A FATHERHOOD IN CHRIST JESUS THRU THE GOSPEL

Posted on September 5, 2012 by franksantucci

In 1818 when Eugene was reviewing his ministry during his retreat, he reflected on the youth and how happy he was with their progress, and continued:

I should add that most of them owe their success to my efforts, and their love of virtue to my solicitude.

Retreat journal, May 1818, O.W. XV n.145

At a first glance this may sound like he was blowing his own trumpet, but I read it more in terms of a spiritual paternity. He was familiar with the Scriptures and with the way in which Saint Paul claimed to be the father of those who had received the Gospel from his ministry.

Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.        Galatians 4:19

 Even if you should have countless guides to Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.       1 Corinthians 4:15

Eugene could certainly not claim that he had been the first to bring the Gospel to the young people, but he had certainly succeeded in bringing them closer to it and had been an instrument of change in their lives – as he and his Missionaries became instruments of evangelization in France and in other continents.

 

“I have learned that much of my spiritual progress does not come directly from God, but through my ability to humble myself and hear Him speak through imperfect people.”    Francis Frangipane

Posted in DIARY | Tagged , | 1 Comment

FROM HUMAN FRIENDSHIP TO PASTORAL FRIENDSHIP

Posted on September 4, 2012 by franksantucci

With the emergence in his writings of the theme of Eugene’s considering himself the father of his young Missionary family, it is important to seek the origins of this expression.

We have seen in previous entries how essential friendship was for him – a quality that was useful in his pastoral work. When he began the Youth Congregation in 1813, he not only regarded the youth as the beneficiaries of his ministry but he also formed a bond of friendship with them. His letters and his entries in the Diary of the Congregation give numerous examples of this. I would call this relationship a “pastoral friendship,” because its aim was to accompany the young persons to a deeper encounter with God and the values of the Kingdom. The reflection he wrote during his 1818 retreat shows:

What I find reassuring is that I am certain God is the chief bond of that union, since what consoles me the most in my friendships is seeing my friends virtuous, as my great joy is to see them do some fine thing, and also that the mere thought that they could be untrue to themselves and stray the least bit from the good road they are following, would deeply wound me.
In that same love it is true I am happy too to see them succeed in their endeavours, earning the esteem and praise of worthy men, etc.

Retreat journal, May 1818, O.W. XV n.145

Some members of the Youth Congregation were the first to join the Missionaries, we can better understand the progression of ideas when he writes to the young oblates:

for your part, continue to regard me as your best friend, as truly your father.

Letter to the students and novices at Notre Dame du Laus, 29 November 1820,|
O.W. VI n. 56

 

“The way we behave toward people indicates what we really believe about God.”       Warren W. Wiersbe

Posted in DIARY | Tagged | 1 Comment

ONE FATHER IS MORE THAN A HUNDRED SCHOOLMASTERS

Posted on September 3, 2012 by franksantucci

With the arrival of younger members to the community, we find the development of a very special relationship between Eugene and his Oblates: the concept of his being the father of his religious family. It was the characteristic quality that would mark the lifelong relationship between Eugene and his Missionaries, and we will encounter this constantly in his writings.

In 1818, we come across this idea his retreat journal:

I believe my fault is that of a father who loves his children too much..
I believe I must be satisfied with being vigilant over myself so as to love only for God, and in dependence on God, those who are worthy of being loved on account of their virtues and good qualities…

Retreat journal, May 1818, O.W. XV n.145

At the age of 73, for example, he wrote:

But since the Lord has given me the heart of a father to an eminent degree, if I sense all the consolations, I also experience all the weaknesses. I most certainly love you with a supernatural love, but I also love you in the manner of, and I dare say, more tenderly than earthly fathers love.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Conrard, 19 March 1855, O.W. XI n. 1260

With this in mind, let us return to 1820 and the letter that he wrote to the students and novices at Laus, in which we can understand the background to the sentiments he expressed:

Yes, my dear children, it is by redoubling my holy love for you that I wish to prove my gratitude; for your part, continue to regard me as your best friend, as truly your father.

Letter to the students and novices at Notre Dame du Laus, 29 November 1820,
O.W. VI n. 56

 “One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.”      George Herbert

Posted in LETTERS | Tagged | 3 Comments

I DO NOT KNOW YOU PERSONALLY, BUT I AM BOUND TO YOU FOREVER AS YOU ARE TO ME

Posted on September 1, 2012 by franksantucci

Today we are celebrating an important event here in the church of Oblate School of Theology. One of our young Oblates, Juan Manuel Gaspar is making his oblation for life as a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate. At a joyful moment like this I always like to recall the words that Eugene wrote to Charles Baret on the occasion of his perpetual oblation. They apply not only to Juan, but to every member of the Mazenodian family today:

Today you are a child in the Congregation which justly glorifies itself in having the Most Holy Virgin Mary Immaculate as a mother. Now you are consecrated to God for life and beyond by your oblation; and I must add in all humility but with great consolation, that thereby I have become your father. I do not know you personally; but since the affection that unites me with my children is essentially supernatural, it is enough for me to know that the Savior Jesus Christ, our common Master, has received your vows, has adopted you and has marked you with the seal that makes us what we are, so that we are united in the most intimate bonds of charity and that I am bound to you forever as you are to me…
Goodbye. my dear son. In giving you my blessing for the first time. I embrace you with all my heart.

