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
We were initially founded to “re-awaken the faith in the people” whose faith and religious expression had been stifled as a result of the French Revolution – primarily by conducting extensive parish missions in the rural villages.
In the course of this ministry, the Oblates came across people who had never been evangelized, thus necessitating a ministry to “awaken” their sense of God and religious knowledge. It was in the foreign missions, however, that the ministry to awaken the faith of people in Jesus Christ took root. Writing to a missionary sent to North America, Eugene said:
Foreign missions compared to our missions in Europe have a special character of a higher kind, because this is the true apostolate of announcing the Good News to nations which have not yet been called to knowledge of the true God and of his son Jesus Christ…. This is the mission of the apostles: “Go, teach all people” this teaching of the truth must penetrate to the most distant nations so that they may be regenerated in the waters of baptism. You are among those to whom Jesus Christ has addressed these words, giving you your mission as he gave their mission to the apostles who were sent to convert our fathers. From this point of view, which is a true one, there is nothing higher than your ministry and that of our other Fathers who are wearing themselves out in the glacial regions to discover the indigenous people whom it is their task to save.
Letter to Pascal Ricard, 6 December 1851, EO II n 157
“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.” John Stott
So often when I read text such as this I wonder if I am supposed to be going somewhere to serve the poor, to somehow bring them the Good News. It would seem that this morning is no different. It is a struggle, albeit a small one. And for a tiny moment I wonder how Henri Tempier faired through all of this, as so often he was left to administer and lead and manage and care-for.
“…we will spare no effort to awaken faith in people”. What does this look like in my life today? Is it even a part of my life somehow?
I am suddenly reminded of a theme that I heard quite a few years ago now but which has stayed with me – that of an orchestra with Eugene as the conductor – it is his leading, his understanding of how the music should be played, bringing all of us together. Sometimes I am simply one instrument that might only be used for a couple of notes in the entire symphony; often times I am one of them who sets up the stage for others who will bring life to the music.
It can be hard sometimes to see where I am in any of this for I am but one tiny small part of something much greater than myself. I think for a moment of one of those great works of art, a depiction of a person’s face which has been created thousands and thousands of very small tiles that are themselves depictions of faces.
To be a part of such a way of living and being. There is immense joy and gratitude that I am a part of such an endeavor. I am one of those miniscule faces that make up the great piece of art, unrecognizable by any save for my God. But that is enough, more than enough. It is everything.
We have heard much of native suffering in Canada recently. The residential schools where indigenous children were placed against their will to become good citizens and Christians have been blamed for a lot of ongoing troubles in their communities.
It is very reassuring to me to see further along in Const 7 the following phrase: “We have as our goal to establish Christian communities and Churches deeply rooted in the local culture and fully responsible for their own development and growth.”
Hence it was never the Oblate goal to destroy native culture in Canada as some have claimed but to walk with our indigenous people and Proclaim the good news.