Eugene’s conversion encounter with the God of love led him to begin to see his own dignity and that of others through the eyes of the Crucified Saviour. Continuing to reflect on the first Madeleine sermon, one sees how his conversion experience permeated his preaching and ministry.
Lift yourselves towards heaven where your minds should be set, our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), let your eyes see for once beneath the rags that cover you, there is within you an immortal soul made in the image of God whom it is destined to possess one day, a soul ransomed at the price of the blood of Jesus Christ, more precious in the eyes of God than all earth’s riches, than all the kingdoms of the earth, a soul of which he is more jealous than of the government of the entire universe.
Christians, know then your dignity, with St. Leo I will call you sharers in the divine nature, etc.
Notes for the first instruction in the Church of the Madeleine
O.W. XV n. 114