The Rule described the principal aim of their missions as to bring back to the Church those who had strayed:
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, that we rescue them from slavery to the demon and show them the way to heaven.
1818 Rule Chapter One, §3.
Repeating this in other words as
“to lead men to act as creatures of reason, then as Christians, and finally to help them become saints.”
1818 Rule Chapter One, §3.
The aim was precisely to bring them to the same experience of salvation which Eugene himself had lived in his own life, which he had shared with his Oblates and, through them, to the beneficiaries of their ministry. Today it is this same spirit of Eugene that must propel mission:
“Woe to me if I do not evangelize!” (1 Cor. 9,16)
Through his Word, Jesus Christ, God wishes to reveal himself to the world as its Saviour. We are called to cooperate with Him in this endeavour of love. We have heard this call and are sent to announce the Good News to the most abandoned. How do we do this? How do we creatively respond to today’s situations and emerging cultures?
1998 General Chapter document: Evangelizing the Poor at the Dawn of the Third Millennium,
article 9.
In our pluralistic world that floats with the wind and the waves, this clarity on the part of Eugene may well invite us to pause and ask ourselves “What exactly is my God-given mission in my world? Am I able to be precise about my goals as a member of the Mazenodian family?”