BISHOP OF MARSEILLES: THE HEAVIEST BURDEN THAT COULD BE IMPOSED ON A FEEBLE MORTAL

During these days of retreat Eugene reflected on the meaning of his new calling and the attitude with which he would approach the task.

Since the die is cast and in spite of all my efforts up to the present to avoid the burden of the responsibility of a diocese, my calculations and hopes have come to nothing in face of all the various skilful and certainly well-intentioned schemes of my uncle, I must resign myself to it and make the most I can of my new and in my eyes rather sad position.

He had been a bishop since 1832, but with no fixed responsibility to a diocese – he had been free to serve where he discerned best.

I was already a bishop, it is true, but it was as it were only on my own account. I owed nothing to anybody. No one had the right to demand the service of my ministry; all I was in a position to do was inspired in me only by charity. I was free, in a word.
Now it is different! So the episcopate that I have been able up to now to consider as but the fullness of the priesthood with which I had been blessed, and as complementing all the graces the Lord has deigned to grant my soul throughout the whole course of my life, appears to me today as it is in the Church’s constitution under its pastoral aspect, namely, as the heaviest burden that could be imposed on a feeble mortal.

Retreat preparatory to taking possession of the episcopal see of Marseilles, May 1837, EO XV n 185

God’s grace had accompanied him this far, and it was here that he put his trust, no matter how heavy the burden.

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1 Response to BISHOP OF MARSEILLES: THE HEAVIEST BURDEN THAT COULD BE IMPOSED ON A FEEBLE MORTAL

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    Eugene has given himself in so many ways, saying yes to God over and over again; and yet he recognizes that God is asking for more. Jesus, who gave ‘everything’, dying on the cross, seems to be telling Eugene that he wanted more – He wanted everything.

    I have never loved Eugene so much as I do in these moments of his honesty and surrender.

    It was not long after Fr. Louis Lougen became Superior General that he joined us at our Provincial Convocation and shared with us the story how he had struggled each time it looked like he was being asked to serve in a position of responsibility and how he endeavored to avoid that. Yet there he was, unable to escape the burden that God asked of him.

    Like Eugene, like Fr. Louis Lougen and so many others who have come before us, we too are all asked to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and his apostles, his disciples; We too are asked to give of our all. In positions big or small, whether we find ourselves in life sitting at the very front or the very back of the room – we are all asked to give ‘everything’. And I am reminded of the joy that St. Paul writes of in giving his life – his entire being over to God; and the joy that accompanies the grace as he lived that out – even in prison and preparing for his own death.

    Today is Monday, in Ordinary Time, and all of us who are sons and daughters of Eugene de Mazenod are being asked to step forward and say ‘yes’ to God, no matter our role, or whether are steps are big or small. Whether the burden that we are asked to carry appears heavy or light – we put our trust in God and in those God sends to journey with us.

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