From the time that he was appointed Bishop of Marseilles Eugene wrote a daily journal recalling the events of the day and his personal reactions. It gives us an intimate picture of what was going on within him.
On Easter Sunday 1839, he wrote one of the longest entries we have. He was shocked by some scandalous allegations that had been made against him – and in the emotion of the moment he pours out his heart in his diary. Deeply hurt by this rejection, it gives him the opportunity to vent and to look back on his life and the motivations for his actions.
It is a long document, but well worth the reading because it reveals some important facets of his life. The next ten entries of “St Eugene Speaks” deal with it. Some of the passages are long, but stay with them because we really touch something of the heart of Eugene in them
Bishop Eugene wrote in his diary:
March 31: The holy day of Easter.
Last year, on Holy Thursday, they came to warn me that certain evil people were preparing a despicable pamphlet against me. They showed me a sample of a first draft of this writing which was the most disgusting thing in the world. I accepted this chalice of bitterness that was appropriately presented to me as we were about to go for the Mandatum [ed Holy Thursday liturgy] prior to singing the Good Friday Office.
We have seen this false accusation in https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=4439 and https://www.eugenedemazenod.net/?p=4441.
Now, on Easter Sunday, Eugene was informed that someone else was about to publish a scandalous publication against him.
This year, Mr. Bourgarel, a very honest and young lawyer, presented himself to me as I was about to leave to preside the Easter celebration at the cathedral. He informed me that the despicable Arbieu woman – that wretched woman whom I had denounced to the Procurator General for running a house of prostitution under the apparent auspices of the holy name of Mary and wearing a religious habit to better deceive the parents who thought they were placing their children in a boarding school – was having a lawsuit drawn up by some lawyers, as shameful as herself, against me and many priests in which are contained all kinds of slander. I should have preferred that this warning come two days earlier; it would have been food for thought in Holy Week, a thorn from Golgotha, but certainly not a meditation for the solemnity of this day. But, then, every day is good for sharing in the shame of the Cross we must carry daily as we follow in the Savior’s footsteps.
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 31 March 1839, EO XX
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Matthew 16:24
I am reminded of the tenacity of the scribes and Pharisees and how through most of Jesus’s public life they campaigned against him, looking for anything with which to catch-him-up, to denigrate him, to show him as being wrong and breaking the Jewish laws. They did not let go until he was crucified, dying on the cross. I think of the strength and calmness of our resurrected Saviour as he journeyed to Emmaus with some of his disciples. He certainly did not appear to harbour any grudges or ill thoughts towards those who had crucified him and he most certainly did not wage any campaigns against them.
Today we are reminded of how Eugene followed the model laid out by Jesus and his disciples. And I am reminded of the terrible suffering that Eugene endured from 1832 until 1837, seemingly betrayed by his country and by his beloved Church, as he walked the road to Golgotha.
Eugene seemingly carries himself differently this time; having seen wrong and appropriately denounced it by reporting it to the appropriate Church authority; he makes the decision not to judge and condemn, not to write words of despair or bitterness and not to go screaming to the press as we so often see happening today. He portrays a strength of peace and love as he writes: “I should have preferred that this warning come two days earlier; it would have been food for thought in Holy Week, a thorn from Golgotha, but certainly not a meditation for the solemnity of this day. But, then, every day is good for sharing in the shame of the Cross we must carry daily as we follow in the Savior’s footsteps.”
This does not just happen to saints and founders. I fact I suspect we all have our own opportunities to pick up our crosses in big and small ways. Faced with seemingly insurmountable pain and difficulty even as we are called to love and forgive; do we strike back, trying to get even with the other, hurting them as they have hurt us or do we pick up our daily crosses as Jesus and Eugene did?