Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us

 EUGENE: I HAVE SEEN THE LORD

As a result of the French Revolution the people of the countryside of France were locked in their ignorance of their faith. Eugene de Mazenod had recognized the presence of the Risen Jesus in his life, and he dedicated his life to proclaiming “I have seen the Lord!” to those who were the most in need of coming to know the Risen Lord.

 THE OBLATE CHARISMATIC FAMILY: AN INVITATION TO SEE THE LORD

 Inviting others to enter into his life of proclamation, Eugene founded the Missionary Oblates, and insisted that their time be divided between “seeing the Lord” in prayer, reading and reflection and the proclamation, “I have seen the Lord!” whom they had encountered in this way:

 The Missionaries will divide their group in such a way that while some strive in community to acquire the virtues and knowledge proper to a good missionary, others are travelling in the rural areas proclaiming the Word of God.

 When their apostolic journeys are over, they will return to the community to rest from their labours by exercising a ministry that is less demanding

Request to the Capitular Vicars of Aix, 25 January 1816, EO XIII n.2

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Matthew 28: 10

The Risen Jesus tells the disciples to go back to Galilee: “They will see me there.” Galilee is where it all began for the disciples, it was the place where they met Jesus, and he entered into their lives.

Today, the Risen Lord tells each of us: “Go back to Galilee – go back to that time when you realized that I was present in your life.”

The Risen Jesus is inviting us to enter into the Galilee of our hearts and lives.

EUGENE TEACHES US

Saint Eugene frequently did this, and he called it recollection. He wanted all those who followed his way of discipleship to do the same, as he wrote in his Rule of 1818:

The whole life of the members of our Society ought to be a life of continual recollection (Art. 1).

To attain this, they will first of all make every effort to walk always in the presence of God, and frequently try to utter short but fervent  spontaneous prayers. (Art.2,)

Eugene and Jesus shared a deep bond of friendship – and a friend always wants to be in the presence of a loved one. His days are filled with moments of recollection – of short bursts of prayer and expressions of love.

 EASTER FOR EUGENE: DESIRING THAT THOSE IN WHOM HE CONTINUES TO SUFFER WILL KNOW ALSO THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

 After journeying with him through the sad event of his Passion, after weeping over the torments that our sins made him endure, how consoling it is to see him rise triumphant over death and hell, and what gratitude must fill our hearts at the thought that this good Master has really willed to make us sharers in his resurrection, destroying the sin that is in us and giving us a new life.

 Eugene de Mazenod  to his mother, 4 April 1809, EO XIV n 50

 EASTER FOR THE OBLATE CHARISMATIC FAMILY: DESIRING THAT THOSE IN WHOM HE CONTINUES TO SUFFER WILL KNOW ALSO THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

 “We will always be close to the people with whom we work, taking into account their values and aspirations… Awareness of our own shortcomings humbles us, yet God’s power makes us confident as we strive to bring all people – especially the poor – to full consciousness of their dignity as human beings and as sons and daughters of God.”

OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 8

 “That is what Holy Saturday has taught me about being Christian. Between the great dramas of life, there is almost always a time of empty waiting — with nothing to do and no church service to help — a time when it is necessary to come up with your own words and see how they sound with no other sounds to cover them up. If you are willing to rest in this Sabbath, where you cannot see your hand in front of your face and none of your self-protective labors can do you one bit of good, then you may come as close to the Christ as you will ever get — there in that quiet cave where you wait to see how the Maker of All Life will choose to come to you in the dark.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/learning-to-wait-in-the-dark_b_5175191)

 FOR EUGENE

 In the end, though with sadness, I go my way, placing my trust in God alone. Let us love him always more.

Letter to Father Forbin Janson, 12 September 1814

 FOR THE OBLATE CHARISMATIC FAMILY

 “Wherever we work, our mission is especially to those people whose condition cries out for salvation and for the hope which only Jesus Christ can fully bring. These are the poor with their many faces; we give them our preference.”

OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 5

In the days when Christ was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Hebrews 5:7-9

 In the incarnation, Jesus became fully human and became one with us in all our experiences. On the cross, he entered into the extreme experience of human hopelessness: the sense of having been abandoned by God.

 He became one with us in all those situations where we cry out in darkness and despair: “Where are you God, why are you absent?”

 EUGENE RECOGNIZED JESUS FORSAKEN

Eugene knew darkness and seeming-hopelessness many times in his life. Yet he recognized that in these dark moments, his Savior was present, and he attests to this in constantly in his writings. Just one example from a situation of  darkness:

It is true that I have always put all my confidence in the goodness of God.

 Letter to Henri Tempier, 16 February 1826, EO VII n 224

THE OBLATE FAMILY RECOGNIZES JESUS FORSAKEN

As we embrace Jesus Forsaken on this Good Friday, let us embrace the door that he opened through his suffering and death: his resurrection and ours. 

“The cross of Jesus Christ is central to our mission… Through the eyes of our crucified Saviour we see the world which he redeemed with his blood, desiring that those in whom he continues to suffer will know also the power of his resurrection (cf. Phil 3: 10).”

Constitution 4

FOR EUGENE, THE EUCHARIST AS THE HEART OF HIS LIFE AND ACTION

Eugene had made his first communion on Holy Thursday at the College of Nobles in Turin. It was always an important moment for him to recall the joy of this important event. Antoine Ricard, who had been a diocesan seminarian in Marseille, illustrated this:

One Holy Thursday – as I personally recall – we were in the Cathedral of Marseille. The bishop (Eugene de Mazenod) was officiating with the gentle dignity and recollection that made him renowned among all the bishops, his contemporaries. Unexpectedly we saw him cry and, while trying, he could not conceal it. The seminarians who surrounded the bishop’s throne, struck by the emotion of the Bishop, were moved as they looked at him. He noticed this, and turning to one of them, the author of these lines, whose short-sightedness made his staring more obvious:

“Young man,” he said with that simplicity that made him win hearts, “do not be startled like that – today is the anniversary of my first communion.”

