and all her means, she will certainly strive to walk steadily forward.
Letter to all the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 1826, O.W. VII n.232
162 years later we can still ask ourselves “who is St. Eugene de Mazenod.” Somehow as we walk along, walking with him we get a share in his heart, who he was and how he lives within us. Sharing in his charism, serving among the poorest of the poor the vista before us seems to deepen. Eugene’s spirit, his light given to him by God, enlivened by the gift of the Holy Spirit continues to be shared and shed upon through each other who are his sons and daughters.
I think of the words from this morning’s Gospel: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” (John 17”6-8) And I think of how this can be expressed in our lives, in the Constitutions and Rules, which were first approved in February 1826 and again by the Vatican in 1982. “Our call… to live Christ Jesus, in apostolic community. To live Christ Jesus crucified, among the most abandoned… in the Church, proclaiming the Word with daring humility and trust – as prophets of the new world with Mary Immaculate.” (from C 1-10)
Who is Eugene de Mazenod? We get to know him, his spirit, his heart in the Rule of Life that he gave to us, which the Church approved back in 1826. It is in this living expression of his charism that we get to know who St. Eugene de Mazenod is; recognizing him in our brothers and sisters.