Father Vincens, the new novice-master was about to receive a new group of novices, for whose formation he was responsible. Eugene reminds him that the purpose of the novitiate is to make their oblation for life as religious and as missionaries.
Stress very much the importance of the obligation undertaken by oblation. They are free not to advance that far, but this consecration cannot be revoked. It is perpetual. It is not without reason that this social commitment is made in the presence of Jesus Christ, the divine Master, who approves it by his holy Body and his precious Blood.
Eugene refers to the custom, at that time, to profess one’s vows kneeling before the Eucharist, and receiving Communion as soon as the words have been pronounced. He continues on the seriousness of this step:
Woe to him, a thousand times woe to him who might break ties that should never be broken by the will of him who has taken them upon himself.
Those who do not attach themselves wholeheartedly to the Congregation are not made for it.
It is the responsibility of the formators to ensure that the novices have fully understood the gravity of the step they undertake through oblation.
It is up to you to elaborate on all these points and on others in the explanations that you are greatly obliged to give
Letter to Fr. Joseph Vincens, 23 November 1841, EO IX n 751
I think for a moment of St. Peter who denied Jesus three times and yet who Jesus forgave and even more set him up to lead the Church.
I look back at some of the men and women I have known who left their congregations, some of them got married and had children and others not. I have never thought any less of them for that, but rather I think of the courage it took for them to do what they did. And it has been no different for friends who were married and then got divorced. Families torn apart. Some of them remarried and others not.
I look at Eugene this morning and remember what it was like for him when his mother divorced his father. It affected him greatly and I wonder if this has any bearing on what he seems to be suggesting. I also look at how there were priests in his time that were inadequately trained and taught. No clear-cut answers to the questions within me. I do know that his use of the words “woe to him” reminds me of the heaviness of life with the Church before Vatican II. And I think of how I have had to persevere in my own life, how I have had to not give up when the going has been a little rough.
Still, I sit here and wonder if I am not missing something important – not just for priests and religious but for all of us.
I share the words that come to me, words that are being sung softly and quietly within my heart: “Come back to me, with all your heart. Don’t let fear keep us apart. Trees do bend though straight and tall; so must we to other’s call. Long have I waited for your coming home to me and living deeply our new lives.”