With deepest sorrow I inform you of the death of our good and saintly Father Mie…
Like myself, you too will feel the great loss we incur in the person of this blessed man whose presence among us here on the earth was a constant source of edification.
Letter to Jean Baptiste Mille, 11 March 1841, EO IX n 726
Jeancard wrote:
“However, he was far from being insensitive to the temporal sufferings of his brothers. Beneath his often cold appearance, he hid a most affectionate charity for all those, especially those who were afflicted by tribulation. The poor, especially the poor, and the most abandoned and repulsive, were the object of his care. He tried, as far as possible, to alleviate their physical misery, but even more so their moral misery. It was to them that the most active care and the most frequent solicitude of his ministry was directed.
He well deserved to have the motto of the Congregation applied to him. Evangelizare pauperibus misit me.
His natural goodness added a charm to his charity that made him loved by all those with whom he was in contact.
…. To be poorly dressed, to have only one cassock and one pair of shoes, to never ask that worn-out clothing be replaced, to eat and live like the poorest, this is what he never stopped doing. He sought to never have anything new, to wear cassocks, underwear and even hats that others had already used for a long time.”
“Notice sur le révérend père Mie”, in Missions, 5 (1866), p 454-456
Pierre Mie OMI was described by Jacques Jeancard as being calm, his appearance not very lively; and yet by all accounts he communicated deep convictions of a heart that loved greatly. I suspect that Pierre Mie OMI treated all the same – his brothers who surrounded him as well as any that he taught and gave missions to. So much so that Yvon Beaudoin easily wrote with love about Fr. Mie and how he lived the virtues of poverty, humility, obedience and charity; those vows that regulate and govern the life of an Oblate. It seems that he chose the degree in which he lived his expression of the “He has sent me to preach the good news to the poor.”
Fr. Mie and the Oblates were and are not ‘cookie cutter’ images of Eugene but they shared and continue today to share the same hearts. Isn’t that what we still strive for? We who are members of this Mazenodian Family; men and women, brothers and sisters; each of us with our own distinct charisms and spirits, coming together as one.
I have loved sitting here with Fr. Mie, learning how he loved the poorest of the poor and what they looked like. I think of what I have learned and am still learning: the many ways that Eugene was sent out to the poor and what that looked like: his own sons and daughters, the Church who was suffering – just as she is today and the many poor.
There is a time and a place for all of us. This is what it is to “belong”. We do not lessen ourselves but rather we grow in and with and through each other.