HOW THE LORD MOVED THE SPIRIT AND THE HEART OF THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFF TO GRANT ME WHAT HE HAD THUS FAR REFUSED TO OTHERS
Eighteen years earlier, in 1825, Eugene had gone to Rome to try to obtain official recognition and approbation of the Oblate Congregation. It was at the time when the Vatican was not approving any new religious congregations. Eugene now recalled how was kneeling next to the Pope and enthusiastically describing all the marvels that God was working through the Missionaries in Provence. At a certain moment during the narration, the Pope closed his eyes in prayer, during which ” the Lord moved the spirit and the heart” of the Pope. Eugene recounts what happened.
Your Eminence, it would take too long to narrate how the Lord moved the spirit and the heart of the Sovereign Pontiff to grant me what he had thus far refused to others. Suffice it to say that the Holy Father did not merely make his will known to the Archpriest Adinolfi, at that time replacing the Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Religious, by telling him “We wish to approve it”, but he himself selected the Eminent Cardinals who were to examine the Constitutions.
These Cardinals unanimously expressed their favourable opinion on February 15, 1826 and asked the Holy Father to approve them by Apostolic Letter. The Holy Father placed his seal of approval on the Congregation as well as its Rules and Constitutions on February 17 and ordered the Apostolic Letters to be sent under the form of brief. As I indicated earlier, these letters were sent on March 21, 1826.
Letter to Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 6 November 1843, EO V n 3
The Pope had discerned that the Oblate Congregation came from God and was brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit and was not the invention of Eugene. Today we recognize this as a charism: the Mazenodian charism as a gift to the Church in her mission of evangelization. This is the heritage of every member of the Mazenodian Family.
This entry was posted in
WRITINGS. Bookmark the
permalink.
I find myself thinking about Jesus and how he turned the universe on its end. He came to bring about change, came to assure us that God’s love was/is for everyone. Jesus ‘levelled the playing field’ so that God could be revealed and realized by all.
Eugene de Mazenod received this spirit, this charism which is a gift from the Holy Spirit to be shared by all. I am so grateful that God chose him to be the Founder of the congregation and the entire Family for which we are gathered together and named. It is not a competition of how greatly we love or are loved. It is not a competition to try to decide which state of life is better or holier than another. It is not a competition who is more deserving than another.
God chose each one of us personally to become, to grow into who we are. I am so grateful that the Holy Spirit filled Eugene with the love and wisdom that continues to be shared with and by all of us who are members of this Mazenodian Family.
That very spirit given to Eugene is shared with and by all of us. This morning has been a time of reflecting on “how the Lord moved the spirit and the heart of the Church (people of God) to grant what [God] appears to have refused to others.” That God should love us so!
This not something we can explain or fully understand. We come to hope… we come to trust… we come to believe…
How blessed we are to be a part of this family. Such is the greatness of God.