ST EUGENE: PILGRIM OF HOPE SERVING THE CHURCH
(Eugene’s second “road sign” for the pilgrim)
It was Eugene’s love for the Church that led him to dedicate his life to her, the Body of Christ, as a priest:
So do not grudge, dear mother, do not grudge this poor Church, so terribly abandoned, scorned, trampled underfoot but which even so was the one who gave birth to us all in J.C., the homage that two or three individuals out of the whole of France (a small number I count myself happy to be one of) wish to pay her of their liberty and life.
And what reason could you possibly have for wanting me to delay any longer from committing myself, and devoting to the Spouse of J.C., which this divine Master formed by the shedding of all his blood, every moment of a life I received only to use for God’s greater glory.
Eugene’s letter to his mother, 11 October 1809, EO XIV n. 61
Love for the Church was the constant beacon that led him to gather a missionary family:
Our Lord Jesus Christ has left to us the task of continuing the great work of the redemption of mankind…
This spirit of being wholly devoted to the glory of God, the service of the Church and the salvation of souls, is the spirit that is proper to our Congregation, a small one, to be sure, but which will always be powerful as long as she is holy.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 22 August 1817, EO VI n 21
A year before his death, Eugene the pilgrim continued to express his faithfulness to these important signposts:
How is it possible to separate our love for Jesus Christ from that we owe to the Church? These two kinds of love merge into one: to love the Church is to love Jesus Christ and vice versa.
We love Jesus Christ in his Church because she is his immaculate spouse who came out of his opened side on the cross…
Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of Marseille, 1860
THE WORD OF GOD
… even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Ephesians 5, 25-27
PRAYER
God our Father,
by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you gave St. Eugene de Mazenod
an unconditional love for the Church.
May we ourselves be inflamed with his love for the Church, the Body of Christ
and receive through his intercession
the particular graces we ask for as pilgrims of hope.
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This morning’s novena prayer is full of small and wondrous moments – like the one when reflecting on this part of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians which I have often glossed over because of how it ‘seems’ to subjugate women to men.
Today I look at these words in a different light; in a light of love as described by Eugene as he speaks of loving service to his beloved Church.
Like Eugene my response to God’s immense love I found myself turning and offering myself to God, to be used as however God would wish to use me. And with that I grow in a beloved Church, that even through the eyes of love I am not blind to her many difficulties… A church that is the Body of Christ in all it’s divinity and humanity. As with God, I slowly continue to turn my life over to one of loving service for the Church. Over time it deepened as love does, and still I find ways to love and serve her. And I try to right some of the wrongs that I see and ask forgiveness for the times that I have contributed, knowingly and unknowingly to half-truths and acts rooted in total lack of love.
This morning’s reading has also invited me to look at Our Lady, Mother of Oblation and how she bore fruit in a time and place where women were seen as less than men. Then and now, how she remains faithful and fruitful towards all. Our Mother of Mercy and Tenderness.
Walking as a pilgrim of hope, I ask God to let me walk in her light: “Open to the Spirit, she consecrated herself totally as a lowly hand-maid to the person and work of the Saviour. In her we recognize the model of the Church’s faith and of our own. We shall always look on her as our mother. In the joys and sorrows of our missionary life we feel close to her who is the Mother of Mercy.” (from CC&RR Constitution 10)