Letter to Charles Baret, 18 August 1843, O.W. X n. 811

Our Rule of Life describes the significance of the act of oblation for us today:

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.

We strive to reproduce in ourselves the pattern of his life. Thus, we give ourselves to the Father in obedience even unto death and dedicate ourselves to God’s people in unselfish love. Our apostolic zeal is sustained by the unreserved gift we make of ourselves in our oblation, an offering constantly renewed by the challenges of our mission.

CC&RR, Constitution 2

Posted in LETTERS | Tagged , | 3 Comments

A COMMITMENT TO A NEW WORLD FREED FROM SELFISHNESS AND OPEN TO SHARING

Posted on August 31, 2012 by franksantucci

The young Missionary students who were preparing for the priesthood at Laus had fully understood the meaning of the spirit of oblation. They wanted their self-giving to God for mission to be as generous as possible. They had already expressed their oblation thru the vows of chastity, obedience and perseverance. As a result of their annual retreat of 1820, they had been inspired to write to Eugene to ask his permission to make the vow of poverty as well. They wanted to seal their spirit of self-giving by a solemn commitment.

Eugene, overjoyed that they had understood the spirit of oblation in such a radical way, replied:

It was impossible for me, my dear friends and beloved sons in Jesus Christ, not to shed tears of consolation on reading and rereading your touching and very edifying letters. I only wish that the work of this mission, which gives me no respite, would leave me time to write to each of you to prove particularly the sentiments inspired in me by your piety and your tender attachment. I thank the good God for all that he has inspired in you during this memorable retreat…
The more you are holy, the greater will be my happiness.
Ah! I would say it already overflows if I could witness the marvels that the good God works in your midst, if it were given to me to press you to my heart. It takes nothing less than the emphatic will of God to keep me where I am; my spirit is at Laus, it follows you, accompanies you.

Letter to the students and novices at Notre Dame du Laus, 29 November 1820,
O.W. VI n. 56

Today we continue to express this same ideal:

Our choice of poverty compels us to enter into a closer communion with Jesus and with the poor, to contest the excesses of power and wealth and to proclaim the coming of a new world freed from selfishness and open to sharing.

CC&RR, Constitution 20

 

“I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.”    Anatole France

Posted in LETTERS | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

LEARNING BY WATCHING A ROLE MODEL

Posted on August 30, 2012 by franksantucci

We learn by watching good role models. The young Missionaries of Provence, full of enthusiasm but with little experience, needed the example of someone who had successfully achieved what they were setting out to do. This model was Alphonsus of Liguori. [See above the entry of April 27, 2011]

A century before Eugene, this Italian lawyer’s life had been transformed by an encounter with Jesus the Redeemer. His life was consequently dedicated to preaching to the poor in their own language and to bring them to his same liberating experience of the merciful Redeemer. He invited other missionaries to join him in the group that came to be known as the Redemptorists. Central to his life and preaching was his conviction of the tender love of a God who was forgiving and helped people to make new beginnings after they had failed.

It was Eugene who introduced the thought and theology of Alphonsus to France. In order to do this he had commissioned his father to translate a life of Alphonsus from Italian to French. After his death this fact was recalled, as well as the formative influence of this work in the life of the Missionaries:

The President [de Mazenod] lived with his brother, the Rear Admiral, in a house at the Rue des Petites Maries, in Marseilles. He was involved in the translation of the life of St Liguori and the documents that were attached to it. His work was quite advanced in that it could be used for the time of the annual retreat. In 1819, the reading for the refectory was taken from the manuscript prepared by the hard-working old man.
The relationship between father and son was always cordial and during the great Mission of Marseilles, the President had enjoyed with justified satisfaction the wonderful success brought about by the word and zeal of the untiring superior of the Missionaries of Provence…

Rey I p 256 – 257

 

“Just as a mother finds pleasure in taking her little child on her lap, there to feed and caress him, in like manner our loving God shows His fondness for His beloved ones who have given themselves entirely to Him and have placed all their hope in His goodness.” Alphonsus Liguori

Posted in WRITINGS | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

PUTTING OUT THE LAMP

Posted on August 29, 2012 by franksantucci

From the time that Eugene was 9 he had been in exile outside of revolutionary France. Most of the ensuing eleven years had been spent with his father – seven of them without his mother who had left them to go back to France. When Eugene returned to France at the age of 20, one of his main preoccupations was to try to bring his father back and to reunite his family. Fifteen years later he succeeded in bringing his father back to France – but never to re-unite the broken family.

