You certainly need to be enterprising if you are called to the conquest of souls. I was furious at finding myself 2000 leagues [ed. about 6000 miles] from you and unable to make my voice reach you in less than two months. And yet your letter of February 2 arrived today, March 1.
Eugene, who was a man of immediate action, struggled to live with the fact that the only means of communication he had with his missionaries in Canada took two months to happen – the length of time for a letter to cross the ocean. He was partulcalry worried here because he had given permission for the Oblates to take on the mission in Bytown, and was worried that the length of time for the post to reach them may have jeopardized the project.
God grant that you may have at last received mine which not only approved this great project but applauded it with delight. This was not something tentative to be tried. You had to go there with the firm resolve to overcome all obstacles, go there to stay, take root there! How could you hesitate? What more beautiful mission than this! Ministry in the lumber camps, missions to the Indigenous, establishment in a city which is wholly of the future. But it is the beautiful dream coming true and you would have let it escape! The thought makes me shiver! Take all your courage in your hands once more and establish yourself there properly. Urge each one to do his duty. It is only thus you will bring upon yourselves the blessing of God…
Letter to Father Jean Baptiste Honorat, 1 March 1844, EO I n 32.
Eugene being himself: not just a man of action but a man of immediate action. I remember the times that Tempier would not respond to Eugene’s letters in a reasonable amount of time. This was more though than just a longing that arises when there is great love and the desire to know how the other is faring.
Eugene wanted his sons to excel as missionaries, not just for themselves and not just for the sake of young congregation: he wanted for those who had not yet met God as he understood that to mean, to be able to receive the good news, to get to know his beloved crucified Saviour. He loved and cared for the most abandoned, the poorest of the poor.
I think for a moment of the present time where there are many who know nothing of a world without social media and the internet, and where there can be an unspoken expectation of responding immediately to emails, phone calls and texts sent on smart phones.
A gentle reminder to do the best that I can, as I can. It is of no use to rail at the speed (or lack thereof) of another. Equally it is of no use and can border on abuse of demanding that others move at my pace when I seem to be running and they are only walking. I need to slow down and not push whether it be tailgating someone on the road or coming up behind another who is walking and almost breathing down their necks because they are not moving fast enough. I was never aware of doing that until I got older and felt it being done to me – and then I realised what my own behaviour was like.
Eugene reminds not just Honorat but each of us to “Take all your courage in your hands once more and establish yourself there properly… It is only thus you will bring upon yourselves the blessing of God…”