St. Eugene writes to the first-ever group of who leave France to establish our first foreign mission “sons of mine who journey towards this beautiful mission which reaches out its arms to you.”
He warns the six Oblates about the importance of the impression they will make on their arrival. Their success in preaching the Gospel depends on it.
Be mindful on arriving that all eyes will be upon you and that you will be judged first by appearances. It is difficult to overcome first impressions.
Let people see in you men marching to the conquest of souls, whose integrity can be counted upon for the edification of the clergy and of the people of this vast diocese and of all these lands.
The key to their success was to be found in modelling their lives according to the Oblate Rule, which summed up how to live the spirituality and mission of the Oblates.
Once you are settled, promptly follow the guidance of our Rule. Let it not be said that the Sulpicians and the Jesuits [ed. the two major groups in Eastern Canada at that time] are better at this than you.
Letter to the first Oblates leaving for Canada, 9 October 1841, EO I n 9
There are two phrases from Eugene that capture my attention and heart this morning and it is them on which I focus.
The first is “…sons of mine who journey towards this beautiful mission which reaches out its arms to you”. What an image! I am used to the idea of being sent – but even before that is the call, the invitation whose light outshines all else. Love beckons and we respond: be it to a voice like thunder or a whisper of the breath of God which kisses our heart.
The second is the Rule that explains it all, where the invitation is repeated with more depth and received with more understanding; where the way is laid out before us, like a road map or a compass. From that we receive our positioning and alignment; it becomes the rudder of our small boat that carries us across life’s ocean.
I laugh softly at myself as I think of Fr. Albert Lacombe knowing intuitively that he needed a Rule of Life if he was to be able to remain a missionary and so he joined the Oblates. Like him I was in danger of becoming lost in a sense and so God saw to it that Eugene invited me, and his sons shared his/their spirit with me: allow me to find my way, my compass direction. I was introduced to the Oblate Rule of Life. Not all of it applies but still I find that it offers me what I need.
It is not just the call, but how we respond that matters; what guides us and steadies us on our respective journeys home.
Here I am on the eve of another birthday and I can only look with wonderment at how the missio Dei holds out her arms and continues to beckon; to invite me into an ever-living embrace.