While living in Aix en Provence and ministering in groups in the area it was easy to live in community and benefit from this. Now things were to change with Eugene’s new ministry at the side of his uncle, the Bishop of Marseille. Living physically in Oblate community was not always possible – and this was to become the pattern for many of the Oblates when they became missionaries in remote areas outside of France. Although physically not together, his heart was in the community and he lived in communion with the members of the community.
He expresses this sentiment in this letter from Paris, where he is submerged in the boring official preparations for his uncle’s episcopal ordination and the administrative task of beginning to set up the diocesan structures. He needs to be in communion with the community in Aix, despite the distance that separates them
Write to me in detail… Far from all of you as I am, consider me as an exile who longs unceasingly to be at the place where his affections are centered, and who can only ease his boredom for a few moments by placing himself in spirit in your midst.
Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 22 February 1823, EO VI n. 93
Today:
Obedience and charity bind us together, priests and Brothers, keeping us interdependent in our lives, and missionary activity, even when, dispersed for the sake of the Gospel, we can benefit only occasionally from life in common.
CC&RR, Constitution 38
“For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation.” Simone Weil
Isn’t it interesting how God calls us, first to come together, to find and grow in love, to live together in family, in partnerships, in community, in relationships. It is not without times of profound joy and love, support and energy. It is a time of growth and wonder. I am thinking as I write this of some of the people that I met last month and others who have been a part of my life for years. Then day-to-day responsibilities and chores have a way of creeping in and taking over. They are demanding and relentless and often very boring. We find ourselves looking inward for strength and support.
The love and joy and energy seem to have gone inward – the heart and soul are endlessly deep and so we are able to draw from the depths of our being what we need to live with the boring and the drugery. The Constitution and Rules speak of an “interdependence” between priests and brothers and there is that. But my lived experience says it for all of us who take part in being members of this great family. I am thinking now of all who make up the Mazenodian Family and in particular some of the Associates. For in them there is an interdependence on many, on families, on Oblates, on other Associates, on our Church. Above all on God in a real and lived way. The heart once opened and given can be almost impossible to take back.
Eugene, with his “heart as big as the world”, showed and continues to show us how this is possible to be lived out today. Sharing in the charism we are all called to live this way, totally and with everything that we are. All of us with gifts and frailties, making it possible for the other. Personally I thank God for each one of you as today I place my spirit in your midst.
“…needs to be in communion with…” I think of how I need to be in communion with – Jesus – my beloved. What do I do to ensure that? Jesus who is always with me – always there/here – it is like I am in the midst of… And it is I who ‘steps out of…’.
Communion – being in communion with – vital for any real kind of life. There is not anything I can ‘do’ to be in communion with Jesus. And it is not just ‘with Jesus’ – for me that means with others – never just on my own. If I don’t find it with others then I will never find it. No beginning and no end.
Interdependent ‘with’. There’s the clue – with. Relationship. It is ‘being’. Born out of love. I think of Jesus – here, always here – being and I surrendering myself to be – with him, in him, through him. There is a clue in all of that. Jesus surrendering himself – on the cross.
I remember Bishop Peter saying to me – we will meet in prayer – it was the only way we could meet and be together.
I feel as if I am trying to write about what it is to touch and taste the very air that I breathe. Impossible – I can only be in the middle of it – I cannot grasp it.
Communion – being – in love, with love and through love. It is then that community happens.