IT WOULD TAKE NOTHING LESS THAN BAYONETS TO MAKE ME RETREAT EVER SO SLIGHTLY. OUR PLACE IS IN THE MIDST OF THE FLOCK
March 2. Here all is calm. I have been able to continue my functions by crossing the city without the least inconvenience.
Yesterday the Commissioner of the provisional Government came to proclaim the Republic and to settle matters in this department. This morning, he came to see me so as to be the first to make his call. He asked me to order a religious service for the victims of these latter days, a request that was easy for me to grant.
Our population has been admirable under these delicate conditions. You would have been touched by the concern that has been shown me. The other day, I was crossing on foot all the older quarters to give confirmation to a sick person. Well, people called others to come and see me pass by and to ask for my blessing. I saw a filial affection on all these faces, a kind of joy that made me believe they were convinced that I could have been implicated in this business or that I had withdrawn from it completely. Surely it would take nothing less than bayonets to make me retreat ever so slightly. Our place is in the midst of the flock.
Letter to Fr Hippolyte Courtès in Limoges, France, 2 March 1848, EO X n 968
I made a visit to the Commissioner of the government, who received me with the most respectful overtures. He appeared very satisfied with my initiative, as well as his father, present at our meeting. To hear them, the government wishes to respect religion, and they assured me that they were disposed to assist me in everything which would depend on them
Eugene de Mazenod’s Diary, 3 March 1848, EO XXI
REFLECTION
“It is necessary to heal the wounds of the past If you are going to build your country and to have unity. I am working with people who fought me very bitterly before the elections. It was my responsibility as the man who is leading the majority party, my responsibility to heal the wounds of the past and to work with people who were my opponents.”
Nelson Mandela
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Rather than spouting blame and recrimination we are called to reconciliation…
Without measurement or competition we accord others the respect that we would ask for ourselves. We walk with rather than ahead of or behind. True leadership demands a respone of love: love with out control or untruths that are nothing more than an attempt to manipulate or make ourselves appear to be mini-gods.
It is always God, God’s Spirit, who leads us as we walk in the present moment; for it is God’s healing that invites is an invitation for all of us to work together, We walk with rather than in front of telling others how great we are.
“Our principal service in the Church is to proclaim Christ and his kingdom to the most abandoned. We preach the gospel among people who have not yet received it and help them see their own values in its light.” (C 5) We are sent to share our experience of God with those who are abandoned and pushed to the very edges of life: they and each of us are evangelized…