It is thus easy to understand Eugene’s suffering at the passing of this important figure in his life.

What a fine end to his life! But what martyrdom for the poor son whom God called to be with him to exhort him to face death! Such suffering is unspeakable and it took nothing less than the sight of so many virtues, and confidence in the reward and the glory which would follow immediately after this painful and agonizing separation to be able to bear it.

Letter to Henri Tempier, 20 October 1820, O.W. VI n. 54

Rey fills in the picture:

Especially at the moment when his father died in his arms, he could not separate himself from the lifeless body and for several hours he held and kissed it while sobbing…

Fr. de Mazenod, who had administered to his father, presided at his funeral and completed this moving function with a noble and dignified firmness.

Rey I p 256 – 257

 

“Death is not extinguishing the light from the Christian; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”  Anonymous

Posted in LETTERS | Tagged , | 2 Comments

WHERE THERE IS MOURNING, THERE IS DANCING

Posted on August 28, 2012 by franksantucci

After a few days of illness, Eugene’s father, President Charles Antoine de Mazenod died on the 10 October 1820. The biographer Rey recounts that “Father de Mazenod showed an admirable filial piety. He devoted himself with an infinite dedication to relieve his father in his bodily infirmities and provided him with spiritual help in religious matters.” (Rey I p 256 – 257). Eugene himself wrote:

How touched I have been, my dear friends, by the concern that you have manifested for me in the sorrowful circumstance of the death of my venerable father… His was a most edifying death. Please God I can hope to terminate my life in such beautiful sentiments.
What consolations religion brings in this supreme moment to the man who lives by faith! It is quite evidently beyond nature. What peace, what holy security, what sweet confidence, but also what avidity to hear words about God, what gratitude for his benefactions, what humility! It was beautiful and heart-breaking at one and the same time. He is asleep in the Lord who will take into account his many virtues.

 Letter to the young oblates and novices at Laus, 24 October 1820,
O.W. VI n.55

 

“In this crazy world, there’s an enormous distinction between good times and bad, between sorrow and joy. But in the eyes of God, they’re never separated. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom.”   Henri J. M. Nouwen

 

Posted in LETTERS | Tagged , | 3 Comments

HOW CONVINCED ARE YOU THAT GOD IS ALIVE?

Posted on August 27, 2012 by franksantucci

A childhood friend of Eugene’s, Felix d’Albertas, had expressed difficulties about the quality of his faith. Eugene responded:

One sentence of your last-but-one letter, dear Felix, really upset me. I cannot bear to think you are not perfectly happy and I would do anything in the world to dispel all your distresses and perplexities…

Eugene wrote to encourage him and gave some guidelines to re-assure him:

You sincerely want to achieve your salvation;
you are trying in an upright way to take the means that seem to you proper to achieve it;
you are not relying on your own strength but place all your trust in God,
whom you love as a good Father;
how can there be any anxiety after that?
It does injury in a way to the grace of Jesus Christ who has so lovingly gone before you…
So be of good courage, my dear friend; continue to serve God with love and gratitude; this is the shortest way, it is right on target.

To Count Felix d’Albertas, 14 September 1820, O.W. XV n. 153

An invitation to me today to reflect on the place of God in my life: do I sincerely want God to be alive in me, am I consciously co-operating with God, and do I rely on God’s grace in my life to achieve this and to bring me serenity? In my interaction with others, how convincing am I that God is alive in my life?

 

“How do you convince a world that God is alive? By His aliveness in your life, by His work in producing reality in your experience.”     Howard G. Hendricks

Posted in LETTERS | Tagged , | 2 Comments

EUGENE NOW SPEAKS TO US FROM OBLATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

Posted on August 25, 2012 by franksantucci

As from today, the new home of “Eugene de Mazenod speaks to us” is the Oblate School of Theology, founded in San Antonio in 1903.

You can find out more about this exciting Oblate missionary outreach at http://www.ost.edu/

 “….Oblate School of Theology has remained solidly rooted in its original mission.
It is still concerned with reaching out in a special way to the poor;
it is still concerned about creating new church life and not just in sustaining what is;
it is still concerned about who is falling through the cracks in our society;
and it is still concerned with giving witness to simplicity of life.
The words that undergird the charism of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate also undergird the ethos of the Oblate School of Theology: We are missionaries for the poor, particularly sensitive to the struggles of those who are being excluded, all the while trying to witness to simplicity of life.”

Ron Rolheiser, OMI, President

 

Posted in WRITINGS | 7 Comments