Eugene always had a strong sense of being the spiritual father of each Oblate in the Congregation God had founded through him. In this letter he expresses this feeling as he write to Brother Chauvet, a scholastic who was preparing himself for priestly ordination.
Your letter, my dear Brother Chauvet, gave me great pleasure… now there remains only to establish the time of the various Orders you are to receive. I think you would do well to come for a short visit on the Ember Days of next Lent so that I may give you the subdiaconate. This will be a preparation to receive the diaconate at the Ember Days of Sitientes and then we will decide on the date for the priesthood, which will complete the graces that the good Lord reserves for you within the bosom of the Congregation to which he called you above all to bring you to this end, one that is so happy for you and so useful to the Church and to souls
Added to the joy of having a future priest within the Oblate Family, Bishop Eugene, as the ordaining bishop, claimed a special relationship with all those who received the sacrament from him.
As for myself. the Lord reserved the consolation of communicating these gifts to you and, by the imposition of my hands, to identify in some manner your soul to mine and to bind together in a more perfect way the bonds which already unite you to me. I think of this with great satisfaction; I hope that you share these sentiments and that already you pray for me more often and with greater fervor, so that by becoming more saintly, I can add onto the “opus operato” a more abundant “opus operands” in the sacrament I will soon confer upon you.
Through the imposition of hands, Eugene as Superior General and Bishop considered himself doubly a father.
Goodbye, my dear son. Oh! You already belong to me. I congratulate myself that I am doubly your affectionate father.
Letter to Brother Cyr Chauvet, 29 December 1843, EO X n 828
I do not doubt for a moment that Eugene’s joy and love is exactly as he has expressed it here in his letter to Brother Cyr. This morning’s offering is not something to be measured or compared for that would be to limit and then perhaps lessen.
I find myself reflecting on the word ‘belong’ expressed by Eugene: not in the sense of ownership but rather in the heart sense of being a part of something greater than oneself. I think of my own conversion and first meeting with my Beloved: “…I love you. I have called you by name and you are mine.” Those words alone could not express the sentiment and wholeness that filled them, the total and absolute ‘being’ that accompanied them. There was no sense of ownership there, but only a love so great that there were no limits, no conditions, no boundaries…
I remember at a retreat years ago, the retreat leader asking us to reflect on how we become a “living gospel” – that is to say to somehow give life to the words of the gospel. It seems this morning, that I am being asked to reflect on how I become “living love”.
I think of how we have felt as we accompany another on their journey of becoming; in life, in the Church, in our community(s), in our families. My experience of that gift of “walking with” and sharing is one of immense and ever-deepening joy and love, of gratitude in being able to be a part of…
As I sit here I also find myself understanding how this great a love can be for some a little fearful, but that is only because it is greater than we can imagine or dream of. It is daring to love so greatly and to try to put words around it. I have no doubt that Eugene felt utter love as he used the term of being doubly an “affectionate father”. I dare to say that he feels the same about all of us who he shares his charism, his spirit with.
And for that I give thanks. What better way to begin our weekend?