ATTACHED TO THE FAMILY WHICH GAVE HIM BIRTH, WHICH HAS NURTURED HIM IN HER BOSOM SINCE CHILDHOOD
Eugene concluded the correspondence on the contentious issue of the appointment of Fr. Guigues to establish a diocese in Bytown with fatherly words of encouragement. He begins by recalling how he had known him since his childhood:
[The Church and the Congregation] should derive great advantages from this measure were the one elected to be as I have known him, that is to say, eminently attached to the family which gave him birth, which has nurtured him in her bosom since childhood, which loves and esteems him as one of her most distinguished members, which counts on him… as she counts on the most devoted of her children. If I had not had unlimited confidence in you, I would certainly not have consented to allow you to be placed in a position which would furnish to weak and ordinary members plausible pretexts for some form of forsaking. But it being you, the thought would never have come to me and I repulsed it as a horrible injustice when it was insinuated in the eccentricities of a depressing correspondence.
In this circumstance, it is God who has done everything. In your soul you have enough resourcefulness to make up what may be lacking at the moment. I see in your promotion a benevolent disposition of Providence towards our Congregation which is at present exposed to some vexations on the part of some bishops in Canada.
Resign yourself then, my dear son, to the designs of Providence and think of nothing more than to prepare yourself in a holy manner to receive the fullness of priesthood by the imposition of hands of the happy bishop of whom I envy the privilege which might have been reserved to me, were we not separated from one another by 2000 leagues.
Letter to Fr. Bruno Guigues in Canada, 7 June 1847, EO I n 84
REFLECTION
We see in this letter Eugene’s heart of a father and his desire that his missionaries be a united family. Bruno Guigues had proved himself a responsible and devoted member of this family and the future would show that this would never change. I believe that Eugene continues to look on all the members of his Mazenodian Family, vowed and lay, with the same paternal affection and intercession for our welfare.
“The greatest gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you.” – Kendall Hailey
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Early this morning I watched a very young pigeon with it’s parents take a short but beautiful flight from it’s nest (my neighbours balcony) up to the balcony’s railing and then into the air – wings flapping quickly to stay aloft – it was a short flight and they returned to the balcony not long after they left it – but it was a flight. I wondered for a moment how long it would be before the young pigeon flew off to find it’s own new home. And while I am not a big fan of pigeons, this was a moment of joy for me to witness.
It is then, so easy to recognize the love and joy that Eugene experienced with Fr. Guigues, not only having done well in Canada but being named to become ordained a bishop. He wanted to be able to lay his hands in ordaining Fr. Guigues himself, but it was not possible due to their physical separation by a great ocean. His love was such that he simply rejoiced in both Fr. Guigues and the bishop who would be ordaining him.
I too believe that Eugene continues to look on all us members of family – vowed and lay, with a love so great that it does not distinguish a difference of the heart to any of us. And our response is the same for ALL members of the Mazenodian Oblate Family. Yes – we belong to God, and to the Church and to each other.
Our shared family is not just an instance of wishful thing, but rather it is real and lived. A connection of our hearts even with those we have not yet met. And we love those with whom there is a real connection, even when they are members of other families…
Through him, and with him, and in him, O God all mighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit…