After Eugene’s death a General Chapter was convoked. At the opening session two of the senior members of the Congregation spoke: Father Tempier and Bishop Guibert.
Tempier opened the General Chapter by declaring his conviction regarding Eugene:
“This Venerable Man is no longer with us, but his spirit continues to live always in the heart of his children ….”
Guibert’s address echoed the same sentiments, speaking of the Congregation as our “mother”:
“Yes, our Father has died, but know that our Mother remains; and I regard her as being immortal; she will live by the spirit of her Founder.”
Dearest Eugene, today I go to help bury another of your sons. One that I knew but briefly and yet even in saying that I feel as if I did know him. He was filled with your spirit, your love, your way of living out your all for God. Another of your sons who was a servant of God and of his people.
It has been a long trek for J Lorne. These past years in illness he seems to have been walking in darkness and yet who knows …. I think of my own father who had dementia for many years and with it a seeming inability to communicate with us. He was so very lonely because he could not remember our visits, or the visits of anyone save those of an Oblate priest who would visit with him on Fridays. It was with this priest that he would share his loneliness. And yet I remember too, the sweetness of his smile when we would visit him and he would open his eyes and see us before him, even though he could not say our names, the sweetness of his smile. I have to wonder where he was returning to us from.
Today we lay to rest J Lorne MacDonald. Once again I think of that Psalm; “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” J Lorne has moved from the darkness into the fullness of God’s light, and now stands at your side, with you. Eugene, there was a movie called “The City of Angels” and in it a scene of dawn coming over the hills and across the skies with brilliant colours – almost a glory in there somewhere. And on the beach there to greet the day were the men who depicted the angels, all standing facing the dawn, facing the day – an incredibly powerful image. I picture J Lorne, along side of you standing facing God and singing with us as we did last night and will do again today, stand with us singing Salve Regina. Fanciful perhaps, but nevertheless that is my image. You spirit very much alive in all of us.