My dear friends, whenever I had to take my leave of you, it has always been heavy of heart, but this time there is no consolation at all on the horizon to ease my sorrow. Leaving you, my dear friend. in such an unsatisfactory state of health and burdening you with all the details I would normally handle myself each day…
Patience! Everything must be sanctified by supernatural obedience. It is a matter of the good of the Church. After saying: “If it is possible, take this chalice away from me” I go on to say: “may your will be done”.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 8 August 1833, EO VIII n 449
Little did Eugene know what suffering lay ahead of him, and how his own “Gethsemane” was about to begin.
Yvon Beaudoin explains: “After his nomination as Bishop without the consent of the Government of Louis-Philippe, an abundant correspondence had flowed between the civil authorities of Marseilles and Paris and between Paris and Rome. The upshot of these negotiations was: the Pope had to find employment outside France for a bishop named without the consent of the French Government, all the more since the Bishop of Icosia was considered politically very dangerous. Rome took fright. To avoid complications, the Holy Father summoned Bishop de Mazenod to his side.”
Again this morning – a deeper way of taking in the words – not just with my eyes but with my heart.
Eugene, not being fully aware of the machinations of members of the French government, has really ‘rocked-the-boat’ as he continues to respond to God’s will and to serve the Church. Not two separate ends but each a part of the other and so unaware of what lays ahead of him he responds immediately and prepares to leave for Rome.
‘Patience! Everything must be sanctified by supernatural obedience. It is a matter of the good of the Church. After saying: “If it is possible, take this chalice away from me” I go on to say: “may your will be done”.’
I am struck with the thought that Eugene is so very human and yet he counsels both Tempier and himself with the words of Jesus who was also so perfectly human. There is a lesson in all of this for us or at least for myself – not just for this morning but for all of our days ahead.
I am struck on how God allowed Jesus to suffer and to die – it was not just a time of ‘holy’ and ‘pious’ suffering – he suffered unbearable betrayal and seeming abandonment – yet he remained faithful to the Fathers love. Gethsemane – the word takes on a deeper meaning for me this morning as Frank hints at what is to come. Fidelity, faithfulness… the how of responses.
How do I remain faithful to God, to my Church, to my community and family? I think of how I might “keep incarnate the Paschal Mystery”. It is in the small things, the ordinary of what is happening now.
“Eternal Father, I thank you for creating me with so much love, and for your great fidelity and forgiveness in caring for me in the midst of my sins [brokenness]…” I will say it faithfully even if I do not always ‘feel’ it.