We will spare no effort to awaken or to reawaken the faith in the people to whom we are sent, and we will help them to discover “who Christ is”
CC&RR, Constitution 7
Eugene founded us to be missionaries with a single purpose: to proclaim, in word, action and example, “who Christ is.”
Our mission is “to awaken or to reawaken the faith in the people to whom we are sent.”
Reawaken! The Revolution in France had done a rather effective job of disrupting – and sometimes destroying – the faith and the practice of the faith of the people. Through no fault of their own, the faith of many had become dormant or non-existent. The period after the revolution, which came to be referred to as the Restoration, was a time when the Church could act with freedom again. People had to be re-evangelized and have their faith reawakened. This is precisely why Eugene brought the Oblates into existence: to preach missions in the rural villages so as to reawaken the faith of the people of Provence. As he expressed so clearly in his visionary Preface:
They are convinced that if priests could be formed, afire with zeal for men’s salvation… who would labour with all the resources at their command to convert others – then there would be ample reason to believe that in a short while people who had gone astray might be brought back to their long-unrecognized responsibilities.
… Thus, it is supremely important, it is urgently imperative, that we lead the multitude of lost sheep back to the fold, that we teach these degenerate Christians who Jesus Christ is.
…We must lead men to act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians, and, finally, we must help them to become saints.
The Preface
Two hundred years later the same challenges exist with different expressions. The current response of the Church is the thrust of what is called the New Evangelization. The context may be different, but the Mazenodian family has been responding continuously for 200 years.
“Sheer scholarship alone cannot reveal to us the gospel of grace. We must never allow the authority of books, institutions, or leaders to replace the authority of KNOWING Jesus Christ personally and directly. When the religious views of others interpose between us and the primary experience of Jesus as the Christ, we become unconvicted and unpersuasive travel agents handing out brochures to places we have never visited.” Brennan Manning
This morning I find myself struggling – mostly with myself. I read the words of Eugene – trying to distance myself from them, from myself.
I have always loved the Preface from the 1825 manuscript to the Constitutions and Rules. More, I have always loved: “We must lead men to act like human beings, first of all, and then like Christians, and, finally, we must help them to become saints.” I have recognized my own journey of life in those words from Eugene. They have been like an inspiration for me.
But how have I lived them? Yesterday I discovered that in my zeal, and in my own needs I have hurt another, someone who I quite like. I have asked for forgiveness but that has not alleviated the hurt within my own heart, – recognition of my own sin.
This morning I look very closely at “we will spare no effort to reawaken the faith in the people”. I better relook at how I am doing that.