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
Fr. M Courvoisier writes:
“Nil linquendum est inausum ut proferatur imperium Christi…”, states the text of the Preface of our Constitutions and Rules of 1826. As a literal translation, I suggest: “We must overlook nothing, leaving nothing undared to advance, to extend the reign of Christ”. This apothegm has sustained and presently sustains the missionary thrust of the Congregation.”
Eugene’s life was made up of a series of daring actions, of sparing no effort, for his Savior. Breaking away from his mother’s dominating wishes and the high society of Aix, his going to the seminary in Paris unleashed a chain reaction of daring events. He spared no effort in his defense of the rights of the Church in the persecution of Napoleon (nor of any other King of France in later years). He speared no effort in giving himself to the service of prisoners and youth in Aix, and then to the villages of Provence. He dared to invite others to join him and spared no effort to get us to evangelize the rural towns of southern France. He dared to introduce the moral theology of St Alphonsus which stressed mercy and compassion in the face of the prevailing Jansenism in France. He dared to send missionaries to Canada and to the British Isles and Ireland at a time when we were so few and not coping with the demands in France. He spared no effort in the missionary outreach of the Oblates until his death. As Bishop of Marseille, he spared no effort to evangelize his people and to lead them to respond to the never-ending needs of the poor with their many faces.
Fr. Courvoisier identifies the impelling force behind Eugene’s sparing no effort:
The source of Eugene de Mazenod’s daring was not found in his temperament, but rather in others’ need for salvation, a need to which his faith in Jesus Christ called him to respond, personally at first, then with his Congregation, “ready to leave for the moon, if I have to”.
“Daring” in the Dictionary of Oblate Values (http://www.omiworld.org/en/dictionary/dictionary-of-oblate-values_vol-1_d/1037/daring/)
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom
I have not thought of ‘sparing no effort’ and ‘daring’ to come from the same heart but this morning I see how they can be a part of each other. It is not ‘blind’ daring but tempered or as Fr. Courvoisier wrote ‘regulated by reason, enlightened by faith and subject to the will of the Master.’ I have read his article on “Daring” only a couple of times but this morning I was not content to read only the small piece that Frank has provided for us and so I took the time to skim over it and see it from a different perspective.
It has been good to reflect and see both the differences and the commonalities in my life. Able to see the times and the ways that I have indeed ‘dared’ and ‘spared no effort’. And just as Eugene shared that his driving force was not always ‘perfect’ nor has my life and way of trying to live this been perfect.
Those small moments that I have recognized within me, the drive and the spirit behind them, none of which would look the way they do without having first met St. Eugene and the community of Oblates, the Mazenodian Family who been forming me, supporting me, walking with me.
As always what is offered here challenges me to look more closely at myself. The good news is that what I see is not all bad any more than it is all good if I can use those terms to measure. There has been a strong temptation to either lessen how I have been or even to aggrandize them rather than seeing them as they are – a part of who I am.