Community for Eugene meant being in communion with his brother Oblates wherever he was, and whatever he was doing. In every holy place that he visited in Rome, they were present with him.
Here are found all the saints since Saint Peter down to the blessed Benoit Labre and others still more modern. Here I must cease or be carried away too much. I wish only to tell you once more that I bear within me our whole family in all these holy places that I visit every day…
Adieu, my dear son, give my warmest greetings to all our Fathers and dear Brothers. You are all ever present in my thoughts and still more in my heart. Do not forget to send my letter to Father Tempier at Marseilles. I embrace him as well as Suzanne and all of you, my dear children, whom I love with all my heart.
Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, 6 December 1825, EO VI n 210
“Brotherhood means laying down your life for somebody, really willing to sacrifice yourself for somebody else.” Tim Hetherington
I read this and thought of what it means to be in communion with another, to bear another within our thoughts and our hearts. This happens only in response to love, to the open invitation of love, and not so much to a command – at least not so much for me. I respond when it is to something open and loving and not as much to harsh and impersonal “thou shalts” but more likely to the invitation to…
It comes from an invitation to love and share and is not always readily accepted, this call to share in and bear the heart and life of another. I have asked myself who do I bear in my heart, who am I in communion with. Of course the ready answer is; with God, but that is not enough. Am I in communion with others, who do I carry in my heart. Who do I take with me as I start out in the ordinary of my day? Who am I in communion with as I work, when I go to Mass, when I am visiting a place? Who do I give to God each day in my prayer? Who do I think of and ask Mary to hold and St. Eugene to pray for, to guide? Who do I not just pray for, but with.
I smile at myself because of course I have heard it before – from others – that it can’t be just God, but this morning that realisation has come from within. Thank you God for that. Thank you God for having born me for so very long without there being a response – it was not always two-way. I think of Eugene whose heart was so very big. God is growing my heart, little by little.
We talk of ‘bearing our cross’. That is not all we bear, I think we bear each other. That is what we are called to. And that is a consolation on it’s own.