On March 17 I had written: “Two hundred years have passed since Eugene and his first companions expressed their founding vision in writing and in actions. Today that initial vision continues to inspire us and is expressed in a special way in our Rule of Life, revised in 2012. Our first ten Constitutions capture the founding vision and the spirit which has continued to inspire us and be expressed for two centuries. I will share these with you in the coming days.” Since then we have been exploring this vision and spirit, and continue to do so now as we reflect on our mission.
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.
CC&RR, Constitution 5
Fr. Fernand Jetté, Oblate Superior General 1974 – 1986), was a gifted writer when he reflected on our charism. As we explore our Mazenodian spirituality, let us reflect with him on this Constitution of our Rule of Life:
“The preferential option for the poor has been with the Oblates right from the time of their founding.
Who are the poor, as far as we are concerned? According to the times, milieus, needs and particular sensitivities, some have tended to consider especially the condition of material poverty, while others looked upon the condition of spiritual poverty or neglect verified in one given group or another. In the case of the Founder, and traditionally within our religious institute, both forms of poverty have been taken into account; the second, however, has always been the specific element of our mission.
The Founder speaks of the most poor, the most neglected, the most abandoned and uses these expressions as pretty well meaning the same thing. He had in mind first of all the religious ignorance and often the spiritual misery under which these poor people labour. Most of the time these persons and groups also live in conditions that are materially precarious or miserable, which conditions emarginate them in regard to Christians who are more prosperous. These poor people are generally not reached by the Church’s ordinary ministry. To establish contact with them, special steps must be adopted, a certain distance taken from rich milieus, one has to strike out into unfamiliar territory, to learn a new language. Sometimes one also has to leave one’s own country, for the poor may be people living in far away places that are quite isolated or difficult of access, where few priests or missionaries can or want to go.”
F. Jetté, OMI The Apostolic Man, p 60-61
Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”
Luke 6:20: Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
I think this morning of Frank’s plea for translators, for people who can translate these daily reflections into French so that they are available to those who do not speak English, or have enough English to be able to read these and the reflect on them. I think of some of the times in the past I have felt frustrated and at a loss in not being able to get English copies of some of the works about St. Eugene that seem only to be in French.
I have read what both Frank and Fernand Jetté has written about the poverty of some. I am not materially poor for I have all that I need plus some, but that which feeds my soul – that is another matter entirely. I come here, to this place, every morning, to be nourished, to be led into a space which touches and enlivens my heart. A few times but not often I have gone to the french version of this blog but have found that I have to work through trying to understand it and so the reflection then becomes burdensome and heavy. There is a small poverty there. Oceans of a different kind must first be crossed.
It was quite a few years ago now that an Oblate priest who I did not really know introduced me to St. Eugene de Mazenod, and as he read Eugene’s first letter to Henri Tempier I felt that Eugene was speaking to me. That invitation to stand at the foot of the crucifix – a huge beginning, another beginning in a life of beginnings. A dear friend of mine and I are working through these daily reflections, sharing how they touch us in our daily lives, sharing how our learning and understanding of them touch our daily lives and so touch who we are with those around us. Quite basic as we continue to be shaped and molded.
The poor with their many faces…. I know that many would argue that I and many like me are not poor but I can’t help but think about how much richer I have become in daily life when I start out from this place. I am so very grateful and I will pray that others who can will step forward in order for many to be able to not just ‘read’ what has been written here, but also to take it in, taste it and savour it, consume it and see how it becomes a part of them, just as it has for me.