 Mgr Antoine RICARD, “Monseigneur de Mazenod, évêque de Marseille, fondateur de la Congrégation des Missionnaires Oblats de Marie Immaculée,” p. 12.

 THE EUCHARIST FOR THE OBLATE CHARISMATIC FAMILY

“The Eucharist, source and summit of the Church’s life, is at the heart of our life and action… In gratitude for this great Eucharistic gift, we will seek the Lord often in his sacramental presence.”

OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 33

Mt 26: 18-19

 EUGENE’S INEXHAUSTIBLE TRUST IN GOD’S GOODNESS

St Eugene knew darkness and seeming-hopelessness many times in his life. Yet he recognized that in these dark moments, his Savior was present. It was a Passover invitation, and he attests to this in constantly in his writings. Just one of many examples:

 Eugene had looked forward to retiring from Marseilles to devote himself more fully to the Oblate Congregation once his 87-year-old uncle retired or died. Unexpectedly, he was appointed to succeed his uncle as Bishop of Marseilles. Unburdening himself to his medical doctor and friend, Eugene revealed his fear about the nature of the responsibility that was now given to him for the rest of his life:

 Now here I am, doomed to die in harness and this terrible responsibility that I have always so feared, here it is ready to shatter me…

 For myself, I am bewildered when I reflect on it and have to summon up my inexhaustible trust in God’s goodness, in the help of the prayers of the just who still bother themselves about me, in the protection of the saints who have found themselves in the same crisis as myself, to win a little respite.

 Eugene’s letter to Doctor M. d’Astros, 16 April 1837, EO XV n 183

THE OBLATE CHARISMATIC FAMILY’S INEXHAUSTIBLE TRUST IN GOD’S GOODNESS

“It is as missionaries that we worship, in the various ways the Spirit suggests to us. We come before him bearing with us the daily pressures of our anxiety for those to whom he sends us (cf. 2 Cor 11:28). Our life in all its dimensions is a prayer that, in us and through us, God’s kingdom come.”

OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 32 

Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.”
Jn 13:36

EUGENE’S DISCIPLESHIP:

I have entirely got over an illness that brought me to death’s door and from which I recovered only through the countless and very fervent prayers that were made for me to the good God in every quarter of the town…

It was at the barracks where some 2000 Austrian prisoners were held that I contracted what they call jail fever. On the morning of St. Joseph’s feast day I was close to the end…

Eugene’s letter to his father, 17 June 1814, EO XV n. 126

OBLATE CHARISMATIC FAMILY’S DISCIPLESHIP

The OMI Rule of Life, Constitution 2, speaks of Oblate “men” – but I believe that this invitation touches everyone. Parents “leave everything” for the good of their children. medics “leave everything” to serve the sick, first responders “leave everything” to save lives etc – there are many ways of being disciples of Jesus.

“We are men “set apart for the Gospel” (Rom 1: 1), men ready to leave everything to be disciples of Jesus. The desire to co-operate with him draws us to know him more deeply, to identify with him, to let him live in us.”

POPE LEO XII
FOR FUTURE REMEMBRANCE OF THE MATTER

In conclusion, We firmly hope that the members of this holy Family, who are employed in the ministry of the word of God under Rules so well fitted to form hearts to piety, and who claim as their patroness the Virgin Mother ofGod conceived without sin, will strive with alltheir strength and especially by their example, to bring back to the bosom of the Mother of Mercy those men, whom Jesus Christ on His Cross willed to give her as sons. 

Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty first day of March, 1826, in the third year of Our Pontificate.

Apostolic Letter of Approbation, 21 March 1826, Missions O.M.I., n° 280 (1952), pp. 568 ff.

In the past 200 years, we have remained faithful to this :

We shall always look on her as our mother. In the joys and sorrows of our missionary life, we feel close to her who is the Mother of Mercy. Wherever our ministry takes us, we will strive to instil genuine devotion to the Immaculate Virgin who prefigures God’s final victory over all evil.

 CC&RR, Constitution 10

In legal language, the Pope states that because the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate has been approved by the Church, this approval is valid throughout the world and no local ecclesiastical authority can go against it.

It was for this recognition that Eugene had worked so hard to achieve: to be universally recognized as missionaries for the most abandoned and have the backing and support of the Church to facilitate this ministry in the most difficult conditions. The Oblate dream was blessed and assured of ongoing support.

POPE LEO XII
FOR FUTURE REMEMBRANCE OF THE MATTER

 In what has been stated above the same judgement and decision must be given by all judges whether ordinary, or delegated, and also by the Auditors for the causes of the Apostolic Palace, by the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, even those who are Legates A Latere, by Vice-Legates and Nuncios of the Holy See. And We withhold from all without exception the faculty and authority to interpret or judge in a different manner. Moreover, We render null and void beforehand any attempt to decree otherwise, knowingly or unknowingly, by any person or by any other authority, the Apostolic Constitutions, ordinances and other decrees to the contrary not-withstanding.

…Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty first day of March, 1826, in the third year of Our Pontificate.

Pope Leo XII

Apostolic Letter of Approbation, 21 March 1826, Missions O.M.I., n° 280 (1952), pp. 568 ff.

As a result, today we confidently assert:

Our love for the Church inspires us to fulfil our mission in communion with the pastors whom the Lord has given to his people; we accept loyally, with an enlightened faith, the guidance and teachings of the successors of Peter and the Apostles. (Constitution 6)